Daily Study

To do well in this course, you will need to spend about two hours studying calculus outside of class for every hour spent in class. Here are some suggestions for what to do with that time. Most of these activities are best done with one or two other calculus students.

• Complete any worksheets that you didn't have time to finish during class.
• Spend a half-hour reading the text and working through the examples.
• Do the homework problems.
• Remaining time can be spent in one or more of the following:
  • Check your homework problems with classmates, discussing discrepancies and different methods of solving problems.
  • Check your homework using Mathematica.
  • Read through your class notes and try to find all the mistakes your teacher made in the lecture.
  • Work through problems from the review section of the book.
  • Make up your own problems, and figure out how to check your answers without just re-doing the calculation.
  • Read through the Mathematica notebooks and compare them with what we have discussed in class.
  • Write up a brief summary of the section or chapter we have just finished. Sort the information into two or three categories: (1) The Big Idea, (2) Essential Formulas to be memorized, (3) Basic Procedures to be understood and practiced.
  • Look through the review problems or problems that were not assigned, and decide which Big Idea is needed to solve each one. (This is a great way to review for a test.)

Preparing for a Test

Here are some ways to study for the test:

• Go through the questions on the review sheet. Talk about them with another student and write a list of important facts and formulas to memorize.
• Work through the scoop exam(s). Treat it like a real test and force yourself to think through the questions.
• Skim through each section of the book and identify the BIG IDEA of that section. Try to summarize it in one or two sentences.
• After you've identified the big idea in each section, check that you can express each idea graphically, symbolically, and numerically. Know how these three interpretations are related.
• Re-read your worksheets. For each part, ask yourself ``What was the point of this problem? What was I supposed to see/learn?'' or ``How are all these things connected?''
• Skim through the lab projects. What ideas were presented? Which concepts are illustrated in the graphs?
• Review your quizzes on this material.
• Review your homework on this material. Don't try to memorize procedures, but try to summarize the main skills and relationships that you used to find your solutions.
• Re-read the examples in the book. After going through each example, try to summarize the procedure or idea in a few sentences. What is it an example of ?
• Make a list of formulas you will need, and memorize them and/or program them in your calculator. Be sure you know how and when to use them!
• Read through the review problems in the book and decide how you would approach each one. Concentrate on setting up the problems: how do you know what the problem is asking for, and what mathematical ideas/tools are needed to solve it?