Question

Can I realistically go from poor algebra skills to ready for precalculus in a little over 1 month?

Answer 1

I'm sorry for the harsh tone, but I think you need a bit of a kick in the pants.

It's definitely possible to succeed after failure, but it seems very unlikely that you will be one of the people who will pull through. You only failed this course a few months ago. You want to take an *even harder* version of that course that's accelerated. You openly admit that you don't even try to study. You downplay the importance of passing (failing a degree requirement twice is a lot more than a "bit of a problem"). You have significant gaps in your previous math education, stemming from years upon years of not studying or putting in effort. You have outlandish expectations to instantly be able to succeed and haven't given any consideration to the massive changes that you'll have to make in order to go from total failure to competent.

So no, this is not realistic for a student with your background and your approach. The best predictor of future performance is past performance. Unless you honestly decided "I'm going to fail this course on purpose" last semester, you need to make more of a change than "I'll really try this time". You need an entirely new approach, and nothing in your post demonstrates that you even have the awareness of what it takes to be successful in the class.

You haven't mentioned *any* concrete steps that you would be taking to enable to you succeed. No talk of going to office hours, hiring a tutor, finding study partners, setting a study schedule, completing banks of practice questions, remedial study to fill in the gaps, or any talk of actually taking responsibility for why you failed other than "being lazy". I get the impression that you think that all you need to do is "stop being lazy" but that you don't understand what effective studying actually looks like.

And remember - success here isn't scraping by with a C. If you're going to be able to even have a remote chance at passing Calc II you need to **master** algebra to the point where you can ace this course almost effortlessly. If you cannot do that, you are not going to graduate with a CS degree. End of story.

Answer 2

No man, no. I don't know you personally except for what you divulged in this post. I would think it would be close to impossible to very unlikely to "go from poor algebra skills to ready for precalculus in a little over 1 month." Even someone who is top in their class who wanted to get ahead and do this is pushing it. Not many people would retain that much information.

1. You admitted you are lazy

2. You just failed your latest math class

3. You never really liked math

4. You "barely trudged along" in your previous math classes

I very, very, seriously doubt that a lazy person who has a poor mathematical foundation, who doesn't enjoy math and didn't even try in their recent class and failed can get to understanding precalculus in a month.

Listen, I'm not saying don't try and give up. I'm saying, make some reasonable goals for yourself. You can learn mathematics if you really want to, just not in the time constraints that you've laid out.

Answer 3

Trying to find a shortcut is still, being lazy.

Answer 4

Taking an accelerated summer course can work out well if it's the only class you're taking and that one course can be 100% of your focus. It's got the benefit that you aren't splitting time trying to prioritize assignments and due dates for other classes... and you may be less likely to start procrastinating because you just dont even have the chance to slow down, the momentum just keeps going. You have to be ready to make the course your full time job and treat it as seriously as a job.

Answer 5

No. Don’t take it this summer.

Instead consider doing this:

You say you’re determined to change, so prove it to yourself.

Spend the summer learning algebra on your own. Use the free course available on Khan Academy, and self study through your textbook (assuming you already have it from the last time you took the class). Hopefully you kept your old class materials so you will know exactly what topics you need to cover.

Schedule the class for fall.

If: you actually spend the summer remediating your skills, then take the class. On the very first day of class, find out what resources are available and sign up for all of them. Sign up for a tutor, group study sessions, make a standing commitment to go to office hours, whatever is available. Even if you are confident you don’t need them. Utilizing those resources is a skill you also need to develop.

If however: you do not keep your commitment to self study this summer. Then change your major.

Remember too: it’s not all or nothing. Change takes time and progress is slow. You will not go from being a bad student to a great one overnight. It’s not a switch you can flip. Many people struggle with perfectionism or all or nothing mindsets. “Tomorrow, things will be different.” They won’t be. Reality is more of a grind. It’s boring and a struggle. It takes daily commitment. It’s like going to the gym- you can’t just go hard for 2 weeks and expect to go from out of shape couch potato to fitness model just like that. It doesn’t work that way. Instead you need to go for 30-60 minutes a day 3-6 days a week for months or even years and expect incremental progress. Oh, and do a bunch of stuff you never even considered like learn about nutrition. It sucks. It’s hard. It’s simple but it’s not easy. Learning is like that too. It’s a lifestyle change. It’s possible but it’s more than hard. It takes time and you have to carve a permanent place in your life for it. There are only so many hours in a day.

You should know: people who fail calc or precalc, don’t fail them because they can’t do the calc. They fail them because they can’t do the algebra. Algebra is the language and the grammar of math. Like grammar, a lot of people think it’s boring and don’t like it. But it doesn’t go away as you go on in math. It’s not a class you can squeak by and never need again. You wouldn’t move to France and expect to not have to learn French. It’s a requirement of living in the culture. Learn the language or reconsider your plan to move to the culture, or you’re gonna have a real bad time.

Math is boring and difficult for most people. You’re not special if it is for you, too. But if you decide it’s not for you, that’s okay too. There are many paths to success, and not all of them involve algebra or CS.

Answer 6

Others have already addressed the need for a paradigm shift in the way you’re thinking about this, so I won’t do that. What I can do is cover what it would take to actually accomplish this.

I was a similar kind of student when I was in high school. I never studied and I never got past algebra 1. A few years ago (I’m in my 30s) I finally got fed up with my lack of math skills and decided to do something about it. I had an explicit goal: to understand Calculus.

I went on Khan Academy and started from literal scratch, 1 + 1 = 2. I did every exercise and took every test, making sure I fully understood every concept. Once I got to algebra 1 I started watching every single video as well. I did that for every course up to Calculus 1. Algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, trigonometry, pre-calculus, and finally calculus 1.

All told it took me about 3 months from start to finish (completing Calculus 1). For algebra 1 to trigonometry (because you said you wanted to be able to take pre-calc), that took me about a month to a month and a half, so I know that that time frame is doable *with the right mindset*. Now here’s the kicker. I was pretty much spending 5 to 6 hours *every single day* on this during that time. Do you have the kind of drive, determination, and focus it will take to do that? If so, I think you can accomplish your goal.

And to prove that what I did works, and is worth your time, after those 3 months I took an actual Calculus 1 class at my local college and got an A. Just make sure that you’re taking the time to understand every concept, because up until Calculus at least, everything builds on top of the earlier subjects.

Answer 7

I am in the same boat in the "one month to git gud" thing. Following.
I'm doing the Algebra on Khan to get there.
My uni does it algebra -> linear -> precalc -> calc

Answer 8

The previous answers are spot on in my opinion so I will just add a pinch of salt to the injure. If you don’t like math Please, pretty please don’t chase a CS degree. Unlike what many internet… people wants you to believe, (good) CS is about math. I think I took around 10 calculus and calculus related courses in college, the rest were discrete math related.

Now, let me sweet things up: Math is not what you are struggling with right now… it is like saying architecture is about sticking briks together.

Do you want to find out if math is for you? Go and read a Morris Kline book on Math history

I would spend the month reading the book and finding out if my future lays there

Answer 9

No BS, Im going into an engineering field and found myself in the same boat in regards to my math abilities.

Advisor recommended I take a Math 94 and Math 99 classes during the summer to get me ready for "Advanced Algebra/Math 101" in the fall.

Not only were they online courses, they were accelerated/ 1 month long classes. New information and topics thrown at me daily with no time to properly absorb the previous days knowledge. I failed Math 94, in part because I was working full time on top of trying to "scrape by" math 94.

 Now I'll be spending the rest of the summer studying on Khan Academy because I'll be damned if math classes are the only thing holding me back from the degree I want.

Answer 10

I doubt it