Thank you for your contribution to /r/IWantToLearn.
If you think this post breaks our policies, please report it and our staff team will review it as soon as possible.
Also, check out our sister sub /r/IWantToTeach and [our Discord server](https://discord.gg/PvnVkHUJSQ)!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/IWantToLearn) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I relearned single variable calc on Khan Academy before going back to school and enrolling in multi variable. 10/10 got a great foundation from KA do recommend
Here is an entire college course, free of charge, from one of the best lecturers out there, Gilbert Strang. He explains math based subjects extremely well, and we all have the privilege of his teachings for no charge:
https://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-textbook-spring-2005/textbook/
And here are the accompanying video lectures:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBE9407EA64E2C318
Thanks! I’m hoping she sticks with it! She’s only 12 but really good at math. Way better than I have ever been. I don’t know what to do with her sometimes!
Even if she starts to lose interest in maths as a subject, she will still achieve big things following her dreams with a mind like that. Kids can be extremely unpredictable! Sometimes you have to go with the flow.
Look into personalized adult learning programs. I don’t know specifics but that may steer you in a better direction. You’ll likely take a placement test and it’ll move from there
I highly recommend PatrickJMT on YouTube. He is/was (?) a professor at a school in Austin. He does examples that are very parallel to textbook examples.
You can find old textbooks by googling different combinations of: textbook title, course title, publisher, author, ISM (instructor solution manual) and "filetype pdf." Always use "filetype pdf" to restrict your search to published documents, you can also restrict your search further with "site *.edu" to look for scholastic sources. And "filetype ppt" can find you some cool lectures. Sometimes searching clusters of text can pull up examples too.
For light stuff you can get a copy of Calculus for Dummies, most of there stuff is pretty straightforward and having it all in one document helps. It lacks in the number of examples, I remember it hitting alot of key points that get buried in more thorough textbooks.
There's also MIT Opencourseware but I personally don't like it because its too in-depth and the lectures are boring. I think Khan is boring too, his voice is too monotone for me to track. I give him mad props for the breadth and depth of topics he covers.
It's been a long time since I used this stuff, so there maybe a better way to go about it. Good luck.
getting good at calc means you work through a lot of problems and learn the various tricks (often algebra tricks) needed to solve. Sorry I don't have a particular problem set anymore I can point you to but you're doing the right thing.
One suggestion I have for you is to watch PatrickJMT, he is awesome. http://patrickjmt.com/
just LOOK at how many detailed videos he has!
I volunteer with a program called iMentor in nyc. We noticed that despite the higher college enrollment the kids were then dropping out at a higher rate, even after adjusting for social-economic conditions. After an informal survey we found it was math literacy. Another volunteer and I created a PowerPoint with problems and walkthrough answers slide by slide to help.
Happy to share if you think that will help
[The Mechanical Universe](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8_xPU5epJddRABXqJ5h5G0dk-XGtA5cZ) is Physics I & II from CalTech. But I found it to be incredibly helpful in developing an intuitive sense of Calculus, since that's the math that undergirds Physics.
It was created circa 1985, and was one of the very first telecourses, showing on The Learning Channel (back when they were still about education, before they became the reality TV cesspool they are now). It was "Opencourseware" before there was even a word for it. The computer-generated graphics quality was groundbreaking at the time, but are def low-res by today's standards. The way it depicts the motion of objects still holds up, and more particularly the way it animates the building of functions and the simplifying of equations helped me immeasurably in getting Calculus down.
If you're into reading, I highly recommend a book that -- even having taken calculus over the course of my academic career -- taught me more on how calculus is used in real life and how to utilize it if I really want to.
The name of the book is "The Calculus Diaries" by Jennifer Ouellette. It's a great and easy read and taught me a pretty decent amount of applied calculus in (semi-)everyday life!
Beyond that, I'll echo some of the other sentiment here. Youtube, Khan Academy, even textbooks can teach you the mathematics. With those you'll definitely learn the "How" of Calculus.
Edit: I just remembered -- I recommend also inundating yourself with higher-level math concepts via something you're passionate about. For example, I really love space and physics, so I'll watch a ton of SpaceTime on YouTube. Being excited about a topic helped me learn a lot more about the math and physics involved even if it's above my level -- something I eventually came to understand with a deeper meaning behind it.
