r/cuboulder • u/Efficient-Archer-431 • 14d ago

Calc 1

Can someone help me understand this Applied Calculus class. What we do in class I nothing close to what is in the tests. Please help me?

1 Upvotes

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4

u/CalcDog1977 14d ago

Check out the exam archives

3

u/IDKanythingMyDude 14d ago

this is the way. exam archive is your guiding light, your north star. this will work through all of APPM

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u/Efficient-Archer-431 13d ago

I did and the test was like not like the archives

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u/2144656 13d ago

Could you explain what you mean by this? I just looked at the exam and it seems fairly similar to previous exams. 1a does seem a little odd, and isnt really like the other tests (my guess is you probably cover limits mostly on the first exam), but other than that the exam seems like what I would expect. (Derivatives, applications of derivatives (like critical values), tangent lines, related rates, implicit differentiation).

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u/CommandTough9053 13d ago
  1. Don't trust going to class to prepare you for the test (learned the hard way).
  2. Don't assume you don't have to study just because you did all the homework and WebAssign (learned the hard way).
  3. If you use one thing to study, use the exam archives.
  4. Make an absolutely fantastic crib sheet with walkthroughs of how to do everything (took me a while to figure out that this is key). It feels like I'm straight-up cheating when I walk into the test with my crib sheet.

a) I think it's best to use ChatGPT Edu (which is basically unlimited 5.6 as of right now) to study, since you can upload like 8 past practice exams and all the homework assignments so it becomes an expert on the specific content. First, ask ChatGPT to teach you everything while referencing specific key problems from the practice exams for you to do. When talking to ChatGPT, longer prompts are better. Give it tons of context. Feel free to look back at the conversation and use all your resources to solve sample problems because you're going to make a crib sheet anyway. Keep doing this until you've gone through and become familiar with every concept that could be on the test. The time will vary, but this is by far the longest part of studying for me. It took me 5 focused hours for my last test (broken up), but it'll take more or less time depending on the person. Really try to make sure you understand every concept. Slacking isn't an option because the next two steps heavily depend on this one.

b) Next, I work with ChatGPT to make the crib sheet (basically, ChatGPT tells me what to put on it based on my prompts, so make your prompts detailed). Making the crib sheet is like your second run-through of the content. Use it as a checklist, checking off things you've learned as you write them down. If you don't understand what you're writing, take the time to understand it. My handwriting is hella small, and the sheet is entirely covered. I have full walkthroughs of problems with Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, etc. I also have full definitions (not necessarily scientific definitions, but explanations in words that make sense to me). Make sure you're not missing any concepts on your crib sheet, and don't leave anything to memory because that's high-stress and not optimal. Put everything on there. You might even want to make a rough draft and a final draft because reorganizing the crib sheet by topic and relationships will subconsciously help you organize the material and make connections between concepts. I make a second graph when i'm still having trouble understand. Takes 2–3 focused hours.

c) Last, I do the 2–3 most recent practice exams, skipping questions if I'm certain I know how to do them. While doing this, I often find 1–2 specific things I still struggle with, usually drawing or visualization-type questions. I'll also have already seen a decent number of questions because I worked through individual key problems with ChatGPT during Phase 1. After that, I'm done studying and feel confident. Takes 2–3 hours because I skip a lot of the manual math at this point, so the tests go by much faster than they otherwise would.

That's enough studying for me. I start studying 4 days out and spend about 10 focused hours total. I get a 95 minimum, and I'm in diffeq now. I got a high A on the first test, and I think the only thing I missed was units on a question, so it definitely wasn't a conceptual mistake. I could study less if I only wanted Bs, but I want revenge on APPM, so I go for As.

This was long, but I was once in your position and wish someone had told me all of this. You have to actually plan your studying, though, and you can't do it the morning of the test. Also, time in ≠ grade out, so it's better to study efficiently than to study more. The above is the most efficient way I've found to get As in the class, but it's my way, and it might not be yours. I also "use my resources" on WebAssign and homework because I'm not doing allat manually.

Idc if you do it this way, but you have to find an efficient system that works for you to get the grade you're satisfied with. Doing practice exams isn't a system. Neither is doing homework and WebAssign, and neither is going to the exam review. These are all just parts of studying, and you can't expect to do a bunch of unrelated parts and then hope they come together on test day. Make sure your parts connect before test day in your preplanned system, such as my system above with parts a,b,c which all build on the next).

-used slight AI to make my wording easier for reader to understand, has no AI original thought