Best Calculus Videos?

[Psion]

This has been bugging me for a while, but I will start by saying this. I. HATE. Calculus.
There, I said it.


...OK, so that's not really shocking. Almost everyone hates calculus it seems. Personally, I feel like it is the pinnacle of everything the math departments do WRONG. They force you to memorize things by going into dry lectures, writing numbers on a blackboard and make you copy each problem until your head swims and you feel ready to scream. Then they tell you to go home, doing your homework, and to memorize about two dozen different formulas and equalities each test if not more, and to somehow do it in a prompt manner. (Seriously, my teacher gives us an hour and a half to solve about 15 calculus problems, and they're not all that short either.)

It's been bothering me for a while, but incidentally I've been watching a cooking show called "Good Eats" recently. I know, you think cooking shows are all about some cook making the occasional funny quip while showing you how to make a perfect truffle souffle or some such. But this wasn't like that. It was hilarious, cheap props, it was showing the history and science behind a dish or ingredient, and then showing you a few recipes based on said dish or ingredient while explaining how to make it and why you do the methods used, all while using a liberal dash of pop culture references, great acting, and hilariously bad props that probably cost them 5 dollars and a lot of ingenuity to make. I've learned more about cooking watching that show than anything else, including books, cooking classes, and my own personal experiences. Not only that, I've loved every minute of it, and it's gotten me into cooking again because I can see how my skills are improving drastically.

But then I see calculus videos, and they're all the same. Drab, maybe a teacher making a few funny comments, but just showing the same problems on the board, explaining a formula via proofs that you can't focus on long enough to make heads or tails of, and describing everything in terms of numbers instead of turning a math problem into a story that you can easily remember and enjoy. Some people might say it's impossible to turn math into an enjoyable story, to make it memorable, but I feel like this isn't right.

So I was hoping if anyone knew any math videos similar to the good eats style: hilarious enough that you would watch it on your free time, not because you must, because it's so great you view it as entertainment. And of course, at the same time, highly informational and easy to follow. I, and many other students who struggle at calculus, will thank you for it.

[Ddz]

The program that helped me the most was webassign.net, but I think your professor has to set up the curriculum inside of it. It gives problems similar to those in your textbook, and lets you opt to watch a narrative video of someone working through the problem as you follow along. khanacademy is also good.

I'll also add that in order to get good at math, you have do it every day. I did the webassign homework daily, and then the night before a test I did all of my textbook work along with going back to webassign to look at how a specific problem was worked out in case I forgot. I got a 95% in my last class and didn't have to take the final.

[Cadsuane]

There's two ways to learn calculus:

Engineering way: list out the problems that you're expected to be able to solve. Classify them, identify the methods used to solve each class, memorize those methods, apply them on the exam, and Pavlov's your uncle.

Math way: Abstract away from the problem until you can you can prove (and understand the proof for) general theorems that describe some central idea about the subject. Once the most general case is understood, specific cases become mostly trivial, and when they aren't, supplement with methods and more general theorems.

You'll notice I didn't list watching math sitcoms up there. There are no shortcuts to understanding, so you're going to have to stop being a little bitch, pick up a textbook, take careful lecture notes, and bleed through the exposition and supplementary exercises for hundreds of hours in pain and misery like everyone else with any technical skills in this world.

Additionally, discussions help. Have lots of those. Context is important, but you'll have to create your own, mostly by working through problems yourself, and then discussions with colleagues, and then more work.

[Slapper]

[Kononeko]

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/calculus

This is how I keep fresh on the maths and some other stuff.

[Psion]

I wont deny the use of khanacademy, but it's not what im looking for here. I already know of resources like that for helping with practice, but what I'm looking for is memorable videos that are entertaining and great for remembering with ease later on. The problem with math lectures is that their all quite dry and abstract, and they expect you to actually recall all their goddamn formulas later on in a test. But the typical route of doing over and over and over ad nauseum until it sticks is a terrible way to remember things. The brain does not WANT to remember things that don't have emotion attached to it, because otherwise you'd be filled with useless facts like how many songs you listened to that day and what you had for a boring breakfast three months ago. On the other hand, we can easily recall memorable days, whether the memory was good or bad.

An example of this is the quadratic formula. My math teacher in high school told us she'd give us an easy way to remember it, and proceeded to sing the formula to the tune of Frere Jacques, that old nursery rhyme. She then forced us to sing it with her, and when we mumbled it along, embarrassed, she forced us to sing it at the top of our lungs. This admittingly traumatic experience, none the less, worked. Ever since that day, i've not even had to look at the quadratic formula again, and can easily remember it from heart over 13 years later, if only because that horrifying memory is permanently scalded in my brain. This is just one example of how making lessons memorable and entertaining works far superior to anything else as far as retaining information goes, because your tying the lesson to your emotions, which tells your brain to store it for a good long time.

A friend made a joke when I asked him if he knew of any videos that fit this bill, because he couldnt understand how to make such lessons memorable. He said something along the lines of "what, you want the math teachers to cook pastries in the shape of the math formula?" But that's exactly what I want. I want teachers who go far above the average professor and don't just teach math, but make math fun. hilarious. memorable. Totally unexpected. Perhaps give a short comedy on famous mathematicians and how they came up with their formulas, not just show us the proof.

