Might be more suited to Homework Help, but I think this is probably as good a place as any.

Like any good humanities major, I bitched out on math and just took Stats so that I never had to look at another math class again. I've always been pretty decent at math, though I'm certainly no savant. I just have a decent head for following a set of complex rules. Probably all them RPGs.

Anyway! I'm starting with this course: http://www.themathpage.com/aPreCalc/precalculus.htm

Am I going backward by doing Pre-Calc before Trig? Just dipping my toe into it, and the warm familiarity of the first two lessons is finally giving way to functions and letting me start to get my pinky toe wet in this shit. Does this seem like an even remotely good idea? I eventually want to get into Calculus. Basically, the goal is to get good enough that I can get into teaching Math, though I'd rather stay down in the Algebra/Geometry ghetto. But that might just be because I don't know how much I love Calculus or something.

Anyway, I swear this isn't just a bragging thread, I know that JSP has a lot of math nerds, and I'd love to hear some opinions from people who have taken higher maths that might give me some good guideposts as to what I'm getting myself into (or who can convince me that this is a fool's errand and I really ought to take a class. Or who can just recommend sites with lots of practice homework.)

I don't see any reason why you can't do this without taking a formal class. The internet has more than enough resources to get you though this.

To do calculus you basically need to know 2 topics/classes: pre-calculus and trigonometry and the order on these two subjects doesn't really matter that much.

Trigonometry:
Calculus basically involves 3 topics: Limits, Derivatives , and Integrals (and its ok if you don't understand what those 3 things are just yet, that is what you are going to learn).
In a formal class, when you learn to do derivatives, you are generally taught how to calculate the derivative of any function you might be given. Some functions contain trigonometry, so to calculate the derivatives of that function you will need to know some trigonometry.
To calculate the integral of some functions (that don't contain trigonometry) will require trigonometry (weird huh?).

Pre-Calculus:
Pre-calculus is probably the hardest math class there is (imo). While no one topic in the class is hard, it basically covers a huge amount of material. In some ways you have an advantage, because in a normal calculus class, you might encounter a problem that say requires polynomial long division (a pre-cal topic), and if the students do not know it, it really puts them in a bind because the calculus instructor can't take a week out of his scheduled to review the topic. But working on your own you will have this option to go back and fill in any gaps you encounter (and you WILL have gaps, even if you have taken the formal classes).

I'd say the most important topics from Pre-calculus are:
Factoring
Being comfortable with function notation
Finding the 0's (intercepts) of a function
Working with exponents (especially negative and fractional exponents)
Becoming familiar with local minimum and maximum of functions
Becoming familiar with logarithms
Polynomial long division/synthetic division
The Difference Quotient

the website: https://www.khanacademy.org/ has some great 10 minute lecture videos on pretty much every topic you might need, so take advantage of those.

And if you get stuck, there are lots of people in the homework section (myself included) who would be willing to help. I used to tutor these subjects in college to help pay the bills.

I failed AP Calc, but I passed the AP test, so get at me.

google khan academy and search whatever topic in math youre doing. they have a ton of really really good podcasts on this kind of stuff

This post was edited by Kamikizzle on Jan 9 2013 10:28am

This. I just started using Khan Academy and it's really amazing how well the videos/practice problems are set up.

I think you're doing the right thing.

Pre-Calc will set up recognition patterns for you and ways to go about problems in those elevated math-do-ma-hickies.

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...academy is a pretty good link, thanks guys! I'm done with the refresher shit and moving on to some functions, which I'm hoping to really get to funk soon.

It's times like this that I really love the shit out of Internets.

The Khan Academy got me through trigonometry.

Your typical pre-calculus course covers all the trigonometry topics you need for Calculus. I've never taken a pure trig course, but I've done Calculus up to entry level multi-variable Calculus.

And about pre-calculus is the hardest math class...Harder than your intro differential and integral Calc classes maybe.

And if polar coordinates seem unimportant, they're not. And make sure you practice visualizing functions and graphs

This post was edited by Derkaderk on Jan 9 2013 01:45pm

I think you can figure out the basic concepts of calculus with no understanding of precalc or trig.
The problem is in application, once you try to do a calc problem you will have issues figuring out how to do anything, especially once you get into serious calculus like multivariate.