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lm  ·  2901 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: An Axiomatic Approach to Algebra and Other Aspects of Life

Here, it's a little different:

Calc I:

- Limits

- Derivatives, antiderivatives for single-variable functions

- Riemann sums

- Basic integration, up to u-substitution

Calc II:

- Trigonometric substitutions

- Partial fraction decomposition; applications to integration

- Natural logarithm/Euler's constant

- Logarithmic differentiation

- L'hopital's rule

- Indefinite integrals

- Sequences & series

- Taylor series

- First-order ODEs

The most infuriating part of Calc II is that students are expected to be able to do basic convergence/divergence proofs for the series & sequences part without ever having learned how to write a proper proof in their lives. Grading those exams is painful because the class uses online math homework, so for many, the first time they have to write a proof for another human is on that exam. Each answer you have to read closely to see if they understand the ideas but can't explain them well or if they just wrote random words on the page.

So many students give up on that section since it's not well connected to any other material in the class and some of the concepts (especially the various remainder theorems) cannot easily be rotely applied to a problem.

And, yeah, "I can do this on a computer" does you no favors when you're trying to understand why some technique (even in another field of study) works, rather than just "oh I have this technique, let me apply it to some problems".

Anyway, you and I should be thankful that we've had something of a nonstandard education in math, and do our best to help others see what we see.