Brainlet needs help

So, I got an A in Calculus. I thought, oh boi, math is easy! So I proceed to take Calculus 2. Holy shit, dropped that class in the first week because the professor assumed I had a lot of prior knowledge. Don't give a fuck about pacing because frankly I'm going to school for shits and giggles because I'm bored and my job pays for it (not reimbursement, literally waives tuition). So, I'm going to take it seriously in the Fall.

Here's the issue, I need to relearn everything because apparently my entire understanding of math is retarded. I know how to solve basic calculus problems but hold me if you need proofs or explanations.

My solution was to relearn Calculus. Dead wall because first chapter assumes I fully coprehend trigonometry. It also assumes I know how to graph hyperbolas and crap but if I ever did this type of problem it was in passing. The morale of this dilemma is never learn to solves problems but rather understand the concept first then work the problem.

Point is, I'm going back to basics and reviewing from precalculus onward. Issue is that everything is so stupid easy that I get bored. However, I'm paranoid to skip to my obvious weaknesses and miss underlying concepts that are so vital it'll fuck me up later. Should I just grind my teeth and plow through the boring shit? Should I focus on my weakness only? How do you folks study? I currently take notes but lately they feel meaningless in the sense that I either copy everything verbatim or literally miss the concept and focus on solving the problem.

Btw fully aware that this is a brainlet problem. Let my humility tempt you with imparting wisdom.

You're gonna want to enroll in a Precalculus class instead.

It will spend half its time teaching you college algebra, proofs, sets, notation, etc., then it will shift to trig and teach you the more important parts of that, and then probably go into complex numbers, radial coordinate planes, hyperbolas and parametrics in general.

If you're not at least mildly acquainted with ALL of those topics, Calc 2 will be difficult for you, and further math even moreso.

It's not hard, though. I never took trig, and took College Algebra in highschool and slept through the class. When I enrolled in college years later, I just spent the summer before my freshman year on sites like Khan Academy trying to get 100% in their college algebra, trig, and precalc courses.

Rolled into Calc 1, 2, 3, etc and made straight A's pretty easily.

The only solution to your circumstances as they stand now is to get to work. Start doing math and don't let up. You have the summer to figure out all the precalc topics. If you don't, enroll in precalc or trig instead of calc 2.

It was an oversight to let you into Calc 1 without confirming you knew your college algebra and trig, btw. They're supposed to test for that. If you can't graph a hyperbola, reduce the power of a trig function, or perform a partial decomposition on a cubic function, you're probably not going to succeed in Calc without a lot of tutoring or studying on the side.

Ahahaha, I think it's time for the /meme/list to rescue you!

>Prerequisites:
Good studying habits
Purpose
Grit
An ability to resort to Khan Academy if truly struggling
Basic "know-how" with mathematics (things should be approaching a review in the beginning)

>Chapter 1: Introduction to Entry-Level Mathematics, P. I
Pre-Calculus - Carl Stitz & Jeff Zeager
Calculus: A Modern Approach - Jeff Knisley & Kevin Shirley
The Art and Craft of Problem Solving - Paul Zeitz

>Chapter 2: Introduction to Entry-Level Mathematics, P. II
Linear Algebra and Its Applications - David C. Lay
Calculus of Several Variables - Serge Lang
Applied Differential Equations by Vladimir A. Dobrushkin

>Chapter 3: Introduction to Proofs and Survey of Higher-Level Mathematics
How to Think Like a Mathematician - Kevin Houston
How to Prove It - D. J. Velleman
Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning - A.D. Aleksandrov, A.N. Kolmogorov, & M.A. Lavrent'ev

>Chapter 4: Bringing It All Together: The First Test of Mathematical Maturity
Calculus Vol. I & II - T. M. Apostol
Analysis I & II - Terrance Tao

>If you can't graph a hyperbola, reduce the power of a trig function, or perform a partial decomposition on a cubic function, you're probably not going to succeed in Calc without a lot of tutoring or studying on the side.
Not OP, but also frustrated. The funny thing is you can breeze through AP Calculus AB and BC with high 5s and not be able to do that. American education is fucking watered down and retarded, and I hate myself for being incompetent at any real mathematical modeling problems. So much was skipped that it almost feels like I have to redo everything to even get anywhere and yet still have the nagging feeling at the back of my head that I'm missing something important.

