It's been a while since I last wrote. I have been busy studying but not writing about it. There's no good reason for me not writing, even when I have made little progress. I guess if I wrote about what I've been doing it would be repetitive.
I am starting Calculus on my own with no formal teacher or course. I am relying on three textbooks and video lessons. Still after starting Calculus a couple of weeks ago, I have not gotten that far because all three books start with pre-calculus. The only resource I have that starts with Calculus are the video lessons but they don't give me any homework exercises to practice.
Therefore here is my quandary: should I skip the precalculus and go right to calculus since I have 10 weeks worth precalc? Or should I glance over what the books have to say about precalculus just in case they shed light into how they will cover calculus?
I have been inclined to do the former and check out the preparation chapters. That means that I have studied the precursors of limits (slopes of secant lines) at least in three different ways. At least, each time I get the introduction to limits I understand them better.
My other quandary is with practice exercises, I want to get as much homework as I can but all my books only have the answers for the odd numbered items. That took me back to school. I remember being assigned odd numbered items at home for practice and even numbered items for hand in assignments. It always made me anxious when I could not check wether or not I had done the exercises well.
In high school, Mr. Quintero, our notorious but brilliant math teacher changed all that. He had no problem assigning odd numbered exercises to hand in. He realized the back of the book only gave us the answers, so he would put all the weight in the process. That way you could either get the exercise right and check the answer, or get it wrong and work through it to find out what happened. I found this approach far more effective and instructive.
Without a teacher's help, all I have is the answers provided by the book to know if I am right. I guess that is a trade off I'll have to work with.
What do you think?
