James Finn
1 min readJan 8, 2020

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Absolutely! Differential calculus isn’t all that conceptually difficult. Oh, mechanically, maybe some chain rule problems can be tough, but in general students don’t choke on the calculus itself, but on the complex algebra and trig they need to solve calculus problems.

In my (perhaps uninformed) opinion, the biggest favor high school math students can for themselves is to study as much advanced algebra and trig as possible. I think that would be generally more helpful than trying to study calculus itself.

What first year college students usually struggle with in problem sets is tough, complicated algebra that they didn’t get enough practice with in highschool.

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James Finn
James Finn

Written by James Finn

James Finn is an LGBTQ columnist, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, an alumnus of Act Up NY, and an agented but unpublished novelist.

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