MATH3B — Calculus II

Second semester calculus proffers a very nasty, frustrating, and inconsistent curriculum.  It’s structured like a mathematics gymnastics playground, except somebody put booby traps all over the place.  There are too many poorly connected, even disjointed lessons:  going to differential equations and then series after investigating a dozen very different ways to evaluate an integral is just nuts.

The material was interesting but the curriculum killed the experience.  Most people have a strong dislike of this course, which includes this “math-type” person. In hindsight I am able to see that there are a number of classes with curricula that are so poor that having a good to excellent teacher is almost required if any genuine learning is to be salvaged from the student’s efforts and hard work. If the teacher is poor or bad then the burden that is received by a student can become incredibly severe and overwhelming. Second semester calculus is definitely one of these classes. Even given my natural proficiency in Mathematics, this would not have been enough for me to achieve true success in this class had my professor not worked to present the material that we covered more completely and coherently than how it is done typically. That said, I performed very well, earning the top grade in the class. But after talking with many other students who were being taught the same material by other instructors, I have been able to understand ways in which my experience would have been very different had the material not been presented so thoughtfully and effectively.

An unacceptable number of honest, intelligent and hard-working students don’t make it through this class on the first try (or even the second), and it’s no mystery to me at all as to why this is. In college, when learning and comprehension falter that’s okay because there are still plenty of other ways to move forward–the truly committed will get where they are going regardless.

Exams

– Forthcoming