How to do well in math?

I'm currently taking AP Calculus BC, and I feel like I'm struggling a lot. I know I need to figure it out soon, because I don't want to drop it, but do you guys have any tips on how to be successful and do well?

Question

How to do well in math?

I'm currently taking AP Calculus BC, and I feel like I'm struggling a lot. I know I need to figure it out soon, because I don't want to drop it, but do you guys have any tips on how to be successful and do well?

anonymous · Answer

Study, do practice problems, understand the concepts and methods.

freckles · Answer

sometimes it takes more practice problems for certain sections to catch on
start on the easy one
when you accomplish those move to the medium ones

freckles · Answer

math is practice practice until your hand falls off

freckles · Answer

what types of problems do you think you struggle with?

anonymous · Answer

It's sort of a general thing, where I think I know what I'm doing in my homework, but I struggle in tests and such.

freckles · Answer

when i took calculus my professor didn't take up homework
but i had a general idea of what he was looking for and study those problems like the problems he was going to ask about.
i just kept doing them until i felt confident i could do it on a test.
I felt confident when I could do it without looking at the book's examples (recipes)

freckles · Answer

i used to do math that way.
i would have to follow examples
sometimes i would even have to do look up examples elsewhere to get a good idea of what was going on

freckles · Answer

i used those examples as recipes do another similar problems

freckles · Answer

i don't know if that will help you or not
it helped me because i struggled with what things meant in the past

freckles · Answer

for example chain rule
i had no idea what was going on there when i was a student

freckles · Answer

i had to get a good idea of what was going by looking at a lot of examples

freckles · Answer

and doing problems and comparing my answers to the back of the book or wherever the answers were

freckles · Answer

do you know wolfram?

freckles · Answer

http://www.wolframalpha.com/ this is a gold mine for calculus students

anonymous · Answer

I believe the most important thing is that you must understand the steps and learn your common derivatives. You can't practice the problems if you don't know which steps to take first. Google for "Common derivatives" and understand how to get the answer. Then after you get the hang of it start working on easy problems and then more difficult ones.

anonymous · Answer

Sorry! I was gone for a little while so I couldnt respond. THANK YOU ALL!!!