# Calculus III



## Handsome Dyke (Oct 4, 2012)

katzurada said:


> Well, actually, I'm still a freshman, so I haven't taken calculus at all yet. I'm working on my 4-year plan, and I want to know if I'm going to do Calc 3 as a senior. This is because I'm only in advanced algebra right now--I would have to take pre-calc over the summer to make Calc 3 available my senior year. My main incentive was to figure out if taking pre-calc this summer would be worth it.


I see. That's a long ways out to plan. I say go for it if you really want to do it. You can adjust your plans later if you need to.


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## Full_fathom_4 (Jan 23, 2018)

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## Full_fathom_4 (Jan 23, 2018)

I think we have a miscommunication. I thought you were doing this scholastic endeavor in the here and now. Like, you were deciding to sign up for Calc 3 in the coming weeks. Let's have you get through calc 1 and 2 first and we'll do it again. I would enjoy it very much. It's a deal?


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## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

Lunacik said:


> Is this a calculus question? LOL
> 
> No, but really...this is off topic.


Yeah, I'm kind of "controlled chaos" on a good day. I just noticed your sig line before I realized who you are.


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## ImminentThunder (May 15, 2011)

It might be nice to get it out of the way. Or, if you have to take it again in college for some reason, it'd be nice to already be exposed to it. I was way behind you; only took AP calc AB as a senior in HS, but even that helped me when I went to college. It made calc 1 a breeze.

I guess it depends on how good you are at managing time during summer courses, and what the AP courses you'd be sacrificing are. From what I understand, the reason you have to sacrifice them is due to the travel time to the college, yes?

I thought calc 3 was harder than calc 2, but it was also a difficult semester for me in general. As in, I think a variety of external factors, irrespective of the material itself, played into my not-so-great performance in that class. I do remember it being less material to cover than calc 2. It might help to play it by ear after you take calc 1 and 2. If you do end up doing pre-calc over the summer, then you could fill the slot with a different class your senior year if you end up not taking calc 3, or I guess just have a free period. But with where you're at now as a freshman, I bet you'd do well in calc 3.

I'd go for it.


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## katzurada (Mar 21, 2021)

Full_fathom_4 said:


> I think we have a miscommunication. I thought you were doing this scholastic endeavor in the here and now. Like, you were deciding to sign up for Calc 3 in the coming weeks. Let's have you get through calc 1 and 2 first and we'll do it again. I would enjoy it very much. It's a deal?


You see, I’m asking this right now because Calculus III will not even be an option for me if I don’t plan it out right now. To be on the course for Calc 3 I HAVE to take pre calc this summer and registrations are due tomorrow. I can’t wait to make this decision because I can’t just take Calc AB next summer or Calc BC the summer after that to get ahead. Yes, senior year is far ahead but the decision needs to be made now.


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## Full_fathom_4 (Jan 23, 2018)

Katz, take everything that you feel you can accomplish. Here and now. Start... and go for it. But I want you to know, regardless of any circumstance, if you want something, you will achieve it, in time. And nor... at any time, shall it have any perfection. Do your best and it will all be figured out, and you'll be ok. Have faith that you'll work, bc Calc 3 will be an option whether your 20 or 30. Release yourself from the burden of the ideal time-line.


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## chad86tsi (Dec 27, 2016)

My wife is the district math Facilitator for our local school district, she taught dual enrolment calc and trig for the last 20 years to high schoolers, in addition to teaching at Community college and university level. She has seen a lot of kids progress through these decisions and go on to gainful careers in that time. I'm not her, but I've been part of a whole lot of conversations about this kind of subject. This is my opinion based on her experiences as a teacher.

If you push too hard and too fast through Calc AB, you will get poor grades. BC is easier. She has seen a lot of top level "straight A" students struggle at the AB step because so much of it is new, hard, and requires a lot of investment. It's not well suited to take with other difficult courses, and it's *by far* best to get involved in study groups. It is Not something well suited to fast tracking or trying the cram and dump method that likely has worked in the past.

You don't want any poor grades on your transcript either.

Another thing you don't want is a gap in the timeline, that's probably the worst thing you can do. Don't advance so fast that you end up taking a year off before college. Parallel math courses can look just as good as higher ones in a series. It's not always how far you go, but what you studied.

Our 12 year old son is on a very advanced track, we will face similar choices in 2 years. He'll be taking pre-calc as an 8th grader, and will max out the calc series by 10th grade. Then what? We won't decide till we get there is our answer. He has a local university close by for 300 Level and above, but what does he want to do with it? we don't know yet, he's too young to know. Our preliminary plan is to have him take other AP math courses: AP stats, AP data science, things that will make him more well rounded. If he wants to take 300+ level courses, that will still be an option, but would only serve him if he intends to use it, it stops being about numbers after a while, so you better have a good plan with how to use it in a career at that point. After you get through BC, you really need to know what you are using it for.