It just seems frustrating that every other field of science seems to have those occasional great professors and videos that make their lessons interesting...and then we have math.

[Fr34k]

One of my Calc professors showed us a youtube video of kids singing about the Quotient rule, similar to what you mentioned about the quadratic formula. This might help for that in particular, but like other people said it's not exactly about memorizing formulas it's knowing when and how to use them.

[Psion]

Knowing when and how to use them is no issue for me. It's the whole memorizing what feels like 30 different formulas each test is what kills me. And sadly, I already know the quotient rule song too, although my teacher taught it as a poem. "low d high minus high de low, square the bottom, and away you go". If it doesn't rhyme, you know you got the order reversed. lol

[quannum]

is this how they teach math now?

learning how to derive the formula yourself is what you should be doing. you don't need to memorize "6x7=42", just remember that its 6+6+6+6+6+6+6. im using mutliplication as an example, but as a learning strategy it works just as well for calculus since everything can go back to 1+1.

plugging numbers into a song is probably ok for getting an answer, but not for comprehension. .. you dont' need to learn FOIL if you can distribute and group like terms.

[BerenTebogo]

Step 1: Do your work
Step 2: Stop posting
Step 3: Learn math

[AoE]

I struggled with Math til I decided I was being a huge bitch about it and changed my attitude. I find the whole "I'm bad at Math" spiel usually really means "I have poor study skills" which is pretty commonplace with the way the American school system is going and not meant to be an insult. You tell someone they need to study a minimum of 10-15 hours a week and they look at you like you're the retarded one. Like people have said, there's no easy way. You need to practice to become any decent at it. The people who are good at it are good at it because they probably had excellent study skills as a kid, to the point that the concepts are easier for them to decipher, not because they're some math genius.

There are plenty of resources online for it that are excellent though. One of my favorites was Patrickjmt on Youtube. Great sound quality, explains what he's doing, and moves slow enough where you have no excuse for missing what he's doing unless he's using a previous concept that he explained in another video.

Also, as someone said, sometimes the problem is your fundamentals suck and you might have to go back to those to strengthen your skills. I know some people will bitch and say "Well I'll never need this in my daily life so why work this hard?" Well don't complain about being shitty at it if you're not willing to work for it.

[synistar]

Most calculus students have bad fundamentals. Going into calculus without a strong understanding in trigonometry really handicaps you. A good chunk is memorization, but after seeing patterns, you can fudge your way though some complicated stuff, like u-substitution integration, series and sequences, reimman sums & trap rule etc.

And there are some professors that just don't know how to teach. They get thrown into the lecture jobs as part of their contribution to the school while doing research. Namely I had this professor who sounded very effeminate and said differential equations are beautiful. So much rage.

And my high school calc teacher forced the entire class to write standards of 25 common derivatives and 25 integration to grind it into our minds that we have to know this. Getting one wrong was instant fail. It's just a bad grind but you gotta stick with it.

[Ddz]

If you practice math every day you will be good at math. It's really that simple.

[Quicklet]

Most calculus students have bad fundamentals. Going into calculus without a strong understanding in trigonometry really handicaps you. A good chunk is memorization, but after seeing patterns, you can fudge your way though some complicated stuff, like u-substitution integration, series and sequences, reimman sums & trap rule etc.

And there are some professors that just don't know how to teach. They get thrown into the lecture jobs as part of their contribution to the school while doing research. Namely I had this professor who sounded very effeminate and said differential equations are beautiful. So much rage.

And my high school calc teacher forced the entire class to write standards of 25 common derivatives and 25 integration to grind it into our minds that we have to know this. Getting one wrong was instant fail. It's just a bad grind but you gotta stick with it.

Very much this. You don't want to try to memorize everything, but practicing fundamentals and being able to perform basic steps instantly is crucial if you want to focus on the problems themselves and not have to mentally exert yourself on little steps. Chess is a good example. People who are really good at chess memorize all the beginning and ending scenarios so that they don't have to spend much time consciously thinking about those moves, they become automatic. Instead they're able to spend their energy on other parts of the game, like positioning or being able to think ahead an extra move or two.

Second, everyone's learning style is different, but I've found that most professors spend lecture time in science and (especially) math very inefficiently. Most videos are the same for me, personally. They serve as good previews/reviews of material but will not give you the benefit of practice.

Third, you may find it in your interest to devote a significant (~20% of what you spend on learning math on average but it can vary) amount of time to reviewing topics you feel you already know or are good at, or topics that are prerequisites for what you are trying to learn but you feel you need to improve. The problems will generally be easier, so you won't feel like it's as much work to go through this material, but the practice will be good for cultivating that "automatic" response when you need it for more difficult problems.

The hardest part to math is figuring out when you need to go back and review fundamentals. It might feel frustrating or backward to be reviewing algebra or trig when you're really trying to learn calculus, but making those basic steps automatic is what allows you to focus on the conceptual side of math and not so much the mechanics.

[Siralin]

What are you even having to memorize? If I recall correctly, there were very few things that needed to be memorized in calculus I to calculus III (Multi-variable, vector calculus, or whatever you want to call it) You've been struggling with this for a while as I remember you posting several semesters ago when I was in calculus I. Have you changed your study habits/anything since then?