College Sophomore struggling with Calc 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes - the college has peer tutoring. He has tried that but it's hit and miss. Will tell him to keep trying and also considering an outside tutor for a boost of confidence.

OP as one who had a DS in the same situation last year- right down to the rigorous private and the doing OK in calculus 1- I will add this.

Your support for an outside tutor is great. Tell him you will pay for it so he has no excuse. But do not under any circumstances let him whine too much about this and do not let him drop the class. Unless you want to teach him to turn tail the minute things get “hard” in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He needs to do daily drills. A lot of drills. To many smart people, Calculus is not intuitive and straightforward like precalc. Unless you are a natural, he needs to practice, practice, practice.

Get him a really good tutor to support him.

Precalculus is only "intuitive and straightforward" when the rigorous material is skipped and deferred to calculus class, where the course assumes it was already learned during precalc.

[Anonymous]

Do you think he was cheating through math in high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't seem like a fit for a top LAC if they are still struyin a high school / first-year course in year 2.

You don’t know that. OP said that he did well in other classes in high school. Calc 2 is a weed out course for many wanna be science and premed majors.

Just realized that it’s also required for serious (BS) degrees in Econ, finance other other programs.

[Anonymous]

Seriously - no he was not cheating in HS math!

He seems to struggle with the format of the assessments which are done at the end of each class. Find out what is wrong with the problem, etc. Maybe more of a transfer problem type assessment?

[Anonymous]

Mom, seriously, step back. Your 20yo student will figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Tell him to use AI!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously - no he was not cheating in HS math!

He seems to struggle with the format of the assessments which are done at the end of each class. Find out what is wrong with the problem, etc. Maybe more of a transfer problem type assessment?

Well my goodness. The tests are hard.

OP, this is a moment for your SON to step up to the plate. How much does he want this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He needs to do daily drills. A lot of drills. To many smart people, Calculus is not intuitive and straightforward like precalc. Unless you are a natural, he needs to practice, practice, practice.

Get him a really good tutor to support him.

Precalculus is only "intuitive and straightforward" when the rigorous material is skipped and deferred to calculus class, where the course assumes it was already learned during precalc.

You are an idiot! Go away. Enough with these toxic and stupid comments. We don't need you here. Axxhole.

OP: Precalc is a basically a tool box of algebraic manipulation, trigonometry, functions, logarithms, and exponentials. Calculus introduces new concepts goes beyond applying tool boxes. It's more conceptual more abstract. Mastery on precalculus is necessary but not sufficient for Calculus. You are learning new skills and you need a lot of practices to fully develop these skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Calc 2 is likely easier at a community college. He could consider dropping it this semester and taking it over the summer.

This is not a good strategy for med school applications. Med schools
do not want to see students taking the easy way out at a community college to fulfill their premed requirements, particularly if the course is available at their main 4 yr institution. Taking Calc 2 over the summer at their main 4 yr college could be a more reasonable option so able to focus more completely just on doing well at Calc 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes - the college has peer tutoring. He has tried that but it's hit and miss. Will tell him to keep trying and also considering an outside tutor for a boost of confidence.

OP as one who had a DS in the same situation last year- right down to the rigorous private and the doing OK in calculus 1- I will add this.

Your support for an outside tutor is great. Tell him you will pay for it so he has no excuse. But do not under any circumstances let him whine too much about this and do not let him drop the class. Unless you want to teach him to turn tail the minute things get “hard” in life.

Maybe he just isn’t cut out for pre-med? If he can’t get through Calc2, it is hard to see that he’ll be able to handle Organic Chem at some point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes - the college has peer tutoring. He has tried that but it's hit and miss. Will tell him to keep trying and also considering an outside tutor for a boost of confidence.

OP as one who had a DS in the same situation last year- right down to the rigorous private and the doing OK in calculus 1- I will add this.

Your support for an outside tutor is great. Tell him you will pay for it so he has no excuse. But do not under any circumstances let him whine too much about this and do not let him drop the class. Unless you want to teach him to turn tail the minute things get “hard” in life.

Maybe he just isn’t cut out for pre-med? If he can’t get through Calc2, it is hard to see that he’ll be able to handle Organic Chem at some point.

Another false! Calculus and OChem require different skills. It's highly likely one is good at OChem but only average at Calculus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Calc 2 is likely easier at a community college. He could consider dropping it this semester and taking it over the summer.

Med schools do not like pre-reqs taken at community college. It tends to indicate that you couldn't cut it at your primary school, which in this case would be accurate. Agree with others, get a tutor and grind it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes - the college has peer tutoring. He has tried that but it's hit and miss. Will tell him to keep trying and also considering an outside tutor for a boost of confidence.

OP as one who had a DS in the same situation last year- right down to the rigorous private and the doing OK in calculus 1- I will add this.

Your support for an outside tutor is great. Tell him you will pay for it so he has no excuse. But do not under any circumstances let him whine too much about this and do not let him drop the class. Unless you want to teach him to turn tail the minute things get “hard” in life.

Maybe he just isn’t cut out for pre-med? If he can’t get through Calc2, it is hard to see that he’ll be able to handle Organic Chem at some point.

Another false! Calculus and OChem require different skills. It's highly likely one is good at OChem but only average at Calculus.

But the sad truth is that he will be competing for med school spots with kids who took the equivalent class in high school. Even at our mid-level public school there are multiple students every year who take the equivalent class as a freshman and score a 5 on the AP exam. There's an entire section who are taking it as juniors. I truly hope the best for this kid, but reality is reality

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes - the college has peer tutoring. He has tried that but it's hit and miss. Will tell him to keep trying and also considering an outside tutor for a boost of confidence.

OP as one who had a DS in the same situation last year- right down to the rigorous private and the doing OK in calculus 1- I will add this.

Your support for an outside tutor is great. Tell him you will pay for it so he has no excuse. But do not under any circumstances let him whine too much about this and do not let him drop the class. Unless you want to teach him to turn tail the minute things get “hard” in life.

Maybe he just isn’t cut out for pre-med? If he can’t get through Calc2, it is hard to see that he’ll be able to handle Organic Chem at some point.

Another false! Calculus and OChem require different skills. It's highly likely one is good at OChem but only average at Calculus.

But the sad truth is that he will be competing for med school spots with kids who took the equivalent class in high school. Even at our mid-level public school there are multiple students every year who take the equivalent class as a freshman and score a 5 on the AP exam. There's an entire section who are taking it as juniors. I truly hope the best for this kid, but reality is reality

So? He can still bust his ass and study hard for this class and even make a good grade. His future is not determined by his high school course load.