Straigherline Calculus I

[FinancialWorld]

Has anyone taken Calculus I from straighterline yet? I'm trying to get a feel for what it's like. I took Accounting II (Managerial Accounting) and it only had 15 lessions. Calculus I has 39!:puke: Are these small lessons or is this just a really big course? I'm hoping to take Calculus I & II (when II comes out). Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks

[kester22]

Don't know about calculus but the courses I have taken have each had a corresponding unit exam except for College ALgebra, there were 15 lessons and 4 exams (4 or 5.) Each exam covered several lessons. 39 is a little steep i think.....I hope you get an answer, I could only imagine what that would do to my nerves.

[irnbru]

Has anyone taken Calculus I from straighterline yet? I'm trying to get a feel for what it's like. I took Accounting II (Managerial Accounting) and it only had 15 lessions. Calculus I has 39!:puke: Are these small lessons or is this just a really big course? I'm hoping to take Calculus I & II (when II comes out). Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks

Four unit exams worth 150 points each and a midterm and final exam, each worth 200 points. The syllabus only covers limits and differentiation (no integration) but it tends to some of the trickier problems. I rushed through the tests having passed UExcel calculus a couple of years ago and thinking it would be fine. Ended up barely scraping a pass, so if you're unfamiliar with the material it definitely pays to get familiar with the expected answer format/practice questions.

[FinancialWorld]

Thanks irnbru.

My highest math so far is precalculus (CLEP), so I don't have very much experience with Calculus. I studied calculus out of a high text book, but not much. Do you think I have much of a chance using just the course material? I really like math, so hopefully that will help me study. I didn't like straighterlins' format for accounting II. The crosswords and other stuff was really worthless IMHO. I hope this course doesn't have it.

[irnbru]

Thanks irnbru.

My highest math so far is precalculus (CLEP), so I don't have very much experience with Calculus. I studied calculus out of a high text book, but not much. Do you think I have much of a chance using just the course material? I really like math, so hopefully that will help me study. I didn't like straighterlins' format for accounting II. The crosswords and other stuff was really worthless IMHO. I hope this course doesn't have it.

No worries. You can definitely pass this course if you complement the course material with a basic calculus textbook. Unlike other straighterline courses, the teaching material actually marries up with the exam format. The teaching material is probably the best I've seen for any SL course; even better than English Composition.

The blackboard is actually used as such. Diagrams emerge along with examples under a verbal tuition. Each lesson finishes with example problems to practice with. If I'd bothered with half of the material, it would have been a much smoother ride - more speed, less haste. Definitely a self-contained course but get a basic calculus textbook for reinforcement/second perspective along with google for practice problems.

Do people actually use the crossword/card game teaching materials?

[FinancialWorld]

Once they come out with Calculus II, I plan on doing both of them and getting the By-One-Get-One-Free deal. If I can do both of them in about 4 weeks, then it should only cost about $140. Cheaper then doing 2 CLEPs. I know this would be tough because it took me almost 4 weeks to sloth through accounting II.

irnbru. I'm still kicking myself for wasting my time doing those cross words/cards and stuff.

[NAP]

..... Definitely a self-contained course but get a basic calculus textbook for reinforcement/second perspective along with google for practice problems.....

Hi Irnbru!

I want to be sure that I understand how thinks works:

StraighterLine lists 3 Calculus textbooks for this course. You are saying that all of the lessons, practice problems, and explanations are part of the online course, right? So I don't need to get any of these textbooks?

I did see this great review on another forum for one of them: Calculus

Since I haven't taken Calculus before, I will definitely consider getting it and something like Calculus for Dummies.

I just want to be sure that I am not missing something important by not getting 1 or all 3 books on the SL list.

Thank you for your help!

[irnbru]

Since I haven't taken Calculus before, I will definitely consider getting it and something like Calculus for Dummies.

The lessons go a good way to demonstrating fundamentals but you'll need a textbook to practice problems, reference trigonometric identities and standard derivatives and become familiar with methods.

For example, a lesson might cover the quotient rule for differentiation. It will then be followed by several problems to practice. But, you'll still need more practice in order to be familiar with applying it to all the trigonometric functions, maybe coupled with the chain rule with a logarithmic term in there.

It sounds complicated but it's very systematic. If you can understand the general principle the whole process gets dashed off and you just have to worry about putting the answer in the correct format which, if you do the practice problems like I should have, will be absolutely fine.

Best of luck!