Re:Introduction to Applied Linear Algebra: Vectors, Matrices...
by mindcrime on Friday December 14, 2018 @11:57AM
(#18682284)
That's another thing I observed teaching calculus: a lot of students who have problems, are having their difficulties with the algebra they supposedly know
A. You're not alone. In the first video of his Calc I series, Professor Leonard cracks that "Calculus is the class you take to finally fail Algebra".
B. This is hardly unexpected, especially if there's any gap at all between taking Algebra and taking Calc. The simple truth is, you forget material you don't use. And most people don't use a lot of algebra in their daily lives. If even a semester or two has passed since you took algebra, you're almost certainly going to have forgotten a lot of it, unless you made a very pointed effort to keep practicing that stuff and focus on retention.
A. You're not alone. In the first video of his Calc I series, Professor Leonard cracks that "Calculus is the class you take to finally fail Algebra".
B. This is hardly unexpected, especially if there's any gap at all between taking Algebra and taking Calc. The simple truth is, you forget material you don't use. And most people don't use a lot of algebra in their daily lives. If even a semester or two has passed since you took algebra, you're almost certainly going to have forgotten a lot of it, unless you made a very pointed effort to keep practicing that stuff and focus on retention.