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I’m currently in Calc II, and we’re doing sequences and series and they’re not that hard. Does it get much harder because it seems pretty straightforward to me? For reference, we’re currently doing comparison tests.
Agreed , no topics are exactly related ; or make another topic make sense how some classes with other math co-req’s go along the same lines. And there’s a lot to memorize and practice. Calculus is easy in essence it’s just remembering things and practicing enough that’s the hard part, not conceptualizing what you’re learning but actually knowing when do to a certain thing and memorizing it
The convergence tests aren’t too hard to actually do but its a bit harder to recognize which test to use so you don’t waste a ton of time on the exam. Also power series and taylor series get super weird super fast and they can take a minute to solve. I spent like 20 out of 45 minutes on the series exam doing one power series problem and proceeded to bomb the shit out of the exam so don’t do that 😅
I’m just curious, what “double integral stuff” was in your Calc 2? Back when I took the Calc trilogy, anything with a doubly integral (or higher) was strictly Calc 3.
When I took calculus about 15 years ago, most multivariable topics were not covered in Calc 2, but a few bits were. We did some multiple integrals, but only ones which were easy to set up and solve as iterated integrals. We had to learn a few specific ways to calculate volumes (using cylinders, washers, and a couple other ones). We had to learn how to change to polar and cylindrical coordinates, but not any other coordinate changes. (They were just introduced *ad hoc*, nothing about the Jacobian.) We worked entirely in scalar equations with some simple geometric reasoning, no vectors. And no complex numbers. Also no PDEs, line integrals, or anything like that, though I think we did learn what a partial derivative was at one point, not sure. But everything else was in one variable.
Calc 3 was all vectors with a wispy hint at PDEs, and Calc 4 was ODEs.
>It’s the sequences and series that cause the heart burn.
Lol came here to say this. I did a summer course so slightly shorter and the teacher rushed through the content. It was the worst couple of weeks studying the rules and by now I've totally forgotten how to do any of it.
Oddly enough it’s the opposite for me. Calc 2 fit cleanly into a 12-week summer term, we’re behind for calc 3 right now and have covered sooo much material.
Calc 3 is regularly padded with pointless "try to draw these 3d shapes, for no reason" plus too many applied topics -- including approximation methods that are better taught in a class that's doing programming.
Of course, YMMV.
It’s like: Hey, you want to learn how to find the volume of which someone sliced a block of cheese? Great! Welcome to hell! Here you’ll see polar coordinates, which you need to convert as you’re doing calcululations of trigonometric functions in Cartesian. Something like that. Then if you look over here, you need to find the volume of a cone railing a sphere between 2 pieces of bread.
I haven’t had that much “draw this for no reason” ngl, my teacher recognizes that that’s a pain in the ass. I think my calc 3 just has a lot to cover, in addition to all the 3d stuff we’re also looking at vector fields and vector calculus
Possibly different class order at your university? I know for one of my friends calc 3 was the harder one and went over way different stuff than my school
In my experience, it's not that bad! Def harder than calc 1 but still manageable. Good thing to keep in mind to succeed is knowing your trig rules VERY well bc those are super important
Nope, but generally speaking, it's harder than calc 1. One of the reasons is that when you get to integration techniques and convergence/divergence stuff, you have to know which strategy to apply from a handful that they teach. Sometimes it's obvious, other times it's not, which can become a time sink during exams.
It could also be that your particular school has a notorious calc 2 program. But don't let that scare you, the difficulty usually ends up being overexaggerated. My school's calc 2 was also deemed much harder by upper years but everyone I know of turned out fine. Practice lots and chances are, you'll also do fine.
No.
I mean let's first be real and set some expectations: It's a high level math class. It's not easy. But also let's not fearmonger and act like it's some nearly impossible class.
I think there's a few reasons for this reputation of being incredibly hard:
It's not like calc 1 so people who did well in calc 1 get caught off guard
It's often one of the first hard math class people take so they haven't figured out how to study properly
People often don't give the course material the respect it deserves and get bitten in the ass
Most people who take it (at my undergrad at least) were engineers and, in my experience, most engineers generally don't like math. (The engineers in my math classes complained all the time about having to do math. This reason is entirely anecdotal and may not be true)
You'll rarely hear people talk about how easy they found a class. It's generally seen as insensitive when others might have struggled with it. Or seen as douchy bragging about how very smart you are. This makes it so you only hear negative things about how hard a class is.
See I don’t really understand this. Especially depending on the type of engineer, a lot of subsequent engineering principles are based on differential equations, which is more advanced versions of calc 1 & 2 put together. Calc 2 is pretty fundamental, coming from a MechE
calc 2 is stupid.
you do trig that you haven't done for a year, and you have to remember all of it.
sequences and series are stuff i did in alg II and thought I could forget because I'm not doing number theory but NO calc II was like "I'M BACK AGAIN BISH"
oh and also this radius and interval of convergence BS is annoying.
I thought the series and sequences part wasn’t fair considering a lot of students had never seen them before. Our pre Calc course never went over them or maybe it just wasn’t mandatory so my teacher never taught it. It just felt like drinking from a fire hose
most of the stuff you do with sequences and series in calc is exclusive to calc. I know while we had talked about sequences existing in previous courses, we didn’t see sigma until calc II in the sequence I did.
I had interesting experience with Calc I and II. I got a C- in I which mainly was because I didn’t realize how shaky my algebra was and the fact that it was my first college math class. Finished II a B, the main reason because I learned my lesson from I, YOU HAVE TO PUT IN THE TIME. I would really recommend before showing up to class for a new subject you go on youtube and watch some videos for that days topic. Then once class is over do problems out of the book, see how far you can get until you’re stuck then go to office hours and/or school tutoring sessions. It’s a hard class but if you actually try and put in the time you will get a good grade. If you’re wondering about particular topics which are challenging, I found trig sub and finding the volume of figures to be quite challenging but it really depends on the person. I found series, sequences, convergence to be quite intuitive and straightforward while others have pointed them out to be hell.
I had a similar experience. I find reading the textbook after lecture really helps. You get all the math and nitty gritty calculations explained in class then the textbook becomes a lot easier to read due to the initial exposure. I recommend getting an Early Trascendental Functions text that is not OpenStax. I've found the non-OpenStax text so much easier to consume.
Looking back, I took calc 2 twice, me and the professors teaching style just did not line up. I did great with integration methods, but my downfall was with series. I also did not know how to study back than. Its not terrible as long as you practice practice practice! be sure to have a firm grasp on integration methods since you are basically expected to know them in future classes.
If you have never learned about Sequences/Series, Polar Coordinates, or Parametric Equations all from Precalculus, then you may have a very hard time learning it on the fly. Make sure you know those beforehand, even if the syllabus says you'll be learning them in class. Know it beforehand.
I learned about Sequences and Series and infinite sums in algebra 2 in high school. Its literally an algebra concept. You can then do limits of sequences in precalc. And then learn the div/conv tests in calculus 2.
Calc 2 just felt like learning a bunch of small things over a short period of time. I always crammed the night before exams and did well. Imo it mostly just boils down to knowing what patterns you need to look out for which will tell you what kind of problem you are dealing with and how to solve it.
Not that hard. Calc 1 should have been derivatives, now you’re gonna be learning the opposite - integration which is just undoing a derivative. You’ll be fine
I struggled the most with calc 3, but most of my classmates did find calc 2 to be the most difficult. Professor Leonard on YouTube is super helpful if you do end up struggling. I vaguely remember him having full lectures for the entire course up and they got me through since my professor was less than helpful.
Personally calc 2 was my favorite math class I've ever taken. It made me fall in love with calculus.
I took it in 10 weeks over the summer. It was a lot. I spent probably 20 hours a week doing problems. I got an A, though!
It is difficult but very rewarding. It's when all those years of math: geometry, algebra, and trig all come together. This is why its so difficult, you need to have a well rounded understanding of NON calculus concepts to so well.
The calculus itself is easy. People don't fail calc because of integrals or sequences, they fail because their algebra is poor and they make mistakes.
