I'm a full-time adult college student taking 18 credit hours. Should I keep or drop calculus I?

Question

I'm actually a foreign language major (Spanish), and I my degree does not require calculus. I took pre-calculus about 4 years ago, and I made A's and B's, although that was at a community college and not a four-year college, like I'm currently attending. Today was the first day back to classes, and it didn't seem to hard, because alot of the material seemed to reflect a lot of what I had studied in Pre-calculus.

However, I'm somewhat worried about taking 18 credit hours. I'm afraid that doing so might take away from my time studying the area of my major, Spanish, which has been and continues being very challenging for me.

Should I just try and "stick it out" in Calculus I this semester, or should I drop it in order to focus on my major studies? I don't work, but it does take me a little bit longer to finish my homework because I tend to read at a somewhat slower pace than many of my fellow students.

Answer 1

If you don't have to take it why are you taking it. it seems like a waste of a credit to me and also a waste of time. if your getting challenged in spanish and not calculus you should spend more time on spanish and just drop calc.

Answer 2

A few years back, Chronicle of Higher Education ran an article about a research study: it found that students who took calc in college built math skills that did not erode very much over time, whereas people who didn't make it through calc forgot most of their math.

So it's a good course if you like the idea of cementing your skills--might come in handy should you decide to change career direction.

Otherwise, consider your college's regulations for withdrawing from a class. Most will let you go through at least part of the term before withdrawing without a grade--use that time to test drive.

Unless withdrawing now would get you a refund--in which case, how important is the money?

The other consideration would be if calc could be completed in another,easier semester.

Answer 3

The problem with taking calculus a few years after precalculus is that they expect you to remember all of the trigonometric functions and what happens to them when you perform various operations on them. Knowing - and I mean like total recall - these functions and results of operations on them can turn a nightmare calculus problem into a quick, simple operation.

Focus on your major studies. You can take calculus later, if you want, when you don't have so many other irons in the fire. But, you'll probably want to take precalc again beforehand if you do.

Answer 4

18 credit is a lot, especially in a University. Calculus is not joke, it is going to consume good amount of your time.