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I'm certainly very happy that I learned calculus in high school. I then got a 5 on the AP calculus test and tested in to third quarter calculus in college. It w

I'm certainly very happy that I learned calculus in high school. I then got a 5 on the AP calculus test and tested in to third quarter calculus in college. It was important as an engineer to understand those concepts. I don't use them too often and I forgot a lot of it, but I really enjoyed it and I think it would be unfortunate if other students did not have that opportunity. I agree stats would be great too!

canadaduane 5y ago
As a software engineer, I wish I had learned stats instead of calculus. Some exposure would have been great, but the high school & university requirements were way off target wrt its usefulness in computer science. It was a painful process of learning, failing, and re-taking calculus, squeaking by, only to never use it again. I was a straight-A student otherwise.
- TaylorAlexander 5y ago
  I get that. As a robotics engineer, some cursory understanding of integrals and derivatives is useful. But what I really mean is that, as a person, I just really enjoyed calculus. I found I was very good at it, and that experience helped me understand why some people choose to focus their career on pure mathematics. I am happy I took calculus not as a means of training for the workforce, but because I found it enriching on its own. And I never would have taken all that time if it wasn't offered to me as a class in public school that counted as credits towards graduation.
- raegis 5y ago
  Why is this either/or? I took both calculus and statistics in college. Were you forced to choose one or the other?
  - leaflets2 5y ago
    Seems to me that calculus was required, but stats wasn't, and at the time it didn't seem that important? Where I grew up btw we studied only calculus, integrals and stuff, no stats, in high school. (Stats in uni)

3 ms·

I'm certainly very happy that I learned calculus in high school. I then got a 5 on the AP calculus test and tested in to third quarter calculus in college. It w

by TaylorAlexander 5y ago

canadaduane 5y ago
As a software engineer, I wish I had learned stats instead of calculus. Some exposure would have been great, but the high school & university requirements were way off target wrt its usefulness in computer science. It was a painful process of learning, failing, and re-taking calculus, squeaking by, only to never use it again. I was a straight-A student otherwise.
- TaylorAlexander 5y ago
  I get that. As a robotics engineer, some cursory understanding of integrals and derivatives is useful. But what I really mean is that, as a person, I just really enjoyed calculus. I found I was very good at it, and that experience helped me understand why some people choose to focus their career on pure mathematics. I am happy I took calculus not as a means of training for the workforce, but because I found it enriching on its own. And I never would have taken all that time if it wasn't offered to me as a class in public school that counted as credits towards graduation.
- raegis 5y ago
  Why is this either/or? I took both calculus and statistics in college. Were you forced to choose one or the other?
  - leaflets2 5y ago
    Seems to me that calculus was required, but stats wasn't, and at the time it didn't seem that important? Where I grew up btw we studied only calculus, integrals and stuff, no stats, in high school. (Stats in uni)