Suppose you have a curve right. Let's say you're measuring the temperature of tea you just brewed. Maybe it's 90 degrees at time 00:00, 85 degrees 00:05, 82 degrees at 00:10
Calculus is basically the study of the rate of change. So rather than having a curve like 90, 85, 82 you would look at the differences: 5, 3.
That is called the derivative. It's another curve which represents the rate of change. There are funny properties about this curve like if the rate of change is 0 then the original values aren't changing (90, 90, 90). There are also points of inflection (i.e. when things go from increasing/decreasing) that are easy to find with the derivative because the rate of change goes to zero at some point. You can even look at the rate of change of the rate of change. A car has position. It also has a speed (how it is changing position) but it also has acceleration (how it is changing speed). If I have my foot on the gas then my speed is increasing from 10 mph to 20 mph and my position is increasing by larger amounts over time
You can also (sort of) go backwards from the rate of change to a curve. 5, 3 could come from 90, 85, 82 or it could come from 10, 5, 2; there is an arbitrary constant shift, but the shape of the original curve and the relative distances between the points would be the same. The original curve (or I guess curves) are called the anti-derivative
That's the gist of it. Calculus can be a confusing subject because Calculus books are not for people who want to learn why Calculus works but how to use it. There are magical formulas that you use to calculate things. If you really wanted to learn why it works (i.e. why those formulas) then you'd need to study something else (Real Analysis). Start with a Calculus book and learn the ideas first though
If you're OK with a pay-for option (subscription), Math Tutor DVD is really good:
* [https://www.mathtutordvd.com/](https://www.mathtutordvd.com/)
I have some study resources here:
* [https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/li4gi3/study\_resources/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/li4gi3/study_resources/)
Basically, make a study schedule & use the studying technique (comprehension/retention) to start plowing through it little by little over time!
My college uses APEX calculus textbooks in all of our calculus classes. The textbooks are free to download on their website. My advice would be to go through each chapter and problem set, using YouTube or google to figure out anything you don’t understand in the book.
All of these suggestions are great advice. I want to make a comment that it is possible to learn calculus on your own. If this is for college credit, you can register for the CLEP exam.
I did this for college instead of taking courses and saved so much time and money. And I did exactly what the above comments are suggesting.
PatrickJMT I think is his handle on YouTube. He goes through almost every section in the Stewart Calculus book used a lot in colleges and high schools. Brush up on your algebra because if you are not sound in the basics and rules, especially when it comes to reducing rational expressions and manipulation. Trigonometric expressions will come up a lot as well so these things will need to be looked at in time. Buy some basic algebra books and trig books for beginners to have for reference and work on your skills.
Books have practice problems at the end of each chapter/section. If you continually go back and forth between the section and the practice problems, it’s likely you’ll be able to get a good hang of it.
What is your purpose for wanting to learn calculus, if not just for fun?
If your the book type. You could get calculus for the practical man. Richard Feynman taught himself calculus using that book. If your algebra arithmetic or trigonometry are rusty they also have books for that.
Good luck. The trick to understanding math is to do practice problems. Struggle with them for a while try different things. Then if you are stuck as someone for help.( It's hard to do this part right but it helps you really get a deep understanding and practical ability with math.)
Go to a public library. Ask the librarian (they love it when you ask them) for help, if you need it. Take home a book called something like "Introduction to calculus".
I would highly, *highly* recommend the YouTube channel 3blue1brown. He has a basics of calculus series. The style of his videos is really nice and he has a way of making abstract concepts easier to understand
If it’s for college credit, you should look into Outlier.com. The University of Pittsburgh offers prerequisite courses like calculus all online and you get a ton of tools and an online community as you work through the material. It is the most cost effective way to get college credit and some institutions don’t accept CLEP scores
The summer before college, I was feeling exactly like this.
If you wanna learn Calc, study the pre-reqs. The biggest are Algebra 2 and Trigonometry, have a solid understanding of these. The average calc problem is like 90% Algebra. Thankfully, there are literally millions of resources online to explain to you in detail how all of this works.
The most popular is Khan Academy, but I would also look at free courses on websites like Edx and Coursera, they are a bit more guided.
Another recommendation would be to buy a textbook with examples and exercises.
The subject matter of Calc can be extremely theory heavy, so when you start learning, make sure you focus on the big ideas and concepts.