I got an A in College Algebra, Trigonometry, and Pre-Calculus. Florida International University did not let me take Calculus because I never did the placement test. All those concepts you mentioned were either skimmed or I didn't pay attention and forgot after exam. My problem with Khan is how fucking slow it feels.

As an American, none of that was in AP Calc because taking College Algebra and Trigonometry were required in order to take AP Calc in my school. So you did those things after Geometry and Algebra 2, then moved on to AP Calc if you had time.

The bigger issue was many universities wouldn't take AP Calc credit. I never took AP Calc but my uni calc 1 and 2 classes were typically half full of people who HAD taken it who were told it wasn't good enough for the "STEM Calc" classes. Only General Calc or Business Calc.

Slow or not, daily progress is the only option. You're not gonna be able to sit down and get a solid grasp on a whole area of math in a day. Set a goal of 1 section in KA, do it, then take a break. Set a new goal of 1 or 2 sections, then repeat. Eventually you'll be able to tolerate it for hours and you might spend your last month before fall classes begin doing KA for 12 hours a day in 3 hour blocks.

If KA is really that bad you can look on youtube for guys like Professor Leonard or Michel van Biezen and just watch their playlists and work the problems along with them. Leonard will give his class time to work problems during the video, so you can take the time to pause the video and work the problem and then see if you did it right.

This exactly. All my courses felt so watered down. Calculus 2 freaked me out because the guy assumed I knew proofs and it's like man my calculus one professor said we didn't need to know them because it would be covered in Calculus 2. Like I don't know how it works for everyone else but prior to Calculus 2 it felt like stupid easy that I didn't understand why people bitches about it. Now I see they watered it down to let people pass. However, next level hadn't been watered down so now I'm stuck relearning.

Yeah I figured that would probably be my only option. Forcing myself to review shit that should have already been mastered by now. Should I bother with the "meme" list or just focus on Khan Academy? Also, do you folks take notes? If so, do you just focus on the examples or do you jot everything down?

If the meme list is the list of books I saw posted elsewhere, that will take you a year or more to read and digest if you're not a highly mathematical person to begin with. I'd focus on practical solutions to your grades and test scores.

I take notes. I try to write down everything and append my own little notes to elaborate on things the professor says but doesn't write on the board or put on the powerpoint.

For some classes, like Calc, I also rewrote my notes after each class, reorganizing them and making them easier to read, because the professor was all over the board. I'd try to teach the class myself in my head as I did it.

The Feynman Method of studying is to read the material and take notes, then rewrite it to explain it to someone else. Until you can do that, he didn't think you really knew the material. But after you do that, the next level is to write it in a way a child could understand. He believed that to have mastered a topic you should be able to put it in terms a child could understand and come up with examples a kid could grasp.

I basically did the first and second step: Read the material, then re-wrote it as if I was teaching my peers. I pretended as I wrote new notes that I was explaining the topic to a classmate who was struggling. If I hit a gap or stumbling block, I researched the answer and then moved on. I stopped short of writing kid-friendly notes, however. That was a bit too much time investment for me.

Like I said before, though: Straight A's in my Calc classes with this method. Learn by teaching. If you get stuck, keep moving and keep notes on what you're confused about, then ask the professor, a tutor, a classmate, the internet, etc about it all after you're done covering what you DO know.

>
If the meme list is the list of books I saw posted elsewhere, that will take you a year or more to read and digest if you're not a highly mathematical person to begin with. I'd focus on practical solutions to your grades and test scores.

To be fair, it has good books for specific needs. Nobody is holding a gun to your forehead and forcing you to do all of them. I would just go through Stitz and Knisley and let a competent math curriculum at university. do the rest.