>trying to learn calculus from archived MIT courses online
>still can't do 90% of the problems even after spending months on it
Am I just moronic or is MIT calculus just particularly difficult? Is there an easier course for people like me who don't have 130+ iq's?
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You're better off looking at simple yt videos that explain concepts quickly rather than sitting through some boring lecture that's a total waste of time. Also pick a book and look at the examples
The thing is that YouTube videos just explain the basic concepts. These MIT courses give you actual problems to solve and that's where I'm not able to do any of it. I can grasp most of the basics of calculus, but when it comes to actually having to use them to solve problems I don't know what the frick I'm doing.
Do more practice problems
How does that help me when I don't even know how to do them? I need to learn how to be able to do them first and these courses are too hard for me.
If you're not understanding it by watching a lecture them what book are you using? A textbook will simply explain everything and build up to more complex problems. You can look up a short 5 min. Video for anything you don't understand. Stop b***hing
I just don't see how I'd be able to learn it from a textbook if I can't learn it from a professor explaining it in a lecture video.
A textbook is obviously more in-depth than a lecture
It's completely normal to walk out of a lecture having learned frick all, similarly, it's absolutely common for students to not attend lectures at all and simply work through the script or a textbook. All I can say is that the delivery of the topics is honed to perfection in textbooks while the lecture's quality depends on the lecturer. From my experience, there are almost no real good lecturers and you're better off working through a textbook at your own pace, not skipping any details.
I had this problem in my first year of uni, I was panicking for months because everyone was surging ahead of me. I then went back to the start and and methodically went through everything I had learned one step at a time, over the course of a weekend I gradually built up an impression of the mathematics in my own way.
With text books and your own notes you can quickly recap something you've missed or are not 100% sure of. Most people are IQ 130 because they are quicker at rote learning and forming new memories, not because they are more reasonable and logical and better at strategizing.
lectures are shit buddy, and any lecture-based textbook
>make a thread asking for advice
>be a homosexual about it when given advice
Frick, I hate you undergrads so much
Have some empathy. And OP sounds like an older guy who tries to self-teach himself calculus.
>algebra skills
When I first took proof-based calculus, I struggled a lot with manipulating series, sequences, and inequalities. I'm not sure if this falls under "algebra", but a lot of it comes down to experience imo. I have no idea if there's a good book to learn these skills.
In Russia, calculus learns you
>I have no idea if there's a good book to learn these skills.
Spivak.
RP Burn's Numbers and Functions.
Tao's Analysis.
I think any rigorous calculus or intro analysis will devote a chapter or two on the topic. With ample exercises.
Some Algebra books, like Gorodentsev's, have chapters on formal power series and treat them rather algebraically too.
Textbooks often have detailed examples which more or less show you how to solve problems. Same thing really goes for proofs
Your issue is most likely with more fundamental forms of mathematics. You may have built errors into your thought process when you work with algebra. Go back and work towards 100% mastery in those subjects first.
Everything I did before calc has been easy to understand. Calculus feels like it's not even in the same realm as any math I've done before.
Probably because you skipped some math inbetween
I didn't skip anything. I even did a whole precalc course before this and I didn't have any trouble with it.
So do you have issues understanding the theory or just doing problems?
I can understand the concepts pretty well and do most of the simple kinds of problems that they show in the lectures, but any time I'm given something more complex I don't know what the frick I'm doing.
problem solving isn't easy to learn and I'm guessing MIT's PSets assume some prior olympiad experience. In any case, if you want to get good at solving those, I recommend you read books on proof-based math. Start by solving basic set theory and logic problems and slowly move over to calc stuff. Should help you formulate mathematical arguments and see meaning in those problems. Might as well skip calc for analysis at that point, though
you still haven't posted a single example of a problem you cannot even start to tackle
Jesus you need to be handheld.
Listen, try to solve problems, fail, then look at the solutions.Try to understand the solutions. Reconstruct the solutions.
Reverse engineer the process and solutions.
american-style calculus should just be intuitively understood, there’s no reason to study it
pick up an analysis textbook and really get started
You should be learning from a textbook.
That other anon is right, calc by itself is a waste of time. Read through a textbook that does calc and analysis simultaneously, examples are Amann Escher or Zorich
that's a waste of time and effort if you're learning it to apply it. usually when applying it you just need to understand it in a non esoteric way. if you go and ask an engineer to prove some shit in real analysis, they'll have no idea
>Am I just moronic or is MIT calculus just particularly difficult?
Can you provide a problem? In general it's pretty simple, what you might be struggling with is not spending enough time on the basics.
Are there any in there you're having particular trouble with? Like pick out 3 or 4 problems.
Gotta remember that lecturers and most people making videos don't have tightly prepared deliveries as you'd find in a decent textbook, where math authors tend to put in a lot of effort toward clarity and understanding.
At what part of the problem solving do you fail?
Maybe you don't know about an important technique such as integral substitution or whatever.
Textbook > Lecture. You don't understand? Read the paragraph before. Repeat until you understand.
take an IQ test first
I don't know what study calculus means?
I mean you should probably just look into the intuition and then download a python library, most of calculus is just some cool facts I can put on a piece of paper.