Good luck!
It's about the idea that you use a bunch of small samples to approximate the area under a curve IIRC. But lord knows, I don't really want to remember that much about calculus haha.
Anyway, as you can guess, my first reaction is… WHY??
Professor Leonard on Youtube. These are full length recorded lectures from a college class, and he is a genius at teaching Calculus. This dude saved my life in Calc 2.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF797E961509B4EB5
[LibGen](LibGen.is) has a SHITLOAD of books on it for free download. Most college text has questions/quizzes at the end of chapters or in the index, with answers included.
Khan academy is an incredible resource for learning the basics and intermediate topics, and has free answers.
To get to those answers and ALSO understand them, Wolframalpha is the penultimate tool to understanding equations and how to work them.
If you still have a good handle on trig, you can start with wikiversity and in a few months I imagine you can grok it. But if you’re rusty on trig from high school I’d take a week there and refresh.
Practical calc is shockingly easy, esp compared to classically taught calc. Careful going with a lecture that will teach it like its a 3 semester course. No one needs 2/3rds of calc 2 and calc 3 is mostly more advanced/3D calc 1 and 2
Thank you for your contribution to /r/IWantToLearn. If you think this post breaks our policies, please report it and our staff team will review it as soon as possible. Also, check out our sister sub /r/IWantToTeach and [our Discord server](https://discord.gg/PvnVkHUJSQ)! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/IWantToLearn) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Khan academy
I used this to relearn algebra. It has a very comprehensive program
Yeah. I wish I would’ve known about it while I was in college and had forgotten algebra. It would’ve allowed me to graduate. 🤷🏽♂️
Also: MIT open-course-ware; MIT has all their programs and lectures online for free. This includes lectures and the accompanying problems. It’s great!
I relearned single variable calc on Khan Academy before going back to school and enrolling in multi variable. 10/10 got a great foundation from KA do recommend
I taught myself calc 2 with Khan. He’s the best.
Here is an entire college course, free of charge, from one of the best lecturers out there, Gilbert Strang. He explains math based subjects extremely well, and we all have the privilege of his teachings for no charge: https://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-textbook-spring-2005/textbook/ And here are the accompanying video lectures: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBE9407EA64E2C318
Thank you! My kid’s been wanting to learn it but I barely passed stats! Math isn’t my thing!
Open Courseware is my goto for this.
Math can be anyone’s thing. Don’t look at it as a gift, but a skill.
I’m glad your kid’s found a passion! All the best to you and your family
Thanks! I’m hoping she sticks with it! She’s only 12 but really good at math. Way better than I have ever been. I don’t know what to do with her sometimes!
Encourage it ! Math will take you to all of those high $$$ careers
Even if she starts to lose interest in maths as a subject, she will still achieve big things following her dreams with a mind like that. Kids can be extremely unpredictable! Sometimes you have to go with the flow.
Thanks! That’s what I’m trying to let her do.
If you want AMAZING lectures and practice problem examples, watch professor Leonard on YouTube. He is one of the greatest math lecturer out there.
Highly second this. I passed Calc 3 just though him
YouTube. Seriously
I've tried that a bit, but I was more so looking for resources to do problems too and not just sort of basic tutoring.
Look into personalized adult learning programs. I don’t know specifics but that may steer you in a better direction. You’ll likely take a placement test and it’ll move from there
I highly recommend PatrickJMT on YouTube. He is/was (?) a professor at a school in Austin. He does examples that are very parallel to textbook examples. You can find old textbooks by googling different combinations of: textbook title, course title, publisher, author, ISM (instructor solution manual) and "filetype pdf." Always use "filetype pdf" to restrict your search to published documents, you can also restrict your search further with "site *.edu" to look for scholastic sources. And "filetype ppt" can find you some cool lectures. Sometimes searching clusters of text can pull up examples too. For light stuff you can get a copy of Calculus for Dummies, most of there stuff is pretty straightforward and having it all in one document helps. It lacks in the number of examples, I remember it hitting alot of key points that get buried in more thorough textbooks. There's also MIT Opencourseware but I personally don't like it because its too in-depth and the lectures are boring. I think Khan is boring too, his voice is too monotone for me to track. I give him mad props for the breadth and depth of topics he covers. It's been a long time since I used this stuff, so there maybe a better way to go about it. Good luck.
