Last year I wrote a guide for students taking the University of Toronto’s big (2000 student) first year calculus class MAT135. It was so successful that I wrote another guide to MAT137, the more specialized first year calculus class. Let me share them with you:
They are both links to Reddit, but you don’t need an account there to read them.
Tonight I got a very nice message from a student that I would like to share. (This student had contacted me early on this year for advice.)
The full conversation is useful, so let me share that too. If you want to skip, go to the last 3 messages.
[–]from XXXXXXXX sent 29 days ago
Hello Mike. I am a first year student at UTM and well, the transition from laid back high school to high demanding UTM has been an extreme shock to me as one would expect. Mat 135 is the math course I ended up taking(trying for CS).
I’d like to thank you for the post you made 10 months ago.
http://www.reddit.com/r/UofT/comments/1rsa52/math_how_to_succeed_in_mat_135136/
Finding that post made me change my outlook in university and I have made myself a schedule to follow, which would focus on me doing eight hours on a course per week. So far it has been immensely helpful(but goddamn its exhausting). While I can’t ask you about other courses since you were a Mat 137 instructor, I can still ask you about 135 and general questions.
1) Any study habits I should try and pick up in general? While I have no issue just brute forcing a study session for a subject for an hour and then switching to another one, I get tired much faster that way.
2) For 135, sometimes I would come across a rare situation in which I would have to use something I’ve never done before(such as an obscure identity or a completely weird way of solving). This method never appears again and I’m left wondering “Do I have to know that?” Is it better to learn it anyway or spend time on the general practice?
3) Regarding the post you made, you wrote down that you devote 8 hours a week for each course for a total of 40 hours. Is this just the bare minimum or a limit to keep your sanity in check? I imagine the latter since I’m still transitioning from high school(extremely painful experience), but I want to make sure.
Again, thank you for taking the time to answer these. I know you must get a lot of these, so it means a lot to get a response.
[–]to XXXXXXXX sent 28 days ago
I’m glad that the post was helpful for you!
So far it has been immensely helpful(but goddamn its exhausting).
I’m glad that you’ve set yourself a plan. Be sure to avoid burning out though. Make sure that you still make occasional time to see friends, go for walks, exercise, see a play, etc.. Your physical, mental and social health is important to being a good student. In moderation you will find yourself being more productive (and less stressed out) with these things. Exercise in particular is important.
Any study habits I should try and pick up in general? While I have no issue just brute forcing a study session for a subject for an hour and then switching to another one, I get tired much faster that way.
Try adding some variation to your studying. Maybe some days you do 1 hour Math, 1 Hour Chem, 1 Hour Econ, and then a different day you do 2 sets of 30 min Math-30min Chem-30 min Econ, and then a different day you do one chunk of 3 hours of math, the next day 3 hours of Chem, the next day 3 hours of Econ.
Shortening the study time will help you maintain focus, but longer sessions will allow you to go deeper into the material.
As for study habits, find what works for you; we’re all a bit different. If you find that you’re getting distracted a lot, turn off your phone and get a program like Cold Turkey.
For 135, sometimes I would come across a rare situation in which I would have to use something I’ve never done before(such as an obscure identity or a completely weird way of solving). This method never appears again and I’m left wondering “Do I have to know that?” Is it better to learn it anyway or spend time on the general practice?
In general I would say focus first on the main methods, then as you master those then you can start to think about the “tricks”. Think of it like a baker: you need to spend most of your time learning how to bake cakes, but you need to know a little bit about decorating them, and as you perfect the actual baking of the cake you can work on making your decoration fancier and fancier.
Maybe keep a list of tricks for individual problems written down somewhere.
Also, as you progress and get a deeper understanding of calculus you will find that some of these “tricks” aren’t really tricks at all, but the natural way to proceed. This takes time and experience though, so keep looking at this list of tricks as you progress through the course to see if you have any new insight.
Regarding the post you made, you wrote down that you devote 8 hours a week for each course for a total of 40 hours. Is this just the bare minimum or a limit to keep your sanity in check?
This isn’t a hard rule, it’s just meant to give you the impression that university should feel like a full time job (which is 40 hours a week). Some students tend to think that they’re university life should be filled with just attending classes and cramming before the midterm (which leads to disaster).
If you manage to keep to your schedule of 40 hours a week, you will do great!
-Mike
[–]from XXXXXXXX sent 35 minutes ago
Late reply, but I wished to put your post into practice and see the results for myself before messaging you. The result of following your advice? Perfect on the Proofs Midterm, almost perfect on the CS midterm, and a 87% on the 135 test while the average was 40%. I really don’t know how to thank you, and I seriously hope that future students will see your advice and put it into practice because it is a godsend. Thank you.
[–] to XXXXXXXX sent 27 minutes ago
Amazing! Way to do such a good job! I’m happy that your hard work has paid off for you!
Was there anything in particular that was useful for you (that I might share with other students?). Anything that didn’t work?
[–]from XXXXXXXX sent 4 minutes ago
- Put in your time. Time management is the key to success to university as I have found out.
- Follow that post to the T.
- Make yourself a schedule for the day, and follow it out.
- Complete 40 hours every week, while also accounting for things such as midterms. This way you will have defined free time for yourself and still study well for everything. I have gone from doing average in high school to being ‘that guy’ in Calculus and my other courses all thanks to time management.
That’s what I would probably tell to future students(which I will be doing anyway since my high school called me up for a presentation). Honestly, everything in that post contributed not only to my Calculus mark but generally everything. I’d add a section on time management since that ends up being a very huge part of University.
Thanks for the post, if only it was more known. I think I should send it to my prof since he’s going to be mad at the class once it comes time to present total averages. Good luck with the job applications.