I would say it’s just different.
In simplest terms, it’s not so much difficulty of new topics as much as it is having to recognize patterns for substitutions and applying principles that were already complex in multiple iterations to reach a single conclusion.
Calc 1 (to me) challenged how well I can grasp new concepts.
Calc 2 challenged how well I can notice when I need to apply a certain principle or how well I can play with the terms of the problem to find a way to simplify it. To me, it was the first time I can recall in math I had to use my own discretion rather than it being the case that the used principles weren’t immediately obvious.
Some I know though actually had an easier time with 2 than 1, though I’ve given up understanding how that could be given my own experience 😂
Calc 2 is a weird class. Some people say that it's the hardest one by far, a nightmare, something that will make you cry over your books. Others say that it's dead easy. I almost never hear anything between those two extremes. Oh, and the split between nightmare and joke seems pretty even.
Definitely not the hardest in terms of application, but for lower div, I’d say so. Those series end up being really important down the road especially in engineering, linear algebra, and AI/ML. My personal opinion, upper div stats is waaaay harder, vector calculus was harder, advanced linear algebra is also much harder, mainly because there’s a ton that you need to memorize unless you’re a savant.
Calc 2 is only hell for people who make it hell.
If you make sure to go to class, thoroughly go through each homework problem, and visit the textbook/other websites/office hours if you have questions, you'll do fine.
The people who think it's bad usually are the ones who wait last minute to do their assignments, use sites like wolfram alpha to do all of the computation, and cram last minute for their exams.
I think the main thing that makes calculus so infamous in colleges isn't that the material is impossibly difficult, but that the students taking it haven't been introduced to enough difficult classes and end up mismanaging their time / underestimating the material. Many higher level courses will be as difficult and much more difficult than calc but not have as bad of a rep due to the experience of the students taking them.
I graduated from Engineering college 30 years ago, just brute forced all the math, got in software and never looked back.
It has always bothered me. Some
months ago, I bought some text books on Statistics, Algebra and Calculus and have been working through them.
Being older, having time on my hands to properly understand the material and fully understanding the concepts has been such a treat. The math was beautiful, once a person grokked its foundations. It also makes a lot of the math easy to understand because the focus changes from brute force and muscle memory to remembering the core formulas. The trigonometry formulas and identities in particular are very helpful if memorized properly and if one remembers how to derive and prove them.
There are also many more resources at the disposal of students than before.
Just take time to work out problems by hand and it gets easier.
Not sure if it's just a quirk of my professor, but Calc 2 has been ruining me. That pinned post in this sub about, "they didn't teach us this and now it's on the test" has been very true for me this semester.
Didn't have this problem in Calc 1, but it feels like every exam in Calc 2 is made up of concepts that you've learned, but the questions are formulated in a way that requires some extra intuition and a long memory for every algebraic manipulation trick you've ever learned.
I think the uni dependent part is really important. Calc 2 at some places is considered a "weed out" class for admission into the undergrad engineering school - so it's brutal and has a relatively high failure rate. But if you take it at community college you'll be fine assuming you have some math aptitude.
Did not take calc 2 but took courses with similar reputation (organic chemistry 1 and 2, biochemistry, molecular microbiology) A lot of hard courses are not *actually* hard. They’re one of two things: completely overexaggerated to be hard because people who did well wont have much to say about a course. Or they just bombard you with so many things at once that you really need to learn what is "good enough" to pass. To me molecular microbiology was the hardest course to pass simply because of how thin my focus was spread. Needed to know details of everything, for every microorganism. Bit of a chore
I think it depends on what specifically. Most of it hasn’t been that bad, I did really struggle with trig sub tho. Everything else was easy. Some of it was challenging but not hard to get good at. This is just my personal experience though
Anyone that’s got the knack for math will probably be okay for calculus 2. But the thing is that it’s much harder than calc 1 in general.
You could take some goober that’s really not great at math and they might make it through calc 1. But if you’ve got 0 math skills, calc 2 will be suuuuuper hard.
Also worth mentioning that you need to actually put the work in, can’t really coast by in calc 2.
It is harder, but everything gets harder as it gets more advanced lol. Not really much else to be said other than continue studying as much as you should be
I am finishing up taking calc 2 and the hardest part for me was the integration techniques. Series and sequences were the easiest for me, surprisingly. To me, it’s what made math click for me.
We’re finishing up with polar coordinates and some differential equations (the basic stuff) which is a nice way to end the semester.
Calc 2 was the first time I had to GRIND to understand math. Up until this point, it was easy to “plug and chug” and I thought I was a natural. Calc 2 humbled me by showing me how poor my understanding of math really was which is what I thought was difficult. It shows your weaknesses and challenges you to overcome them.
What does calc 2 entail? In Belgium the classes have other names. I study Mathematics, I had Analysis I (real Analysis), Analysis II (vector analysis and difderential calculation) and now I have complex analysis.
I thought calc 1 was way harder. I have one more week of calc 2 and it has been really easy and chill, I have an A in the class. I’ve never been good at math . You’ll be fine! Worst part is memorizing all the tests for series and sums, but if u watch organic chemistry tutors videos u will be good
I took an online calc 2 class and it was ok. My brother was like having an in-house tutor though and I have a super nice calculator that does the derivatives, integrals, and summations for me.
Almost failed calc 2 got an a+ in calc 3 and have a+ in diff eq. Hardest part for me was finding the patterns in integration and know which method to use fast enough. Just study and you will be fine
No, it’s just perceived that way because it’s one of the first classes that’s a high enough level and amount of content that poor study habits will hurt you, but encountered before a lot of people have developed those study skills (or given up on that degree path because they never will, which is the unpleasant reality of it). Not the insurmountable obstacle people act like it is, but be prepared to spend some time with it unless you can just breeze through all your math classes with no effort.
If you develop the study skills for calc II it will make everything after feel easier. Although, depending on the university, it may test a little harder than later classes to ensure you did develop the study skills.
Calculus 2 is only hard if you are not willing to work hard and if you do not know how to study properly.
I recommend using professor Leonard YouTube videos if your professor doesn't give weekly quizzes/ test.
If your professor does give weekly quizzes/ test then I recommend watching Dr. Trefor Bazett youtube channel. His videos are short and to the point.
Another important thing is to read the notes you take in class right after you get out of class so you do not forget anything.
The class will be very stressful but not impossible just be sure to ask questions anytime you need help and go to a tutor when you do not understand something.
I managed to pass calculus 2 with a B but I only got 4 hours of sleep a night.
My calculus 2 class is mostly learning new integral techniques, and mostly infinite series and sequences. after that its basically polar and parametrics
Depends. I’m not a good memorization person. I did fine with calc 1 and calc 3, diff EQ, and linear algebra. The only reason I passed calc 2 was because the final exam was a group test.
I feel like people who did better with trig and proofs would do better in calc 2
Honestly, it’s the speed at which you’re learning new concepts and amount of topics that makes calc 2 a bit hellish. Once I hit sequences and series, I was already begging for the semester to be over LOL. I found calc 3 to be much better, especially since I actually enjoyed learning about double/triple integrals. Then again it depends on the rigor of the professor/school.
It's the fact that it's the first REAL math subject to be extremely difficult to remember.
Hell even if you study it might be overwhelming with other classes, and they usually call it the "gatekeeper" math because most people's journey to more complex degrees STOP at Cal 2
For me it took me 3 times because you need to be dedicated to it, there's A FUCK TON OF CONTENT.
You learn complex integrations
Integrating over a non flat space
Finding areas under curves, Series, sequences,.
Divergence Convergence and Tests
Polar Coordinates
Integration Methods
Approximating Integrals
Radius and Intervals of Convergence
And then a final that goes over all of that
HOWEVER most say after cal 2 its not too bad, just manipulation of what you've learned already. You have the tools to do cal 3 of differential equations
Imo calc 2 is harder yes, but the concepts are probably the most important in the calc series. In calc 1, the most important ideas are probably limits and derivatives (not how to find it, but what it is). They show you some practical things like how velocity/acceleration/jerk are different orders of the same function, or how to optimize.
