Six Things That Will Get You An A in Calculus

for many people calculus is one of the hardest math classes that they will ever take in their entire lives most of us take math in high school and then some math in college and many people actually stop with calculus calculus is it therefore it's the hardest math class that they ever take in this video i'm going to share several things that you can do if you're taking calculus that will help you get an a in the class the first thing that you should do if you're taking calculus is to actually do the homework it is absolutely critical that you do all of the homework i mean don't skip any problems if there's like 30 problems in each section or 20 problems in each section it doesn't matter how many problems are assigned you should do all of them this is an absolute requirement and it is also a bad thing like if you don't like your class and you have to do the homework that's no fun but always just tell yourself why am i here why am i taking this class what am i doing this for and that will keep you motivated and it will help you finish the homework so again the first thing you need to do is actually just make sure that you do all of the homework the second thing you should do is extremely important and it's to go over your notes so if you're in a physical classroom and you're taking notes write them down write down as much as you can and then when you get home make sure you just go over all of your notes if you're watching videos and you're taking like an online class make notes from the videos so as you watch the videos pause the video and write stuff down that is the beauty of online classes that is the beauty of videos right because if you're taking a class and it's in person a lot of times it's really hard to to write down everything the teacher says and pay attention at the same time i know people who who just sit there and they don't take notes and they say they have a picture memory that's great for those people i'm not one of those people i'm a note taker right i have to go back and i have to read it many many many times in order to fully understand it most of the time when i watch a video like a lecture video or if i go to a classroom and watch an actual lecture in a classroom i understood maybe 60 to 70 was being taught that's it 60 to 70 percent of what was being taught is what i understood so i'm not one of those people who has a picture memory so note taking was always critical and then going over those notes is super super key so again if you're taking a live class just write down as much as you can and then when you get home just make sure to dissect those notes and go through them line by line rewrite them in a neater fashion so you have them in a place that you can access them and also the act of like writing down on a piece of paper writing down everything that you learn just writing it again makes you learn right it's not just about like sitting down and and watching a video or listening to a lecture and absorbing it no no no if it was that easy everyone would do it right and you know you wouldn't be watching this video everyone would just like oh yeah that makes sense and they would just get an a in calculus it doesn't work that way right by writing it down again it is extremely extremely beneficial also just for emphasis if it's an online class and you're watching videos make notes of the videos pause the video rewind it watch it again and then make sure you can do the examples that were in the videos on your own without watching the video for most people that will be enough you will get an a in the class if you actually do that if you can actually redo all of the examples from class usually that's enough to get a really really really good grade even even an a the third thing that you should do is to actually redo the homework now this seems completely insane i think to a lot of people to me it does not i am an overdoer right i wouldn't i don't want to say overachievers because i don't think i'm that but i totally tend to overdo it whether i overachieve i don't know maybe achieve to some extent but not not an overachiever overdoer so i would study excessively i would do all of the homework and then just redo it right just do it again just randomly pick problems and then just do them i know this seems excessive and it takes a lot of time but if you want to get an a in your class you know think about how much how much it means to you right are you willing to make that sacrifice are you willing to you know do all of the homework go over all of your notes and then re-do the homework trust me it is totally worth it the fourth thing you should do is to actually pay attention to the topic list for the exam okay so hopefully if you're taking a class your teacher has told you you know what to study like hey make sure you go over this this this and this what i do because i teach now is in my face-to-face classes i do like an in-class review and i go over all of the topics in my online classes i give them a list of topics and if they do the homework in those topics they will get like they can get an a guaranteed now everyone is different right every teacher is different so what you will see on a test will vary from teacher to teacher the worst situation is you know your teacher says hey you know go over topics x y z and then you take the test and it's something completely different that is the absolute worst case scenario so if that happens you have a fallback plan right you're doing all of the homework you're redoing all of the homework already and you're redoing