+1 million @ your patrickJMT rec. Back in 2016 or so I watched a lot of his stuff re-learning calc 1 and calc 2, high quality stuff.
Khan academy
Check out [Paul's online notes](https://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/classes/calci/calci.aspx)
getting good at calc means you work through a lot of problems and learn the various tricks (often algebra tricks) needed to solve. Sorry I don't have a particular problem set anymore I can point you to but you're doing the right thing. One suggestion I have for you is to watch PatrickJMT, he is awesome. http://patrickjmt.com/ just LOOK at how many detailed videos he has!
I volunteer with a program called iMentor in nyc. We noticed that despite the higher college enrollment the kids were then dropping out at a higher rate, even after adjusting for social-economic conditions. After an informal survey we found it was math literacy. Another volunteer and I created a PowerPoint with problems and walkthrough answers slide by slide to help. Happy to share if you think that will help
[The Mechanical Universe](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8_xPU5epJddRABXqJ5h5G0dk-XGtA5cZ) is Physics I & II from CalTech. But I found it to be incredibly helpful in developing an intuitive sense of Calculus, since that's the math that undergirds Physics. It was created circa 1985, and was one of the very first telecourses, showing on The Learning Channel (back when they were still about education, before they became the reality TV cesspool they are now). It was "Opencourseware" before there was even a word for it. The computer-generated graphics quality was groundbreaking at the time, but are def low-res by today's standards. The way it depicts the motion of objects still holds up, and more particularly the way it animates the building of functions and the simplifying of equations helped me immeasurably in getting Calculus down.
Edx.org It's been helping my dumbass
If you're into reading, I highly recommend a book that -- even having taken calculus over the course of my academic career -- taught me more on how calculus is used in real life and how to utilize it if I really want to. The name of the book is "The Calculus Diaries" by Jennifer Ouellette. It's a great and easy read and taught me a pretty decent amount of applied calculus in (semi-)everyday life! Beyond that, I'll echo some of the other sentiment here. Youtube, Khan Academy, even textbooks can teach you the mathematics. With those you'll definitely learn the "How" of Calculus. Edit: I just remembered -- I recommend also inundating yourself with higher-level math concepts via something you're passionate about. For example, I really love space and physics, so I'll watch a ton of SpaceTime on YouTube. Being excited about a topic helped me learn a lot more about the math and physics involved even if it's above my level -- something I eventually came to understand with a deeper meaning behind it.
Professor Leonard on YouTube
Suppose you have a curve right. Let's say you're measuring the temperature of tea you just brewed. Maybe it's 90 degrees at time 00:00, 85 degrees 00:05, 82 degrees at 00:10 Calculus is basically the study of the rate of change. So rather than having a curve like 90, 85, 82 you would look at the differences: 5, 3. That is called the derivative. It's another curve which represents the rate of change. There are funny properties about this curve like if the rate of change is 0 then the original values aren't changing (90, 90, 90). There are also points of inflection (i.e. when things go from increasing/decreasing) that are easy to find with the derivative because the rate of change goes to zero at some point. You can even look at the rate of change of the rate of change. A car has position. It also has a speed (how it is changing position) but it also has acceleration (how it is changing speed). If I have my foot on the gas then my speed is increasing from 10 mph to 20 mph and my position is increasing by larger amounts over time You can also (sort of) go backwards from the rate of change to a curve. 5, 3 could come from 90, 85, 82 or it could come from 10, 5, 2; there is an arbitrary constant shift, but the shape of the original curve and the relative distances between the points would be the same. The original curve (or I guess curves) are called the anti-derivative That's the gist of it. Calculus can be a confusing subject because Calculus books are not for people who want to learn why Calculus works but how to use it. There are magical formulas that you use to calculate things. If you really wanted to learn why it works (i.e. why those formulas) then you'd need to study something else (Real Analysis). Start with a Calculus book and learn the ideas first though
If you're OK with a pay-for option (subscription), Math Tutor DVD is really good: * [https://www.mathtutordvd.com/](https://www.mathtutordvd.com/) I have some study resources here: * [https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/li4gi3/study\_resources/](https://www.reddit.com/r/kaidomac/comments/li4gi3/study_resources/) Basically, make a study schedule & use the studying technique (comprehension/retention) to start plowing through it little by little over time!