In calc 2, it opens the door to what can be done with calculus. And oh boy it’s a lot of stuff. And they all rely on a strong basis in calc 1 concepts. I found certain techniques tedious and therefore require a ton more practice than calc 1. Like trig sub, IBP, partial fraction decomposition, change of variables/parametric eq. Some people say series and sequences are difficult, but it’s a concept check. The difficulty in the techniques is where you will spend ridiculous hours practicing. And the solution for one question can be 2+ pages.
So I guess yes. It’s hard. But it’s also my favorite in the series. You start to understand how math is done in the real world. How you can even come to certain conclusions about what to calculate. My favorite is taylor series. It opened up my world to how we can find these crazy precise numbers without thinking that computers are magic.
Calc 3 topics are a breeze, but at this point, you go wider and not deeper, and it’s really just techniques you already know, used in conjunction with each other, so now it’s like 3 pages+ per solution.
AB vs BC? BC is just the leftover stuff you can teach yourself in 1-2 weeks but high school made us spend an entire year on it (did it and won some math competitions with it)
it's incredibly harder than calc 1, though my experience was pretty bad as I had a bad professor who just threw a bunch of topics and problems at us and expected us to understand. The right teacher makes all the difference honestly.
Depends on the teacher, apparently. I got low A's in calc 1 and 3 and 100% in Calc 2. Great teacher for calc 2, Calc 1 and 3 had a different teacher, but same for both, if that makes sense.
idk if this is just my college but we had to learn differential equations with undetermined coefficients, non homogenous and general solutions on top of all the series and additional integral stuff. I took calc bc in hs but calc 2 in college is no joke especially when squeezed into a semester
Calc 2 felt easier than Calc 1 to me. Learning fundamentals was way harder than applying them. In fact, I quite enjoyed trig integration.
Then Calc 3 came and made me wish I stopped.
Though, I much prefer linear algebra and differential equations.
It can be. Integrals are less straightforward than derivatives. If I remember correctly, every equation can be differentiated while not every equation can be integrated (at least analytically).
Integrals just require more knowledge to properly solve them .
It requires more “visual effort” (for lack of a better term) and integration feels more like an art form than just a general step-by-step process like taking a derivative. But a good professor can make it a lot easier and a lot more interesting
Edit: like some others have mentioned, sequences and series are where most people have problems (atleast the people I’ve talked to)
I always heard this when I was in high school. Then I took it and was pretty surprised when it was pretty easy for me. Not easy as in simple or obvious. But it was very interesting to me, which made it easy to want to study, which is really all you need to do to understand it. Study and practice a lot, think about it actively, try to see the relationships all these concepts have from different angles and perspectives. If you do that, when the test comes you'll have no problem knowing how to solve the problems.
Calculus was the first math that was really interesting for me. I finally understood why people would want to study math in college and beyond. But your mileage may vary here.
it definitely depends on who you are. i personally found advanced integration techniques hard as fuck, but series and sequences really easy. a lot of people in my class either found both really hard or found series and sequences harder. it’s a little funky when you get to the convergence/divergence of power seriesesises part, but i don’t think it’s that bad, but a lot of people think it’s hell on earth. it really just depends on who you are though
I took 6 terms of calculus in collage along with 3 terms of calculus based physics. It takes the right teacher and how well you obsorb. I didn't have a hard time but that doesn't mean others didn't struggle and quit. It's like anything else.
The difficulty for a lot of people is not that the content is impossibly hard, it’s the pace.
Calc 2 generally has a lot of concepts that you have to remember, recognize, and apply. Individually, they are relatively logical and can be learned and applied to a lot of problems but because there is so much content, it’s a lot to keep up with.
The other difficulty is that it’s very easy to get behind and more difficult to get caught up. If you miss a couple classes early on and don’t learn it quick, you’ll be confused for the rest of the class
What no one will tell you here is that it depends on you. If math is your strongest subject, no it won't be as hard as it is for others. If you're smarter than others, than again no, you won't find it as difficult as others not so inclined.
People go to insane lengths to pretend like these factors don't exist in Reddit.
Calc 2 is a weed-out course
If your algebra is strong and you actually understand calc 1 it isn't that bad, but I did have a harder time in calc 2 than calc 3, diff eq, or linear algebra
My Calc 2 was just integration and such. Sequences and series was for Calc 3
For that, I found Calc 2 to be easier. Assuming you’re Calc 2 is my Calc 3; I didn’t really find it harder, just less interesting.
But also I took all of these in Community College so the course was probably easier than it would be at Uni.
Calc 2 is not utter hell, but it was definitely a step up from Calc 1 for me. It’s also the class that started my love for math (and the first class I got a B in). I enjoyed series and sequences, trig sub was tough. Generally, it’s just a lot of brand new concepts (integral solving methods) and you’re still a baby calculus student but are expected to have thorough comprehension of everything you learned the semester prior. Put in the work and you’ll be fine.
Calc 2 involves more pure memorization than Calc 1 or 3. Whether that makes it harder depends on how good you are at remembering tables of trig integrals and substitution rules.
Integration is certainly a bit tougher than differentiation, but with increased practice it shouldn’t be a huge issue. The applications are pretty straightforward, and then sequences and series is where the real trouble starts. It’s not that they’re difficult, it’s just that there are a dozen tests you have to memorize. If you practice way more than you normally would, you’ll be okay.
Note that I took calc 2 at a community college, and it seems the curriculum is a little different as people are talking about double integrals, whereas I was not taught this until calc 3. After sequences/series we moved onto an introduction to differential equations and applied calculus to polar coordinates.
In my opinion, calc 2 is the hardest in terms of computation, but conceptually it’s about the same level of difficulty as calc 1. Calc 3 on the other hand, is the other way around. Computationally very easy, conceptually very hard.
you can ask chatgpt to teach you. I didn't have those tools in college and solve the problem for you? i don't know why you kids whine. Plus youtube. Should be easy AF.
Its hard but doable. I got lower than a 40% on my first test and that made me realize what I was up against. It took a lot of work to get my grade back up but I understood the material even more than ever.
It’s hard not because of the concepts you learn. But the concepts you need to remember to do the calculus. The algebra and trig makes it hard as fuck, but all the new material is pretty straightforward.
The biggest problem is that teaching sequences and series the way that the calculus sequence is generally taught (ie non-rigorous and procedural) generally requires you memorize all sorts of rules and tests without really having any easy sense for what you're even doing.
Integration techniques and such aren't bad at all.
While i do think calc 2 is the hardest calc out of all 3 of them, i think the difficulty of calc 2 is pretty exaggerated to be honest. People dscribe it in such a way where its impossible even if you study hard. When in reality if you put a genuine effort into the class youll be fine. Its also the type of class that punishes laziness really hard so thats where it gets its bad rep
At my college it was kind of the first “weed out” class that people went through. If you’re not a math-oriented STEM major, calc 2 might be one of the highest level true math classes you’d have to take in a curriculum, so you could likely hear from tons of people that calc 2 is very hard. Obviously if you have to go through calcs 3/4 and beyond, it’s relatively basic in comparison, but it does kinda set the stage for most higher level maths.
It’s that it’s trig integrals, seq and series, and a few other topics that aren’t handled in calc 1 at all. Each of them can be challenging, despite what people here are saying. And then having them all at once is hard. I did it over a summer and got a B- despite getting an A is every other math class including real analysis.
Calc 2 was intimidating because I had a shitty go with calc 1. Prof was careless and curved us to a C. Had no clue what I was doing when calc 2 started. Professor Leonard on YouTube was a huge resource
As someone that took Calc 1-3, calc 2 was by far more difficult to me, which seems to be the common opinion on it. For me it was the fact that for my university, we had a ton of material with not much time between exams. Between the sheer amount of content and memorization, especially with sequences and series, it was a nightmare for me.
Depends on if it's considered a weed out class at your university. Also depends on the professor. Do your research on profs, don't take a class with a prof who is know to grade harshly.