all of the videos or lecture note examples right you're redoing all of your notes so in theory because you're doing that on top of going over a topic list if you have one then you're pretty much guaranteed to get a good grade you're going to do better if you do that much you're probably going to get an a trust me okay like i've taken a lot of math classes i'm not saying i'm like i'm super genius but i have taken a lot of classes and i have gotten you know a lot of a's and i've taken a lot of tests i feel like i'm a professional test taker at this point is that a good life skill probably not but hopefully you know by sharing this with you it will help you in in some way the next thing that you can do is actually something that's a little bit strange and it's something i've actually i don't think i've ever talked about this before it's studying for speed let's say speed yes speed this was something that i was always naturally good at i was always really fast i was always really fast at doing math problems is it bad no it can be though it can be bad there is a negative aspect to being fast and being able to do problems fast that negative aspect is when you encounter a new topic or a new problem you know i tend to want to do it quickly i'm impatient i'm like oh oh yeah i can just do it i should be able to just do it and then when i get stuck i'm like oh what do i do so i have to force myself to slow down so on a test for test taking purposes speed is your friend so to study for speed what you do is you make sure that you can actually redo all of the homework problems and all of the examples from the videos or the live lecture that you have quickly and correctly work on speed and the reason speed is important is because you're taking a timed test now you might not agree with that you might say hey you know well i should be able to have more time if i had more time i'd be okay i'm a little bit slow that is not the reality of life that is just not how it works you can't change that i can't change that but what you can do is change what you can and that's yourself right make yourself faster i had this i had this friend in grad school the guy was brilliant i mean i just got goosebumps so smart and he was the opposite of me he was what i like to call a careful thinker he was able to think slowly and work out really difficult problems and just like beautiful ways and whenever i work with him i would learn from him because i realized that i was much faster than him i would jump into oh we could do it like this you know just choose your epsilon to be this and i would just blow through it whereas he had this like well let's just take it easy man and now you know he would like you know slow down and go a little bit slower he actually failed a a test in grad school he got like a 40 on a test and he actually came back from that and got an a plus in the class because he was able to work on speed so speed is important it is a reality of test taking so when you're when you're ready for the test go back and start working on speed start doing things fast this last one is like the i don't even know the word the the ultimate maybe it's nirvana if you reach this you've reached nirvana i think i'm using the right word maybe not it's like this enlightenment stage and what is that well basically you study so much that you can just relax the day before the test now i'm saying you should do this and i i feel like a bit of i think the word is hypocrite because you know i haven't really been able to reach this stage many times but i have reached it and and i got this idea from a friend i used to have because we would all be studying the day before the test and he would be ready for the test he would just be sitting back and say hey what are you doing man it's like oh i'm just uh i'm just going to watch some movies and play some video games going out with my girlfriend the test was the next day but he was done he was ready so he would study so much that the day before the test he would just relax i've done that a few times maybe four or five times in my life and let me tell you on those tests i have done really well there's something about like studying a lot and being prepared ahead of time and then just relaxing the day before the test now on the day of the test you should still look everything over just glance it over don't do it but just look everything over and make sure you can do it before your test but if you can reach that stage where like you can just like relax before the test you got this so those are things that you can do that will help you get an a in calculus and you can actually apply these things to to any math class i just wanted to talk about calculus because calculus is a class that you know most people have to take if they're going into any type of like science or or engineering type degree employ these strategies and let me know what you think if you have other tips for people you know leave a comment in the video let me know what you think do you have other advice for people who are taking calculus or other math classes good luck i hope this video has been helpful to you take care

Channel: The Math Sorcerer

Views: 97,068

Keywords: six things you can do to get an A in calculus, how to get an A, get an A in calculus, math, advice, motivation, inspiration, how to get an A in calculus, six things, advice for calculus students, advice for math students, math advice, math inspiration, 6 things that will get you an A in calculus, six things for calculus

Id: jJxjFv_IqM4

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 08 2021