Failed Calc 2. It's the Algebra, stupid

Question

Well, I took "Multidimensional Math" w/ Linear Algebra and Calculus 2 at the same time over a 6 week period for the Summer session.

It was a disaster. I don't think my Algebra and Trig are good enough

Is this the main reason students fail Calc? Because their pre-Calculus is just shoddy? I did well in pre-Calc stuff by itself, barely passed Calc 1, and struggled through Calc 2, getting a little bit of each concept down, but I'm not proficient in any specific section (Integration, Log functions, Sequences/Series, etc) I basically died toward the end of the semester in both classes, being crushed by the workload and just not "getting" some presumably basic stuff the instructor was talking about during the Finals review. I just could not at all manipulate trig functions or even polynomials and stuff at will.

I'm retaking Calc 2 this Fall and before the new semester starts I'm wondering if I should look over all the Algebra formulas and stuff. Feeling really low right now, almost as low as my GPA drop.

Answer 1

Man to to be honest with you, here is what I think why most people fail calculus classes.

Students think that you should know the answer once you look at the question which is far from truth when dealing with university level mathematics.It's not a sociology class.You should try to be analytic, meaning that , You should see a problem and then try to break down into pieces and work your way slowly to your solution, and make sure you do understand everything until you arrive at the solution. Do this again and again, this will get your analytic skills faster and so by the end of the semester you should be good to go.

Also, Mathematics maturity take a very long time to build. You should study every day small portions. It's like a language. No one and I mean no one on this earth will learn a language in one day and so the same holds for mathematics. It's a language without sound but a lot of imagination. I hope this philosophy helps you in a way or another on how to approach calculus in your upcoming semester.

Good luck :)