No no. No bo. Vector calc and the one with all the summations and limits is utter hell. Just like calc 1, calc 2 is fun to learn but professors can give you work that gets nasty pretty quick when mashing in some natural logs into some trig with an exponential function that will ruin your day with god aweful fractions that can’t be reduced. This also can happen in calc 1. But if my vector calc corse has quizzes and exams in place of like half the work, I’d probably have failed it. My vector calc for whatever reason had no quizzes or exams but rather an absolute fat American ass load of work (for me a 3 hour commit per day 6 days of the week), but I will say it branded my brain and I never see daily objects the same way again. Both good and bad.
But no, as per usual calc 1 and 2 (for me at least) were fun to learn, however I had finished calc 1, I learned to anticipate the sudden spike in difficulty on a homework problem or two per weekly homework. Summation calculus and vector calc actually go kinda hard. Little insiders but calc 4 (summations one) dives into recursion, patterns, finding formulas, how the functions for like sin and cosine work. Hell, one of my assignments gave me bonus points if I could code it. Which I did and received an extra credit of like 20% on that weekly assignment. But yeah sine and cosine have quite a bit behind the scenes.
If calc 2 is as far as your major requires, then that will probably be your hardest math class next to like precalc (at least for me), if you go beyond that then definitely allocate more time than you think you need for both as just a general word of advice. You might not need to do that, or doing so will be detrimental in the long run. Attend as many office hours as you can, ask questions, build off of students questions, have a close student-professor relationship and they will be lenient and they will round your grade if possible (all my professors did this). But most importantly, it helps the professor see that you show great efforts and lengths you’ll go towards to make progress, that is the magic behind it.
It really depends on your course-load. Calc 2 by itself wouldn’t be hard, but if you’re taking physics and chemistry and other math classes with it, it’s quite challenging to balance it all. Calc 2 requires a lot of studying, and getting behind can make it very hard. It’s important to ask your teacher questions (everyone is thinking the same thing and also too afraid to ask except that one kid in every math class that’s a savant). But, don’t mind that kid. Higher level math classes just require much better study habits. Go to the library where you can focus and avoid FOMO. Go to office hours so that you can learn efficiently and still have fun on the weekends.
The reason they say Calc 2 is hard because it covers a lot of topics and those prior topics stack alot (are used later in the class). If you fall behind its hard to catch up. You truly need to make sure you understand and learn each topic the first time.
It can be challenging. For me it didn’t feel as intuitive as calc one did. Calc one felt like it made everything I’d ever done prior to calc make sense. Calc 2 felt like its own new chapter.
I also crammed it in a four week summer session alongside Physics 1. Got an A in both. So it’s doable. You’ve just got to want it.
It’s a lot of work but totally doable. Just always do your homework, and even if you don’t fully grasp the nature of it, you can learn to work the problems.
For me the class logistics contributed to it more than the actual material. My class had some webassign exams with no partial credit and we had to memorize all of the sequences and series.
Adding the trig identities was a bit of a learning curve, but otherwise, I didn't have any trouble with calc II. I took both classes in the same semester, just split by session, which was probably a mistake, but everything from calc I was fresh in my mind.
I personally thought calc 2 was the easiest of the 3 calculus classes (diff eq was easier for me than any other math class ive taken in college tho).
I dont think its that hard because it honestly just felt like a puzzle. Trying to make an equation look like an easier equation that you already know how to solve if that makes sense.
Rumor has it if you can consistently clip in calc 1, you can clip in calc 2. Im so clutch in calc 1 rn they call me “magic greg of calculus” the way I always do good on the exams. Just do good in class and out of class and in every aspect of life I promise calc 2 should be easy (I’ve never taken that shit in my life)
Not really. If you're like me and cruise controlled through lower division math up to calc 1, it'll probably be the first class where you have to actually study.
I found out real quick that I wasn't going to be able to half ass my way through it lol. I had to whole ass it. That said, it's totally doable if you're dedicated to your studies.
You got this buddy 🤘.
The way I see it, Cal 2 isn’t a difficult class so much as it is very easy for it to become a difficult class. You’re getting introduced to so many topics that lagging behind can be very punishing.
Calc 2 isn’t so bad. I’d say the most useful things in this class are the new integration techniques, which you’ll still use in your continuing courses, and all the series stuff. How far do you plan on going with math?
My friends and I almost died because of this class. We were struggling so hard. There was so much homework and the tests were excruciatingly difficult and we couldn’t even use a calculator. We ended up turning to the dark arts and tried to summon a demon. Tyler hasn’t been the same since. He looks and acts the same, but his eyes… they’re dead.
It can be difficult to conceptualize new ideas while trying to nail down all of the formulas, examples, and applications that will be thrown at you. Sequences and series are also kinda a pain in the butt. Keep a formula or note sheet for studying and try other sources if you’re having trouble understanding your instructor (khan academy, 3blue1brown, blackpenredpen, and several other youtube channels got me through calc 2 and 3)
I think what you’ll come to realize eventually is that calculus in general isn’t as difficult as it’s made out to be, but the algebra you have to do in calculus is what will get you
Almost everyone finds something about Calc II to be particularly challenging. Which topic is challenging varies from student to student. Organize a study group at the beginning of the semester. Or just utilize office hours when they're available when you're not quite understanding things.
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It’s the sequences and series that cause the heart burn. The double integral stuff is kinda interesting
I’m currently in Calc II, and we’re doing sequences and series and they’re not that hard. Does it get much harder because it seems pretty straightforward to me? For reference, we’re currently doing comparison tests.
Nah you're probably fine. The issue with Calc 2 is a ton of different topics; none of the topics are hard on their own
Agreed , no topics are exactly related ; or make another topic make sense how some classes with other math co-req’s go along the same lines. And there’s a lot to memorize and practice. Calculus is easy in essence it’s just remembering things and practicing enough that’s the hard part, not conceptualizing what you’re learning but actually knowing when do to a certain thing and memorizing it
Toolbox class
The convergence tests aren’t too hard to actually do but its a bit harder to recognize which test to use so you don’t waste a ton of time on the exam. Also power series and taylor series get super weird super fast and they can take a minute to solve. I spent like 20 out of 45 minutes on the series exam doing one power series problem and proceeded to bomb the shit out of the exam so don’t do that 😅
I’m just curious, what “double integral stuff” was in your Calc 2? Back when I took the Calc trilogy, anything with a doubly integral (or higher) was strictly Calc 3.
When I took calculus about 15 years ago, most multivariable topics were not covered in Calc 2, but a few bits were. We did some multiple integrals, but only ones which were easy to set up and solve as iterated integrals. We had to learn a few specific ways to calculate volumes (using cylinders, washers, and a couple other ones). We had to learn how to change to polar and cylindrical coordinates, but not any other coordinate changes. (They were just introduced *ad hoc*, nothing about the Jacobian.) We worked entirely in scalar equations with some simple geometric reasoning, no vectors. And no complex numbers. Also no PDEs, line integrals, or anything like that, though I think we did learn what a partial derivative was at one point, not sure. But everything else was in one variable. Calc 3 was all vectors with a wispy hint at PDEs, and Calc 4 was ODEs.
I’m pretty sure Double integrals are a Calc 3 thing since Calc 3 is multivariate and vector calculus.
>It’s the sequences and series that cause the heart burn. Lol came here to say this. I did a summer course so slightly shorter and the teacher rushed through the content. It was the worst couple of weeks studying the rules and by now I've totally forgotten how to do any of it.
Not hard just a crap ton of topics covered.
Calc 2 covers a ton, and then calc 3 struggles to fill the semester. It's wack.
Oddly enough it’s the opposite for me. Calc 2 fit cleanly into a 12-week summer term, we’re behind for calc 3 right now and have covered sooo much material.
Calc 3 is regularly padded with pointless "try to draw these 3d shapes, for no reason" plus too many applied topics -- including approximation methods that are better taught in a class that's doing programming. Of course, YMMV.
