Calculus really isn’t all that hard, but it would be a lot easier if they would explain things in the right order.<\/p>\n
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As many of you know, I am teaching myself calculus. <\/a>There is a very good explanation for this, but it requires identity-undermining revelations. (Perhaps later.) Suffice it to say that I was on (ahead of, even) the usual math track until about age 14. For complicated reasons, it’s 100% technically accurate to say that I never set foot in a high school math class, and I only took one math class in undergrad, some boring abomination called “college algebra,” which seemed to be mostly about logarithms.<\/p>\n Well, in under two months, I’ll be needing math. Specifically, I’ll be needing calculus to survive the stats requirement in the a hyper-quantitative poli sci phd program. So over the last few months, I’ve been working on this little project.<\/p>\n I started out by trying to take an actual class, via a sneakily low-priced local adult education program. (Yay government subsidies.) Sadly, the instructor wasn’t very good, and, worse, the class was at 6 pm Monday nights about a half hour’s rush our drive away. Most people, even in the real world, could make a 6 pm class 30 minutes reverse-rush-hour drive from their office one night a week. Most people are not lawyers. After missing three classes in a row (including the midterm) I gave up the ghost. Thank you, practice of law, for forcing me to throw away the $400 I spent on tuition for that class. Literally, all I learned for my $400 was f(x+h) – f(x)\/h. That’s it. I didn’t even get to the power rule.<\/p>\n Fortunately, I got one good thing out of that class: a not unreasonable book<\/a>. It took me a while to delve into it. I first had to psychologically satisfy myself by buying three separate easy-tutorial books that I opened roughly twice each, and that I’ll probably donate to a library or something before I leave, since in all cases, they appear to be less clear and\/or less useful than an appropriately slow reading of the appropriate section in the actual textbook.<\/p>\n I did find something other than the textbook that was useful, however: the Teaching Company DVD series<\/a>. Michael Starbird, if you are reading this, you have only to say the word and I will gleefully have your babies. The DVDs aren’t very rigorous, and several of the 24 half-hour classes are fluff (I’m not bothering to listen to the last two), but it provides a broad-brush conceptual overview of the whole thing, so that when in the midst of a page full of functions, one has some notion of what it is that one is trying to flesh out. I really think the “one pass for broad overview, then a second for the gritty details” approach is the best way to learn this sort of thing.<\/p>\n