Calculus Placement

Welcome to Colby and to the Department of Mathematics! We’re glad you’ll be joining us!  Before proceeding, please carefully read our information on our Calculus program and what kinds of Calculus certain majors require.

Also remember:

One of the biggest differences that you’ll likely encounter is that all of our calculus courses focus more on ideas and concepts than on routine calculations. This might be different from your experience of high school math classes, and it is a good thing! Computers can do the calculations for us, but we have to understand what we are asking them to calculate, why we might want to calculate something in the first place. Furthermore we need to be able to judge whether or not the answers we get are correct and useful. You should not expect to just sit down and get through a problem set in one burst. Both class time and homework are designed to make you percolate ideas, experiment with approaches, and to think hard!

Homework assignments will take much longer than before. This is by design! College classes move faster than high school classes. (The good news is that your whole daily schedule is completely different too!) The typical rule of thumb for College classes is that you should spend 2-3 hours on course material outside of class for each hour in class. Our classes meet approximately 4 hours per week, so that means you should be spending 8 – 12 hours outside of class on course material. Good part of that time will be spent on assignments. Be sure to talk with your professor about how to use that time effectively.

There is not enough space here to give full justice to this question, so we’ll just highlight the key points. You should attend class every day and participate. You should attend office hours and TA hours frequently. You should work with classmates on homework assignments. You should spend 8 – 12 hours per week outside of class studying and working on homework. You should ask your professor for advice on spending that time well. It is normal for students of all math backgrounds and abilities to spend a lot of time working on Calculus and to go to office hours and TA hours. Do not be afraid to make mistakes or say wrong things in front of others. Just as you wouldn’t shame someone else, they won’t shame you. (Or if they do, they should be ashamed!) If you do not attend office hours regularly, you are not making full use of the opportunities at Colby.

Generally speaking, if you take ownership of your education, work hard by yourself and with others, ask questions, and use your time efficiently, you are highly likely to succeed. We encourage you to be more focused on learning as much as you can, rather than grades. If you focus on learning and work to communicate clearly, the grades will likely come. Obsessing about grades is likely to harm your ability to focus on learning. That said, if you ever have a question about your grades or how you are doing in the course, don’t hesitate to speak with your instructor.

What about a tutor? Our experience has been that tutors are as likely to harm a student’s learning as they are to help. You are much better off working with classmates, making contributions as equitably as possible. You are also much better off attending office hours and TA hours to get help from those who know the class well. It is normal to struggle in Calculus. Those that don’t find math difficult, haven’t done it long enough!

It is very important, however, that your struggle is productive and that you are using your time efficiently. Productive struggle means reading the textbook, reviewing notes, trying a similar problem, trying various approaches, and sharing ideas with others. If you find yourself just staring at a math problem without having any idea how to do it, you should stop and ask yourself how you can make your struggle productive.

That said, a temporary tutor may be appropriate for some students in some circumstances, when a student finds themself at risk of failing or experiencing special needs, having exhausted the available avenues for help listed above. (Athletic and other extracurricular commitments must give way, if it comes to that, before a tutoring option can be exercised.) If you find yourself in this position, please do reach out to your professor and to your class dean to discuss your situation and to receive additional advice on how to succeed in Calculus and at Colby.

The Calculus Placement Questionnaire (you need to log into your Colby account to access the questionnaire).  If you have questions about placement that these pages don’t answer, please email your questions to the Mathematics department chair (Leo Livshits at [email protected]).

See you in the Fall!