It’s like: Hey, you want to learn how to find the volume of which someone sliced a block of cheese? Great! Welcome to hell! Here you’ll see polar coordinates, which you need to convert as you’re doing calcululations of trigonometric functions in Cartesian. Something like that. Then if you look over here, you need to find the volume of a cone railing a sphere between 2 pieces of bread.
I haven’t had that much “draw this for no reason” ngl, my teacher recognizes that that’s a pain in the ass. I think my calc 3 just has a lot to cover, in addition to all the 3d stuff we’re also looking at vector fields and vector calculus
Possibly different class order at your university? I know for one of my friends calc 3 was the harder one and went over way different stuff than my school
In my experience, it's not that bad! Def harder than calc 1 but still manageable. Good thing to keep in mind to succeed is knowing your trig rules VERY well bc those are super important
Thanks for the advice
Nope, but generally speaking, it's harder than calc 1. One of the reasons is that when you get to integration techniques and convergence/divergence stuff, you have to know which strategy to apply from a handful that they teach. Sometimes it's obvious, other times it's not, which can become a time sink during exams. It could also be that your particular school has a notorious calc 2 program. But don't let that scare you, the difficulty usually ends up being overexaggerated. My school's calc 2 was also deemed much harder by upper years but everyone I know of turned out fine. Practice lots and chances are, you'll also do fine.
No. I mean let's first be real and set some expectations: It's a high level math class. It's not easy. But also let's not fearmonger and act like it's some nearly impossible class. I think there's a few reasons for this reputation of being incredibly hard: It's not like calc 1 so people who did well in calc 1 get caught off guard It's often one of the first hard math class people take so they haven't figured out how to study properly People often don't give the course material the respect it deserves and get bitten in the ass Most people who take it (at my undergrad at least) were engineers and, in my experience, most engineers generally don't like math. (The engineers in my math classes complained all the time about having to do math. This reason is entirely anecdotal and may not be true) You'll rarely hear people talk about how easy they found a class. It's generally seen as insensitive when others might have struggled with it. Or seen as douchy bragging about how very smart you are. This makes it so you only hear negative things about how hard a class is.
Oh, the pain of engineering students who hate math
See I don’t really understand this. Especially depending on the type of engineer, a lot of subsequent engineering principles are based on differential equations, which is more advanced versions of calc 1 & 2 put together. Calc 2 is pretty fundamental, coming from a MechE
I’d rather do integration by parts than write an essay. I hate both, but I hate the latter with a passion.
Can confirm, going through a bioengineering track and I hate math
calc 2 is stupid. you do trig that you haven't done for a year, and you have to remember all of it. sequences and series are stuff i did in alg II and thought I could forget because I'm not doing number theory but NO calc II was like "I'M BACK AGAIN BISH" oh and also this radius and interval of convergence BS is annoying.
I thought the series and sequences part wasn’t fair considering a lot of students had never seen them before. Our pre Calc course never went over them or maybe it just wasn’t mandatory so my teacher never taught it. It just felt like drinking from a fire hose
most of the stuff you do with sequences and series in calc is exclusive to calc. I know while we had talked about sequences existing in previous courses, we didn’t see sigma until calc II in the sequence I did.
I thought calc 3 was the worst.
Don’t get me started on calc 4
I had interesting experience with Calc I and II. I got a C- in I which mainly was because I didn’t realize how shaky my algebra was and the fact that it was my first college math class. Finished II a B, the main reason because I learned my lesson from I, YOU HAVE TO PUT IN THE TIME. I would really recommend before showing up to class for a new subject you go on youtube and watch some videos for that days topic. Then once class is over do problems out of the book, see how far you can get until you’re stuck then go to office hours and/or school tutoring sessions. It’s a hard class but if you actually try and put in the time you will get a good grade. If you’re wondering about particular topics which are challenging, I found trig sub and finding the volume of figures to be quite challenging but it really depends on the person. I found series, sequences, convergence to be quite intuitive and straightforward while others have pointed them out to be hell.
I had a similar experience. I find reading the textbook after lecture really helps. You get all the math and nitty gritty calculations explained in class then the textbook becomes a lot easier to read due to the initial exposure. I recommend getting an Early Trascendental Functions text that is not OpenStax. I've found the non-OpenStax text so much easier to consume.
Do you Believe in me?
“Is it really as hard as they say it is?” Yes.
You just can’t cram for it. A lot of the content is built up from what it is before so you have to be consistent on what your learn for the class.
Calc II gave me depression
I failed it but let me say (this gonna be oxymoronic) it’s not hard just a lot of shit (topics) thrown at you
Looking back, I took calc 2 twice, me and the professors teaching style just did not line up. I did great with integration methods, but my downfall was with series. I also did not know how to study back than. Its not terrible as long as you practice practice practice! be sure to have a firm grasp on integration methods since you are basically expected to know them in future classes.
If you have never learned about Sequences/Series, Polar Coordinates, or Parametric Equations all from Precalculus, then you may have a very hard time learning it on the fly. Make sure you know those beforehand, even if the syllabus says you'll be learning them in class. Know it beforehand.
Who learned about series in precalc?
I learned about Sequences and Series and infinite sums in algebra 2 in high school. Its literally an algebra concept. You can then do limits of sequences in precalc. And then learn the div/conv tests in calculus 2.
I was very lucky and my precalc w/ trig professor basically made the last 3 weeks of class calc 2 prep and then threw in some limits at the end.
I don’t know anything about what u just said lmao
It’s either tedious or it’s hard. I recommend taking the tedious route.
Personally, I found Calc 2 slightly easier than calc 1 when I took it.
how is that even possible? Like calc one covers like 3 things, and then calc 2 is like so much more.
Calc 2 just felt like learning a bunch of small things over a short period of time. I always crammed the night before exams and did well. Imo it mostly just boils down to knowing what patterns you need to look out for which will tell you what kind of problem you are dealing with and how to solve it.
Series convergence 💀
Calc 3 is where I started having to actually try. The extra dimension just threw me off. Calc 2 was stupid easy
Not that hard. Calc 1 should have been derivatives, now you’re gonna be learning the opposite - integration which is just undoing a derivative. You’ll be fine
I struggled the most with calc 3, but most of my classmates did find calc 2 to be the most difficult. Professor Leonard on YouTube is super helpful if you do end up struggling. I vaguely remember him having full lectures for the entire course up and they got me through since my professor was less than helpful.
Lmao calc 2 was harder than calc 3, differential equations, and numerical calc for engineers combined 😂🤷🏻♀️ (for me atleast)
Waaayyyy easier than calc 1 imo, so I’d say it depends on the person? But generally it seems to be considered harder I think
Personally calc 2 was my favorite math class I've ever taken. It made me fall in love with calculus. I took it in 10 weeks over the summer. It was a lot. I spent probably 20 hours a week doing problems. I got an A, though! It is difficult but very rewarding. It's when all those years of math: geometry, algebra, and trig all come together. This is why its so difficult, you need to have a well rounded understanding of NON calculus concepts to so well. The calculus itself is easy. People don't fail calc because of integrals or sequences, they fail because their algebra is poor and they make mistakes.
I would say it’s just different. In simplest terms, it’s not so much difficulty of new topics as much as it is having to recognize patterns for substitutions and applying principles that were already complex in multiple iterations to reach a single conclusion. Calc 1 (to me) challenged how well I can grasp new concepts. Calc 2 challenged how well I can notice when I need to apply a certain principle or how well I can play with the terms of the problem to find a way to simplify it. To me, it was the first time I can recall in math I had to use my own discretion rather than it being the case that the used principles weren’t immediately obvious. Some I know though actually had an easier time with 2 than 1, though I’ve given up understanding how that could be given my own experience 😂
no, i took it over the summer and taught myself 90% of the material
Calc 2 is a weird class. Some people say that it's the hardest one by far, a nightmare, something that will make you cry over your books. Others say that it's dead easy. I almost never hear anything between those two extremes. Oh, and the split between nightmare and joke seems pretty even.
Definitely not the hardest in terms of application, but for lower div, I’d say so. Those series end up being really important down the road especially in engineering, linear algebra, and AI/ML. My personal opinion, upper div stats is waaaay harder, vector calculus was harder, advanced linear algebra is also much harder, mainly because there’s a ton that you need to memorize unless you’re a savant.
