Hey Everyone, I live in the states and am a senior in high school going to University of Michigan. My school does trimesters and i am in my third trimester starting to take calculus. It only has 4 other kids so I am worried I won't have anyone to help me and am busy with AP computer science, english, and golf. I kinda am thinking about dropping it but was wondering will that screw me over for college, like it is really good to have that background in high school before college. The other thing I have to check on, is that will U of M strongly frown upon it because they like rigorous course work. I was just looking for some thoughts. Thanks
No knowledge can be taken away! For the real world, I'd blow off golf and do the math. In my senior year in college there were only me and 3 girls in advanced math. Hit up the high school counselor and ask about peer help. Lots of help can come from people NOT in the class. I was a national merit scholar and the only person I trusted with that knowledge was the counseling staff. Unless they are just there for the paycheck counselors are a good resource. Started college 1965, graduated high school 1968 - counselors. john
Yeah, I can't give up golf, me and my buddies have trained for golf for a long time and last year we placed runner up at state finals. i know i should stay with it but i don't want to die from the stress. Also calc is last hour and sometimes I have to leave early for golf. I guess ill talk to the counselor but shes not the biggest help.
Cal 1 (derivatives) is easy.. not ultra easy.. but easy. As long as you practice often you should get an A.
I'd suggest toughing it out, you'll live and you'll appreciate it in the long run. I didn't take math my second semester in my senior year, and I regretted it this year (freshman in college). That being said, I doubt U of M would have much of a problem with it. Plenty of my peers (CS at rochester institute of technology) came in without any background in calculus.
I had opportunity to take Calculus in grade 12 as I was 1 year ahead in Pre-Calc but decided to be lazy and only have 5 classes throughout the whole year (max is 10, min is supposed to be 6). Now I will be going to college this fall and will be taking Calculus. I sort of wish I would have taken it in highschool as then it would be much easier than it will. I also only got my provincial highschool diploma and not the school division one because i didn't take Physics in grade 12. I wish I would have now. Don't be lazy. Take the class. Suck it up and you will be thankful later on. Edit: This post made me sound like a lazy ass that did nothing in school. Infact I was on Honor Role every year and got my IT Diploma. So I wasn't as bad as I made it sound.
Take the class. Are you planning on majoring in CS? My roommate's CS degree requires Calc I. It's nice to get it done in high school and be ahead when you start college.
As someone who just got into Univ, take it from me -- DO IT IN HIGH SCHOOL! It really helps, especially if you have an engineering major. It's not too hard in high school and makes college/univ a lot easier.
Anything science-based will need calculus, it'll be a real bonus not to have to learn in a freshman's refresher course for the first time!
Do it. If you're moving into anything science (especially physics) calculus is everywhere. Learn to love the integrals.
chances are you will be doing the exact same stuff in the mandatory first year uni calculus classes, if you've already gotten into university, i wouldn't bother taking it. if you haven't gotten in yet, take it. admissions people like to see calculus.
I believe you'll be better off if you take it in high school; it will be easier to learn if you're exposed to it every day or so. Calculus will help you with a broad range of topics in biology, physics, chemistry, etc. If you have a good knowledge of the subject beforehand, it will be much easier to remember when you need to apply it to something in a gen-ed college class.
Calculus even works in electronics too. I used it a lot when designing analog to digital circuits. Sample an analog sine wave enough to reproduce it digitally was fun. Made a synthesizer and graduated head of my class in college. john
suck it up. your gonna need it when you go into college, especially if your going for anything science related