# How should I (a high school student) prepare for Calculus?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-a-high-school-student-prepare-for-calculus/674627>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 23, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-a-high-school-student-prepare-for-calculus/674627 "2013-11-23T17:16:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![LillieBarrera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@LillieBarrera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LillieBarrera)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-a-high-school-student-prepare-for-calculus/674627/21 "2013-12-02T05:34:58Z")

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There are some schools that required high school to take calculus, that’s why my cousin michelle told my brother to visit the [Admission-sevice.com](http://Admission-sevice.com) they are website that good in any mathematics problem. Try them too.

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**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-a-high-school-student-prepare-for-calculus/674627/22 "2013-12-02T23:54:27Z")

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Differential calculus is so much easier than the rest of high school math that I thought at first that our teacher was joking with us. Integral calculus gets a bit tricky is spots, but really it’s not that bad either.

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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-a-high-school-student-prepare-for-calculus/674627/23 "2013-12-03T21:44:32Z")

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Oh, and [here’s a thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=3429341) about Calculus from 10 years ago that I still read quotes from on the first day of class whenever I teach Calculus I.

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**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-a-high-school-student-prepare-for-calculus/674627/24 "2013-12-03T22:07:49Z")

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I didn’t see it explicitly mentioned, but do graphing/plotting of equations and functions on an x-y plane. Graph every equation you can think of, and try to get an intuition for what their graph looks like. Pay attention to where they cross axes, how they’re curved, where they go infinite (or seem to), etc.

e.g.

y=x^2  
y=x^3  
y=sin(x)  
y=tan(x)  
y=x^3+3x-5

Being comfortable with plots, graphs, and visualizing the shapes of functions is one of the most powerful skills you can develop. Future math, science, and statistics subjects depend heavily on the ability to translate data into visualizations.

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**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-i-a-high-school-student-prepare-for-calculus/674627/25 "2013-12-03T23:06:05Z")

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A strong understanding of [limits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_%28mathematics%29) is foundational to calculus.

Also, do all the homework problems–by hand.

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