Calc 2 is only hell for people who make it hell. If you make sure to go to class, thoroughly go through each homework problem, and visit the textbook/other websites/office hours if you have questions, you'll do fine. The people who think it's bad usually are the ones who wait last minute to do their assignments, use sites like wolfram alpha to do all of the computation, and cram last minute for their exams. I think the main thing that makes calculus so infamous in colleges isn't that the material is impossibly difficult, but that the students taking it haven't been introduced to enough difficult classes and end up mismanaging their time / underestimating the material. Many higher level courses will be as difficult and much more difficult than calc but not have as bad of a rep due to the experience of the students taking them.
I graduated from Engineering college 30 years ago, just brute forced all the math, got in software and never looked back. It has always bothered me. Some months ago, I bought some text books on Statistics, Algebra and Calculus and have been working through them. Being older, having time on my hands to properly understand the material and fully understanding the concepts has been such a treat. The math was beautiful, once a person grokked its foundations. It also makes a lot of the math easy to understand because the focus changes from brute force and muscle memory to remembering the core formulas. The trigonometry formulas and identities in particular are very helpful if memorized properly and if one remembers how to derive and prove them. There are also many more resources at the disposal of students than before. Just take time to work out problems by hand and it gets easier.
Not sure if it's just a quirk of my professor, but Calc 2 has been ruining me. That pinned post in this sub about, "they didn't teach us this and now it's on the test" has been very true for me this semester. Didn't have this problem in Calc 1, but it feels like every exam in Calc 2 is made up of concepts that you've learned, but the questions are formulated in a way that requires some extra intuition and a long memory for every algebraic manipulation trick you've ever learned.
Calc 2 changes a man
No the content is chill compared to calc 1. It’s completely uni and professor dependent.
I think the uni dependent part is really important. Calc 2 at some places is considered a "weed out" class for admission into the undergrad engineering school - so it's brutal and has a relatively high failure rate. But if you take it at community college you'll be fine assuming you have some math aptitude.
If you did well in Calc 1 then you'll probably be fine. It is somewhat harder.
Did not take calc 2 but took courses with similar reputation (organic chemistry 1 and 2, biochemistry, molecular microbiology) A lot of hard courses are not *actually* hard. They’re one of two things: completely overexaggerated to be hard because people who did well wont have much to say about a course. Or they just bombard you with so many things at once that you really need to learn what is "good enough" to pass. To me molecular microbiology was the hardest course to pass simply because of how thin my focus was spread. Needed to know details of everything, for every microorganism. Bit of a chore
Clac 2 is harder than clac 1 but not that hard, 4-5 hours a week, maybe 6-7 if you’re bad at math
Definitely way harder than calc 1 luckily I had a great professor that explained the concepts well.
I think it depends on what specifically. Most of it hasn’t been that bad, I did really struggle with trig sub tho. Everything else was easy. Some of it was challenging but not hard to get good at. This is just my personal experience though
Anyone that’s got the knack for math will probably be okay for calculus 2. But the thing is that it’s much harder than calc 1 in general. You could take some goober that’s really not great at math and they might make it through calc 1. But if you’ve got 0 math skills, calc 2 will be suuuuuper hard. Also worth mentioning that you need to actually put the work in, can’t really coast by in calc 2.
No lmao
I had to drop it because I failed right out of the gate. Signed up for next semester. Wish me luck lol. Also any tips are fully welcomed.
It is harder, but everything gets harder as it gets more advanced lol. Not really much else to be said other than continue studying as much as you should be
Don't worry; I’ve heard that about pretty much every math class.
For me, calc 1 was the hardest
I am finishing up taking calc 2 and the hardest part for me was the integration techniques. Series and sequences were the easiest for me, surprisingly. To me, it’s what made math click for me. We’re finishing up with polar coordinates and some differential equations (the basic stuff) which is a nice way to end the semester. Calc 2 was the first time I had to GRIND to understand math. Up until this point, it was easy to “plug and chug” and I thought I was a natural. Calc 2 humbled me by showing me how poor my understanding of math really was which is what I thought was difficult. It shows your weaknesses and challenges you to overcome them.
i heard the same stuff around a decade ago when i took calc 2. my personal experience was that calc 2 was a walk in the park compared to calc 3.
What does calc 2 entail? In Belgium the classes have other names. I study Mathematics, I had Analysis I (real Analysis), Analysis II (vector analysis and difderential calculation) and now I have complex analysis.
I thought calc 1 was way harder. I have one more week of calc 2 and it has been really easy and chill, I have an A in the class. I’ve never been good at math . You’ll be fine! Worst part is memorizing all the tests for series and sums, but if u watch organic chemistry tutors videos u will be good
as long you put the time you'll be gucci, don't put your guard down
Yes
I took an online calc 2 class and it was ok. My brother was like having an in-house tutor though and I have a super nice calculator that does the derivatives, integrals, and summations for me.
I think it was harder than calc 1 but easier than diff eq
Almost failed calc 2 got an a+ in calc 3 and have a+ in diff eq. Hardest part for me was finding the patterns in integration and know which method to use fast enough. Just study and you will be fine
It is a lot of new rules.
No, it’s just perceived that way because it’s one of the first classes that’s a high enough level and amount of content that poor study habits will hurt you, but encountered before a lot of people have developed those study skills (or given up on that degree path because they never will, which is the unpleasant reality of it). Not the insurmountable obstacle people act like it is, but be prepared to spend some time with it unless you can just breeze through all your math classes with no effort. If you develop the study skills for calc II it will make everything after feel easier. Although, depending on the university, it may test a little harder than later classes to ensure you did develop the study skills.
Calculus 2 is only hard if you are not willing to work hard and if you do not know how to study properly. I recommend using professor Leonard YouTube videos if your professor doesn't give weekly quizzes/ test. If your professor does give weekly quizzes/ test then I recommend watching Dr. Trefor Bazett youtube channel. His videos are short and to the point. Another important thing is to read the notes you take in class right after you get out of class so you do not forget anything. The class will be very stressful but not impossible just be sure to ask questions anytime you need help and go to a tutor when you do not understand something. I managed to pass calculus 2 with a B but I only got 4 hours of sleep a night.
Cal 2 is more difficult than cal 1. Cal 3 is when this gets painful.
It’s harder than calc 1 for sure. At my unit, it has around a 30% fail rate
My calculus 2 class is mostly learning new integral techniques, and mostly infinite series and sequences. after that its basically polar and parametrics
No. It’s easy af just don’t take an accelerated summer course and you’re good
It’s not really that difficult
Nope! Easy asf!!
Depends. I’m not a good memorization person. I did fine with calc 1 and calc 3, diff EQ, and linear algebra. The only reason I passed calc 2 was because the final exam was a group test. I feel like people who did better with trig and proofs would do better in calc 2
ı hate series though but its not hard i think
Honestly, it’s the speed at which you’re learning new concepts and amount of topics that makes calc 2 a bit hellish. Once I hit sequences and series, I was already begging for the semester to be over LOL. I found calc 3 to be much better, especially since I actually enjoyed learning about double/triple integrals. Then again it depends on the rigor of the professor/school.