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## katzurada (Mar 21, 2021)

chad86tsi said:


> My wife is the district math Facilitator for our local school district, she taught dual enrolment calc and trig for the last 20 years to high schoolers, in addition to teaching at Community college and university level. She has seen a lot of kids progress through these decisions and go on to gainful careers in that time. I'm not her, but I've been part of a whole lot of conversations about this kind of subject. This is my opinion based on her experiences as a teacher.
> 
> If you push too hard and too fast through Calc AB, you will get poor grades. BC is easier. She has seen a lot of top level "straight A" students struggle at the AB step because so much of it is new, hard, and requires a lot of investment. It's not well suited to take with other difficult courses, and it's *by far* best to get involved in study groups. It is Not something well suited to fast tracking or trying the cram and dump method that likely has worked in the past.
> 
> ...


I have a question--in the case that I DO take calculus III, would it really hurt me to change my mind in college? Right now, my plan is to go into STEM, but what if I want to become a teacher, maybe? Or a lawyer? Will I regret having taken Calculus III in high school?


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## chad86tsi (Dec 27, 2016)

katzurada said:


> I have a question--in the case that I DO take calculus III, would it really hurt me to change my mind in college? Right now, my plan is to go into STEM, but what if I want to become a teacher, maybe? Or a lawyer? Will I regret having taken Calculus III in high school?


Only if it came at great cost to you. It's more work (time) for some students than others. In some cases this can prepare you for difficult majors, so even if you don't use it you improved your student skills. That is one common theme My wife has observed, bright students that have gone their whole lives and never had to "work". Calculus was the first real challenge for most of these students, it taught them how to work and they will all need that at college.

You won't use it in life, and even many STEM fields you only use small pieces of that stuff. I'm an electrical engineer and almost everything I do is algebra 1 and lower. I still had to learn calculus, but only to get through the curriculum. I don't regret the work of taking those courses, the math and theory were very complementary, but no, I don't use it.


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## NIHM (Mar 24, 2014)

katzurada said:


> I have a question--in the case that I DO take calculus III, would it really hurt me to change my mind in college? Right now, my plan is to go into STEM, but what if I want to become a teacher, maybe? Or a lawyer? Will I regret having taken Calculus III in high school?


I was about to ask what do you plan to do with your mathematics? There are a lot of fields that can use it let's say the stochastic processes, which is stochastic calculus which you probably won't see in cal 1-4. 1-3 kind of just deals with functions and real variables. The stochastic process would be a specialty of math. Some find them more complicated than regular functions of real variables. It's basically outputting all the probabilities of an event happening (simplest version). I study math because I can't turn it off, find it fun, and interesting.

If you're going into STEM fields (a plethora of subjects) then yes mathematics is very useful as a backdrop because it's like looking at a lifeline seeing the code it's using, seeing the strings move as you apply different variables, and observing, adjusting, estimating if you see drag or latency issues.

This can also be highly beneficial to people in economics and finance. Like the lemma is universally used in mathematical finance for option values presented.

I don't see how this could help you as a lawyer... I mean finance law might be beneficial to have some background in mathematics. I think a lot of students go through the undecided stage when they're younger and lack a compass to direct them. Just figure out what your goals are for the future. What do you put the most weight in to make you happy? Not everyone is the same. I double-majored in biology and aerospace engineering. As an adult out of college. I had a goal I wanted to go into space and study the effects of low gravity on muscle mass tissue being that you need gravity to grow it. I didn't have my thesis fully conceptualized but that was the start of a goal. Then life hit and took me on another path. Then Covid hit and now I get to use my math that I never stopped using even out of school. I do it at home on my whiteboard just for the fun of it, along with painting, tinkering on engineering projects, writing historical fiction, trying to work out apothecary, gardening, perfecting baking... etc. Now I am an operations research analyst. We're basically high-level problem solvers who use data-mining, statistical analysis, and mathematical modeling to either predict an event or in my case a virus. Though at the beginning I thought it would be fun to be a part of teams on a groundbreaking virus proving my mathematical models then there's the really bad part of researching all the numbers and knowing the number is someone who has died or has been left maimed. Its kind of like your fantastical brain gets crashed down to earth on the reality of it.

I never regretted taking any of my math courses because I'm in love with both pure and applied mathematics. If you sit there as if it's a chore then yes, I would predict you could regret the choice if your goal is not math-related. Normally if a person is asking if they're going to regret it, then it's probably not something they're in love with. This is a variable I would never have brought up. It's as fun to me as drawing, painting, sailing, and any of my other hobbies I like to do. Still my friends and family say I have a unique way of looking at the world and not everyone is going to think like me.

College is also nothing like high school, think of being a leaf on the wind. As long as you have the funds and the grades you can change your mind. An open canvas to paint your masterpiece of what you're going to become. I say don't rush it relish the experience of going into each class and learning all the theories they can offer you. It's all about perspective.


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