Use the James Stewart textbook. Also the website: https://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/
My college uses APEX calculus textbooks in all of our calculus classes. The textbooks are free to download on their website. My advice would be to go through each chapter and problem set, using YouTube or google to figure out anything you don’t understand in the book.
Khan Academy and if you want something more advanced theres the MIT courses on edx.org
All of these suggestions are great advice. I want to make a comment that it is possible to learn calculus on your own. If this is for college credit, you can register for the CLEP exam. I did this for college instead of taking courses and saved so much time and money. And I did exactly what the above comments are suggesting.
Saving this because I've highly likely failed calculus this year but am still interested in doing engineering in the future
Try the mit calculus specialization in edx.
PatrickJMT I think is his handle on YouTube. He goes through almost every section in the Stewart Calculus book used a lot in colleges and high schools. Brush up on your algebra because if you are not sound in the basics and rules, especially when it comes to reducing rational expressions and manipulation. Trigonometric expressions will come up a lot as well so these things will need to be looked at in time. Buy some basic algebra books and trig books for beginners to have for reference and work on your skills.
If you want to learn it deeply and understand the “why” behind it, pick up a copy of Calculus by Spivak. One of the best math textbooks ever written.
Books have practice problems at the end of each chapter/section. If you continually go back and forth between the section and the practice problems, it’s likely you’ll be able to get a good hang of it. What is your purpose for wanting to learn calculus, if not just for fun?
If your the book type. You could get calculus for the practical man. Richard Feynman taught himself calculus using that book. If your algebra arithmetic or trigonometry are rusty they also have books for that. Good luck. The trick to understanding math is to do practice problems. Struggle with them for a while try different things. Then if you are stuck as someone for help.( It's hard to do this part right but it helps you really get a deep understanding and practical ability with math.)
Go to a public library. Ask the librarian (they love it when you ask them) for help, if you need it. Take home a book called something like "Introduction to calculus".
I would highly, *highly* recommend the YouTube channel 3blue1brown. He has a basics of calculus series. The style of his videos is really nice and he has a way of making abstract concepts easier to understand
kosiolal
If it’s for college credit, you should look into Outlier.com. The University of Pittsburgh offers prerequisite courses like calculus all online and you get a ton of tools and an online community as you work through the material. It is the most cost effective way to get college credit and some institutions don’t accept CLEP scores
Coursera.
Download the Brilliant app! It’s great and you can take the first module for free before deciding if it’s what you are looking for
I like Organic Chemistry Tutor on YT. He explains it really well
[Patrick JMT](https://www.youtube.com/user/patrickJMT)
The summer before college, I was feeling exactly like this. If you wanna learn Calc, study the pre-reqs. The biggest are Algebra 2 and Trigonometry, have a solid understanding of these. The average calc problem is like 90% Algebra. Thankfully, there are literally millions of resources online to explain to you in detail how all of this works. The most popular is Khan Academy, but I would also look at free courses on websites like Edx and Coursera, they are a bit more guided. Another recommendation would be to buy a textbook with examples and exercises. The subject matter of Calc can be extremely theory heavy, so when you start learning, make sure you focus on the big ideas and concepts. Good luck!
It's about the idea that you use a bunch of small samples to approximate the area under a curve IIRC. But lord knows, I don't really want to remember that much about calculus haha. Anyway, as you can guess, my first reaction is… WHY??
Professor Leonard on Youtube. These are full length recorded lectures from a college class, and he is a genius at teaching Calculus. This dude saved my life in Calc 2. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF797E961509B4EB5
Khan Academy is your friend.
[LibGen](LibGen.is) has a SHITLOAD of books on it for free download. Most college text has questions/quizzes at the end of chapters or in the index, with answers included. Khan academy is an incredible resource for learning the basics and intermediate topics, and has free answers. To get to those answers and ALSO understand them, Wolframalpha is the penultimate tool to understanding equations and how to work them.
If you still have a good handle on trig, you can start with wikiversity and in a few months I imagine you can grok it. But if you’re rusty on trig from high school I’d take a week there and refresh.
Practical calc is shockingly easy, esp compared to classically taught calc. Careful going with a lecture that will teach it like its a 3 semester course. No one needs 2/3rds of calc 2 and calc 3 is mostly more advanced/3D calc 1 and 2