If you want to actually understand what's going on you need baby level real analysis.
ditch the lectures, get a textbook and do lots of problems
>wasting time learning calculus
>when you could learn2code, learn2weld basically anything productive
I am convinced math gays are moron
>learn2code
oversaturated market and bugman work
>learn2weld
cool thing, but you need a shitton of costly equipment I figure. For math you only need paper, pen, textbook, computer and let's go
Gonna be replaced by AI soon
this might not be a popular suggestion, but perhaps consider studying analysis instead so you can acquire a deep understanding of the mechanisms behind calculus
As others suggested, you should probably skip calc and go straight into real analysis
I've used Introduction to Calculus and Analysis I-II by Courant for my Calculus II-III and I could handle MIT problems easily back then. Don't even remember by school's textbook. Probably Howard Anton.
Nope, MIT calculus is just not particularly harder. It is the same calculus that people learn all around the world. So I am afraid that you are the problem here.
Here's the truth. Watching videos don't help very much. Because watching videos is passive.
You need to grab a textbook and try to solve the problems by yourself before looking at the solution. This is called active learning. Hope this helps!
MIT uses annoying terminology so it's not really your fault but you should be able to understand the problems.
This is true. I only really ever learned math once I tackled my lecture notes and worked through it
Too much IQfy has left you unable to concentrate and learn.
The MIT lectures do not translate well to YouTube. Do Khan academy instead, you will learn much faster
bump
I haven't had to integrate a function since graduating like 5 years ago. The other side is so good bros.
Yeah because we have computers now
Go check most impossible integrals and you’ll find computers are too dumb for those
Imo there are more interesting unsolved problems than just some integral
>Am I just moronic or is MIT calculus just particularly difficult?
It's academica, so a scam to earn way more money than worth. You fall for a brand that only gives you harm. There are tons of sources to get comfy with that "tool". It is more a crutch but math idiots do not have something better. So they hide it when real - non ivory tower- duties comes with the usual wording salad.
Once you understand that "concept" calculus is way more easy to "comprehend".
MIT undergraduate admission is the only true meritocracy exists today.
You and other people will not like what I gonna tell you. Because it's really time-consuming and you morons just want instant shortcut. Not realizing MIT students have spent their childhood grinding olympiad problems.
Anyways, my advice is to do the whole AOPS curriculum from the start. The first book is "Prealgebra". Yes, you're not even good enough for algebra yet. Supplement with Paul Zeitz's problem solving books and videos.
It's not "mathematical maturity" or bullshit like that. You lack problem solving and algebra skills. Simple as that.
trash bait
What bait? Literally just telling OP to learn algebra and problem solving techniques before tackling calculus.
What olympic training. Learn English. No one is telling OP to do constest math. Just algebra and problem solving books.
stop shitposting. There's no reason whatsoever to read a book on prealgebra (especially at OP's level) or proof books (which are specifically made to scam highschool students). You'll pick up all those problem-solving techniques once you tackle more serious math. Fricking Hammack covers very basic discrete math and topics covered in most introductory analysis books anyway, like ordinal induction or series, while shitting on formalism. Constructing the natural numbers or even doing something as simple as postulating their existence by introducing the Peano Axioms, helping the reader understand induction's mathematical context better, is completely foreign to him. Instead, he wards the reader from any actual math and introduces these concepts using memetic diagrams and muh real-world analogies. Even going as far as insulting the reader's intelligence with these boring, uninspired, copy-pasted exercises. Just a massive waste of time
Who has a good logic book? I read one about 10 years ago, but it was dusty in a library.
Excuses. Excuses. Excuses.
olympiad training is completely optional and mostly just a waste of time. OP should just start with real proof-based math now and learn problem-solving simultaneously.
You should go through the book "Calculus and applications" by peter d lax, and after that get the book "understanding analysis" by abbot.
the first option only has a total of 400 problems, if you have a day job this book can take you easily 3 to 6 months to do, the real analysis book can take the same amount of time.
after you go through these books try out "ordinary differential equations by Braun", then go through multivariable calculus by peter d lax. once you get through these books in the order i listed... you will have essentially gotten the equivalent undergraduate mathematics education that any physicist or mechanical engineer gets in the united states.
if you need help checking your answer use "symbolab ordinary differential equaitions solver" or "mathematica"
Stop jerking off. Stop using dating apps. Stop going after women. Don't allow sexual thoughts to arise in the mind.
Get RX for dextroamphetamine 5mg twice a day.
Coffee or 100mg of caffeine in the morning.
Nicotine throughout the day either as a patch or pouch.
Study all day.
You're a product of what you do. You didn't make it probably because you're too busy obsessing over sex and masturbation and do other time sinks like gaming and scrolling.
You're moronic.
Now kys.
MIT presumes you know calculus or are very good at subject x before taking subject x itself lmao (not really but kind of)
Go Spivak Calculus route or,
Stewart Calculus then Spivak Calculus route or,
Watch Professor leonard, rootmath and alike route
Choice is yours. ||I recommend 1st||
OP never mentioned his IQ which I suspect is the problem here
Skip the problems, easy
What part of calculus is this? Have you taken the prerequisites already?
Learning all of undergraduate calculus could take months, even if it were your only coursework
the lecture is paired with textbooks. one supplements the other. well that's the ideal, it depends on the quality of school you're going