3rd post

The third week of calculus was actually not bad at all. We started off the week going over derivatives that were going to be on the test. I was not understanding derivatives until tuesday. For some reason, something in my head just clicked and i understood what i needed to do. I was happy when i was able to work some hard derivative problems and get the right answers :). The only problem i still seem to have with derivatives is fully simplifying, but i'm sure i'll get better at it in due time. The test Wednesday was very challenging what with the firedrill and everything. But all in all i believe i did fairly well on the test. I thought the limits were going to hurt me, but i remembered the rules for limits.

1. If the degree of the top is larger than the degree on the bottom, the limit is infinity

2. If the degree on the top is the same as the degree on the bottom, you divide the coefficients

3. If the degree on the top is smaller than the degree on the bottom, then the answer is 0.

I also started to understand some of the concepts like removeables, you factor out the top and bottom of a fraction and anything that cancels is a removable. The derivative part of the test was better than i thought it would be lol.

On Thursday we started going over graphs of derivatives. I understand everything mrs. robinson went over on the graphs. How to know if its decreasing and increasing; and i understand about concave up and concave down. The only parts i am having problems with is when she gave us some equations and once we solved for x, we had to do a step that involved plugging back in for x, but we had to find different values than what were given. That's the only part that lost me a little bit, but i'm sure i'll get the hang of it.

So all in all, the third week of calculus was not bad. I was sure i was going to do very bad on derivatives, but i surprised myself lol. Even though we are learning new things now i'm sure i won't have any problems grasping the concepts this time. All i need is a few more examples and i'll be good to go. I'm looking forward to another good week!