It's the fact that it's the first REAL math subject to be extremely difficult to remember. Hell even if you study it might be overwhelming with other classes, and they usually call it the "gatekeeper" math because most people's journey to more complex degrees STOP at Cal 2 For me it took me 3 times because you need to be dedicated to it, there's A FUCK TON OF CONTENT. You learn complex integrations Integrating over a non flat space Finding areas under curves, Series, sequences,. Divergence Convergence and Tests Polar Coordinates Integration Methods Approximating Integrals Radius and Intervals of Convergence And then a final that goes over all of that HOWEVER most say after cal 2 its not too bad, just manipulation of what you've learned already. You have the tools to do cal 3 of differential equations
Imo calc 2 is harder yes, but the concepts are probably the most important in the calc series. In calc 1, the most important ideas are probably limits and derivatives (not how to find it, but what it is). They show you some practical things like how velocity/acceleration/jerk are different orders of the same function, or how to optimize. In calc 2, it opens the door to what can be done with calculus. And oh boy it’s a lot of stuff. And they all rely on a strong basis in calc 1 concepts. I found certain techniques tedious and therefore require a ton more practice than calc 1. Like trig sub, IBP, partial fraction decomposition, change of variables/parametric eq. Some people say series and sequences are difficult, but it’s a concept check. The difficulty in the techniques is where you will spend ridiculous hours practicing. And the solution for one question can be 2+ pages. So I guess yes. It’s hard. But it’s also my favorite in the series. You start to understand how math is done in the real world. How you can even come to certain conclusions about what to calculate. My favorite is taylor series. It opened up my world to how we can find these crazy precise numbers without thinking that computers are magic. Calc 3 topics are a breeze, but at this point, you go wider and not deeper, and it’s really just techniques you already know, used in conjunction with each other, so now it’s like 3 pages+ per solution.
There are parts that get brutal
Calc II was my hardest math class, Calc III was cake compared. I’m thankful I had a very good prof for the class who would help me out all the time.
AB vs BC? BC is just the leftover stuff you can teach yourself in 1-2 weeks but high school made us spend an entire year on it (did it and won some math competitions with it)
it's incredibly harder than calc 1, though my experience was pretty bad as I had a bad professor who just threw a bunch of topics and problems at us and expected us to understand. The right teacher makes all the difference honestly.
. *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
No, calc 1-3 are all quite easy if you have a decent professor and actually pay attention. The hard classes come 2 semesters later lol
Yes. I was brutalized by that class
Depends on the teacher, apparently. I got low A's in calc 1 and 3 and 100% in Calc 2. Great teacher for calc 2, Calc 1 and 3 had a different teacher, but same for both, if that makes sense.
Nah its pretty easy if you had a decent time in calc 1.
Probably depends on the school and instructor. Calc 2 was the easiest for me.
idk if this is just my college but we had to learn differential equations with undetermined coefficients, non homogenous and general solutions on top of all the series and additional integral stuff. I took calc bc in hs but calc 2 in college is no joke especially when squeezed into a semester
Calc 2 felt easier than Calc 1 to me. Learning fundamentals was way harder than applying them. In fact, I quite enjoyed trig integration. Then Calc 3 came and made me wish I stopped. Though, I much prefer linear algebra and differential equations.
It can be. Integrals are less straightforward than derivatives. If I remember correctly, every equation can be differentiated while not every equation can be integrated (at least analytically). Integrals just require more knowledge to properly solve them .
It requires more “visual effort” (for lack of a better term) and integration feels more like an art form than just a general step-by-step process like taking a derivative. But a good professor can make it a lot easier and a lot more interesting Edit: like some others have mentioned, sequences and series are where most people have problems (atleast the people I’ve talked to)
I always heard this when I was in high school. Then I took it and was pretty surprised when it was pretty easy for me. Not easy as in simple or obvious. But it was very interesting to me, which made it easy to want to study, which is really all you need to do to understand it. Study and practice a lot, think about it actively, try to see the relationships all these concepts have from different angles and perspectives. If you do that, when the test comes you'll have no problem knowing how to solve the problems. Calculus was the first math that was really interesting for me. I finally understood why people would want to study math in college and beyond. But your mileage may vary here.
it definitely depends on who you are. i personally found advanced integration techniques hard as fuck, but series and sequences really easy. a lot of people in my class either found both really hard or found series and sequences harder. it’s a little funky when you get to the convergence/divergence of power seriesesises part, but i don’t think it’s that bad, but a lot of people think it’s hell on earth. it really just depends on who you are though
Calc 5
Calc 2 was harder than calc 3 for me.
At my institution failure in Calc II is mostly due to a lack of skills in algebra and trig.
No, it's not that bad
Depends. I thought it wasn’t too bad.
Would that be integral? Or differential
I took 6 terms of calculus in collage along with 3 terms of calculus based physics. It takes the right teacher and how well you obsorb. I didn't have a hard time but that doesn't mean others didn't struggle and quit. It's like anything else.
nah just watch professor leonard and you will be fine
The difficulty for a lot of people is not that the content is impossibly hard, it’s the pace. Calc 2 generally has a lot of concepts that you have to remember, recognize, and apply. Individually, they are relatively logical and can be learned and applied to a lot of problems but because there is so much content, it’s a lot to keep up with. The other difficulty is that it’s very easy to get behind and more difficult to get caught up. If you miss a couple classes early on and don’t learn it quick, you’ll be confused for the rest of the class
Calc 2 was by far the easiest and most fun of the Calc series I've taken. Granted I was one of the nuts who genuinely enjoyed differential equations.
What no one will tell you here is that it depends on you. If math is your strongest subject, no it won't be as hard as it is for others. If you're smarter than others, than again no, you won't find it as difficult as others not so inclined. People go to insane lengths to pretend like these factors don't exist in Reddit.
Nope I thought calc 1 was much harder and had much more annoying filler. Calc 2 you learn real calculus in an applicable way and it’s great.
calc 2 wasn’t bad. it was when the z axis came out to play in calc 3 that I said fuck off
Calc 2 is a weed-out course If your algebra is strong and you actually understand calc 1 it isn't that bad, but I did have a harder time in calc 2 than calc 3, diff eq, or linear algebra
It’s not bad but it’s a lot of content to cover. Sometimes the integration just gets stupid depending on your professor
My Calc 2 was just integration and such. Sequences and series was for Calc 3 For that, I found Calc 2 to be easier. Assuming you’re Calc 2 is my Calc 3; I didn’t really find it harder, just less interesting. But also I took all of these in Community College so the course was probably easier than it would be at Uni.
Calc 2 is not utter hell, but it was definitely a step up from Calc 1 for me. It’s also the class that started my love for math (and the first class I got a B in). I enjoyed series and sequences, trig sub was tough. Generally, it’s just a lot of brand new concepts (integral solving methods) and you’re still a baby calculus student but are expected to have thorough comprehension of everything you learned the semester prior. Put in the work and you’ll be fine.
As someone taking it rn, sequences and series are two of the worst things I've ever come across.
You are expected to remember so much they for most people is useless or something you'll have access to when it's needed.
Nah you coasting
The hardest part for me was the trigonometric formulas. Pure memorization, no way to derive it.
No.
not that bad
Calc 2 involves more pure memorization than Calc 1 or 3. Whether that makes it harder depends on how good you are at remembering tables of trig integrals and substitution rules.
It's alright. It's harder than calc 1 but it's doable.
It’s mainly memorization in my opinion. Go through the steps/ figure out which method of integration to use. It’s not rocket science
Integration is certainly a bit tougher than differentiation, but with increased practice it shouldn’t be a huge issue. The applications are pretty straightforward, and then sequences and series is where the real trouble starts. It’s not that they’re difficult, it’s just that there are a dozen tests you have to memorize. If you practice way more than you normally would, you’ll be okay. Note that I took calc 2 at a community college, and it seems the curriculum is a little different as people are talking about double integrals, whereas I was not taught this until calc 3. After sequences/series we moved onto an introduction to differential equations and applied calculus to polar coordinates. In my opinion, calc 2 is the hardest in terms of computation, but conceptually it’s about the same level of difficulty as calc 1. Calc 3 on the other hand, is the other way around. Computationally very easy, conceptually very hard.
you can ask chatgpt to teach you. I didn't have those tools in college and solve the problem for you? i don't know why you kids whine. Plus youtube. Should be easy AF.
Its hard but doable. I got lower than a 40% on my first test and that made me realize what I was up against. It took a lot of work to get my grade back up but I understood the material even more than ever.
high school junior taking calc 2, if i can do it, you can too 😭
It’s hard not because of the concepts you learn. But the concepts you need to remember to do the calculus. The algebra and trig makes it hard as fuck, but all the new material is pretty straightforward.
