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It's calculus, it's like a new level of mathematics so everything that we've seen so far in high
school and everything, it's just a step further so what we're really looking at is getting
maximums and minimums of some functions and all that with derivatives which is going to
be a lot easier to make instead of memorizing some crazy formulas. We're going to memorize
a lot of formulas in calculus but it's going to make a lot of the work in pre-cal a lot
easier. I struggled with algebra a lot and De la Lama is a really, he's hard teacher
but you have to be always on top of everything. So for example he throws in this crazy algebra,
you're like "whoa, where did this come from" or "how do I get here?" But you always have
to be with your mind quick like OK this is how you get it and if you're really strong
in algebra I think you should be really fine with this class. Preparing for each class,
probably like 5 hours a week and for homework that was like an extra 7 hours probably, something
like that. And I had other classes so I couldn't really make it, I would have really liked
to put more attention to this class but I couldn't because of the other classes. I saw
him a couple of times during office hours outside class. His class is really fast paced
- as I said before you have to be really on top of things and you have to be on top of
your algebra, basically. If you pay enough attention, because I wasn't really good in
algebra before I was in that class, so if you pay close attention to what he's doing,
you'll probably get right through. So all the homework and everything is like at this
level, medium level let's call it, then he assigns like a practice test, which is at
this level, now the test is going to be at this level. So he's going to expect a lot
of you and it's nothing compared to the homework so don't try to say like "oh well this is
the homework why isn't the test anything like the homework?" The final, well, the final
was hard. It's cumulative but at the same time calculus builds upon itself so whenever
you go up in calculus you're still using terms that you've used before so it's, My recommendation
is stay strong like the whole semester and you should be fine, fine for the final, and
keep good notes because in my case I had the chance to have an open notebook so whatever
was in my notes I was good to use in my practice final, and I had a mess I my notes so it wasn't
so good but I still pulled out an A, so I'm pretty proud of that. Be sure to make study
groups. They're going to help you a lot because not only that you do your homework you're
like pressured to keep doing your homework and all but you can share your ideas and try
to come up with different methods of solving problems and all of that. And tutors are actually
really good as well. BPR is a good way to keep yourself on top of things so that's another
good thing. Probably assigning a little bit more of time. I was taking other classes,
I mean they weren't that hard but still it was consuming my time and for De la Lama's
class I think that you want to allocate a lot of time for his class because although
it's really hard, you're going to come up really strong in your calculus which in your
later calculus classes come in pretty handy. Whenever you feel like you're not doing good
enough in the class, I always felt like that in De la Lama's class because I always had
like a question mark in my head, like what's going on here? But whenever you feel like
that just don't discourage yourself I mean many other people are, in that class, are
going to be the same way you are, and just try to give it your best, like keep your notes
clean, keep your study groups together.