Mathematics Major Failing Calculus

I am also a math major that just finished Calculus 2. I ended up with a 94 average and made a 94 on the final exam.

The way I prepared for each exam was I went back through every single lab assignment that the test was over. These labs were over a section each -- i.e. one lab each for Trig Sub, By Parts, Ratio/Root Test, Power/Taylor Series, Polar Equations, etc. -- and they were typically pretty similar to what we would see on each chapter's exam (albeit the exam questions were slightly more difficult).

I did this until I had a deep understanding of each topic. This is a tall task -- I think I spent something like 25 hours altogether doing practice problems in preparation for the integration test -- but with a class like this, it's just what some of us have to do. It also didn't hurt that I enjoyed doing most of what we were learning, so I actually looked forward to studying for the most part.

We also had an online homework system that had several practice problems online for each section to further solidify my understanding.

But yeah, I'm starting to learn that practice problems are your best friend in calculus. You start to pick up on certain things and everything starts making sense and it really is actually kind of beautiful.

Give the course another shot if you don't want to give up and practice, practice, practice. I wouldn't feel bad about having to take Cal 2 twice, it's notoriously hard simply because of the magnitude of new material that's thrown at you. I also feel like it's usually the first math class students take that forces them to actually think for themselves and decide which methods/tools to use to solve a problem. Good luck!

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