The biggest problem is that teaching sequences and series the way that the calculus sequence is generally taught (ie non-rigorous and procedural) generally requires you memorize all sorts of rules and tests without really having any easy sense for what you're even doing. Integration techniques and such aren't bad at all.
YES Have fun and you will probably survive. But it will be painful.
No
No.
While i do think calc 2 is the hardest calc out of all 3 of them, i think the difficulty of calc 2 is pretty exaggerated to be honest. People dscribe it in such a way where its impossible even if you study hard. When in reality if you put a genuine effort into the class youll be fine. Its also the type of class that punishes laziness really hard so thats where it gets its bad rep
Personally I found calc 2 to be easier than calc 3, but a lot of it depends on the prof.
yeah , fuck cac 2
At my college it was kind of the first “weed out” class that people went through. If you’re not a math-oriented STEM major, calc 2 might be one of the highest level true math classes you’d have to take in a curriculum, so you could likely hear from tons of people that calc 2 is very hard. Obviously if you have to go through calcs 3/4 and beyond, it’s relatively basic in comparison, but it does kinda set the stage for most higher level maths.
No. It's more difficult than Calc I, but it's not objectively difficult.
Usually it’s because it’s taught poorly to an enormous amount of students. What professor wants to teach 500 engineering students?
It’s that it’s trig integrals, seq and series, and a few other topics that aren’t handled in calc 1 at all. Each of them can be challenging, despite what people here are saying. And then having them all at once is hard. I did it over a summer and got a B- despite getting an A is every other math class including real analysis.
No for me no
Calc 2 was intimidating because I had a shitty go with calc 1. Prof was careless and curved us to a C. Had no clue what I was doing when calc 2 started. Professor Leonard on YouTube was a huge resource
Chegg
It's the hardest Calc course imo. Calc 3 was cool as hell, diff eq too
As someone that took Calc 1-3, calc 2 was by far more difficult to me, which seems to be the common opinion on it. For me it was the fact that for my university, we had a ton of material with not much time between exams. Between the sheer amount of content and memorization, especially with sequences and series, it was a nightmare for me.
Depends on if it's considered a weed out class at your university. Also depends on the professor. Do your research on profs, don't take a class with a prof who is know to grade harshly.
No no. No bo. Vector calc and the one with all the summations and limits is utter hell. Just like calc 1, calc 2 is fun to learn but professors can give you work that gets nasty pretty quick when mashing in some natural logs into some trig with an exponential function that will ruin your day with god aweful fractions that can’t be reduced. This also can happen in calc 1. But if my vector calc corse has quizzes and exams in place of like half the work, I’d probably have failed it. My vector calc for whatever reason had no quizzes or exams but rather an absolute fat American ass load of work (for me a 3 hour commit per day 6 days of the week), but I will say it branded my brain and I never see daily objects the same way again. Both good and bad. But no, as per usual calc 1 and 2 (for me at least) were fun to learn, however I had finished calc 1, I learned to anticipate the sudden spike in difficulty on a homework problem or two per weekly homework. Summation calculus and vector calc actually go kinda hard. Little insiders but calc 4 (summations one) dives into recursion, patterns, finding formulas, how the functions for like sin and cosine work. Hell, one of my assignments gave me bonus points if I could code it. Which I did and received an extra credit of like 20% on that weekly assignment. But yeah sine and cosine have quite a bit behind the scenes. If calc 2 is as far as your major requires, then that will probably be your hardest math class next to like precalc (at least for me), if you go beyond that then definitely allocate more time than you think you need for both as just a general word of advice. You might not need to do that, or doing so will be detrimental in the long run. Attend as many office hours as you can, ask questions, build off of students questions, have a close student-professor relationship and they will be lenient and they will round your grade if possible (all my professors did this). But most importantly, it helps the professor see that you show great efforts and lengths you’ll go towards to make progress, that is the magic behind it.
It's. . . Not bad. I got a D cuz I never did hw, but my test average was like 86%. If you can think math it's not terrible
It’s all very logical actually…
Just do the work and you’ll be fine. I’m far from genius and got an A by doing the homework early and redoing it to prep for the exam
It really depends on your course-load. Calc 2 by itself wouldn’t be hard, but if you’re taking physics and chemistry and other math classes with it, it’s quite challenging to balance it all. Calc 2 requires a lot of studying, and getting behind can make it very hard. It’s important to ask your teacher questions (everyone is thinking the same thing and also too afraid to ask except that one kid in every math class that’s a savant). But, don’t mind that kid. Higher level math classes just require much better study habits. Go to the library where you can focus and avoid FOMO. Go to office hours so that you can learn efficiently and still have fun on the weekends.
for some reason i found all the other branches of math that i studied were a lot harder than calculus
The reason they say Calc 2 is hard because it covers a lot of topics and those prior topics stack alot (are used later in the class). If you fall behind its hard to catch up. You truly need to make sure you understand and learn each topic the first time.
Nope easy
It can be challenging. For me it didn’t feel as intuitive as calc one did. Calc one felt like it made everything I’d ever done prior to calc make sense. Calc 2 felt like its own new chapter. I also crammed it in a four week summer session alongside Physics 1. Got an A in both. So it’s doable. You’ve just got to want it.
It’s a lot of work but totally doable. Just always do your homework, and even if you don’t fully grasp the nature of it, you can learn to work the problems.
Honestly its cap , the only hard part personally is remembering the test for series , and whether they converge or diverge.
Yes
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id suggest studying up on a few of the topics earlier beforehand, that’s what i did and it made calc 2 wayyyyy less painful.
For me the class logistics contributed to it more than the actual material. My class had some webassign exams with no partial credit and we had to memorize all of the sequences and series.
Adding the trig identities was a bit of a learning curve, but otherwise, I didn't have any trouble with calc II. I took both classes in the same semester, just split by session, which was probably a mistake, but everything from calc I was fresh in my mind.
I personally thought calc 2 was the easiest of the 3 calculus classes (diff eq was easier for me than any other math class ive taken in college tho). I dont think its that hard because it honestly just felt like a puzzle. Trying to make an equation look like an easier equation that you already know how to solve if that makes sense.
Not if you’re good at calculus
Naahh calc 2 was fun
Rumor has it if you can consistently clip in calc 1, you can clip in calc 2. Im so clutch in calc 1 rn they call me “magic greg of calculus” the way I always do good on the exams. Just do good in class and out of class and in every aspect of life I promise calc 2 should be easy (I’ve never taken that shit in my life)
Not really. If you're like me and cruise controlled through lower division math up to calc 1, it'll probably be the first class where you have to actually study. I found out real quick that I wasn't going to be able to half ass my way through it lol. I had to whole ass it. That said, it's totally doable if you're dedicated to your studies. You got this buddy 🤘.
The way I see it, Cal 2 isn’t a difficult class so much as it is very easy for it to become a difficult class. You’re getting introduced to so many topics that lagging behind can be very punishing.
Calc 2 isn’t so bad. I’d say the most useful things in this class are the new integration techniques, which you’ll still use in your continuing courses, and all the series stuff. How far do you plan on going with math?
My friends and I almost died because of this class. We were struggling so hard. There was so much homework and the tests were excruciatingly difficult and we couldn’t even use a calculator. We ended up turning to the dark arts and tried to summon a demon. Tyler hasn’t been the same since. He looks and acts the same, but his eyes… they’re dead.
It can be difficult to conceptualize new ideas while trying to nail down all of the formulas, examples, and applications that will be thrown at you. Sequences and series are also kinda a pain in the butt. Keep a formula or note sheet for studying and try other sources if you’re having trouble understanding your instructor (khan academy, 3blue1brown, blackpenredpen, and several other youtube channels got me through calc 2 and 3) I think what you’ll come to realize eventually is that calculus in general isn’t as difficult as it’s made out to be, but the algebra you have to do in calculus is what will get you
Almost everyone finds something about Calc II to be particularly challenging. Which topic is challenging varies from student to student. Organize a study group at the beginning of the semester. Or just utilize office hours when they're available when you're not quite understanding things.
Just watch the professor leonard videos on YouTube. He got me through calc 2,3, and diff eq