Questions about teaching myself

I am about to be a sophomore in high school this next September, and I've always been quite good with math. I am impatient, and I don't want to wait the years it will take to learn calculus, which I will need to learn if I want to understand some hard-core physics. I am planning a career in physics. My question is, if I work hard, can I learn all my math up to calculus in a few months(around 6 months)? I'm just finished geometry. Also, do you think teaching myself calculus would look good in the eyes of colleges?

 

There are a number of math/phyics/sci. forums , you might check some of them .

 

i took pre-calc my junior year, and calculus my senior year for college credit. does your school offer anything like that?

 

If you are planning to master Calculus, then it'll probably take you close to a year--depending on how you define "hard work."

As for whether or not it'll look good in the eyes of a college: does it really matter?

 

School doesn't orient us very well if at all to how our brains actually operate. In actuality there is a lot wrong with the design of education which holds back a lot of otherwise super capable people. If you really understand what you're learning and are ready and motivated, you will actually grow the capacity you need to be better at the subjects you're interested in (neuroplasticity). So by all mean throw yourself into math following your own motivational impulses. Be sure to get good and deep sleep too. It is not well understood that the way the mind/brain grows capacity is tied to the achievement of delta wave sleep brain wave patterns. During this period of sleep one's own natural HGH--human growth hormone--is released and deployed by the body and the mind resulting in tiny augmentations to the brain which add up. These can not be rushed. Learning something like physics on a professional level should involve a life style to support physiological growth of brain to accommodate the increasing demands you'll place upon yourself or be called to by your curriculum. If you want an edge, this is a way to get it.

I'm 58 and was very smart in school almost effortlessly. If I had the knowledge then that I do now about the physiology of intellectual capacity growth, I would have made many different choices and have lived a more disciplined life. But none of this was known or practiced when I was a child. I found as an adult though that I had a knack for innovation. And curiously answers to perplexing questions would seem to pop up like toast from a toaster at odd times when I wasn't even thinking about the problem. It wasn't until I learned about the nature of intellectual capacity dynamics and the relationship to HGH and sleep that it all made sense that I was growing capacity and that is how and why answers seem to come when I'd wake up from a good sleep. Many people think you can "cram"--the brain is not a bucket. That is actually a famous quote of W.B. Yeats "the brain is not a bucket to be filled but a fire to be lit". He was on to something, but it is only becoming scientifically clear today what exactly goes on and why or why not and not much cutting edge understanding finds its way into actual new design. So, this is why I encourage you to not worry at all what the institution will favor. If you are a star who can deliver all the time, you may start getting a wide berth to just be the master you will become. Fight for that. There are control freaks in academia who mean well but are wrong about a lot of things.

 

That's what my daughters did. My 17 year old just graduated high school with 15 units of transferable college credit already earned by taking AP classes.

She is starting this fall as Chem major and if she wants she can skip the first two Chem courses as well as pre-calc & calculus if she wants.

She is going to go ahead and take them over, especially the chemistry to give herself a more firm foundation and it also give her a little breathing room the first semester to get used to life at college. With 18 units her first semester, having a couple "refresher" classes will help.
She wants to get into Calc 2, but can't until at least next semester, so she is going to take calc 1 over just to keep her brain sharp.


I sure as hell am glad my kids turned out so much smarter than me.


Sucks though because she is going to the opposite coast for 4 years..:bigcry: