Attention All Future Calculus Students!

Welcome to one of the hardest levels of math offered at Plainfield South High School. Congratulations! You’ve made it through three (two if you’re a junior) years of high school, and it’s your last one. Take my advice…. Don’t try to skim through your last year of high school. Colleges really hate that.

However, you have an advantage over the rest of the seniors at South. You are hopefully fortunate enough to have the greatest math teacher ever; Mrs. Finn. I came into this school year not remembering or knowing anything that I learned from my previous year in Pre-Calc. But that didn’t matter. Mrs. Finn was able to take an idiot like myself and turn her into a decent math student. Quite an accomplishment let me tell you!

By taking this class, you’ve already proven that you’re a genius. (Whether you want to believe that or not is up to you). For this class, take notes that will help you, make sure that they are legible, pay attention in class, participate as much as possible (I swear the singing is more fun than you think), and don’t hesitate to ask for help. I know you’ll feel like an idiot, but at least by asking for help you’ll understand and most likely get the answer right. Also, the last bit of advice has to do with homework. When Ms. Finn says only spend 45 minutes on the homework, only do 45 minutes of homework. Anymore time than that is pointless because after 45 minutes of calculus, your brain will hate you and leave you with a horrible headache.

As for the AP Calc test, go into knowing that you’re not suppose to get everything on it right. If you go in with this attitude, you’ll be excited with the results you get. Don’t stress about it too much, Ms. Finn prepares you for everything on it. Trust me, you’ll be fine. If I survived that test, anyone can.

So good luck this year in Calculus! Have fun! It’s your senior year your last year of high school! (Sorry juniors, you’ve got one more to go). Even if you don’t think you did well at the end of the year, at least you’ll be able to say I survived Calc!

Sincerely,

Previous Calculus Student of ‘06