How good are you at calculus?

[TimeWoundsAllHeals]

Just curious how familiar people are with calculus?

A) didn’t ever learn it
B) some conceptual knowledge but don’t ask me to solve any problems
C) could probably solve problems after a brief refresh
D) univariate calculus only
E) multivariate calculus
F) I use calculus all the time, could do it in my sleep

I’m feeling so inadequate that I’m just a B, feels like I’m not really a proper adult.

C

What has calculus got to do with being an adult?

How well do you speak Arabic?
How well can you fly a plane?
How well can you tile a room?
How many languages can you code in?
How are your plumbing skills?
How well can you set a broken bone?
How well can you knit?

Calculus is a random one to pick!

I am probably A... But it has no impact on my life!

The maths most people need day to day outside work is probably limited to addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and percentages. If people could generally understand statistics and how to interpret them that would be more useful than calculus!

Skills needed at work can be very specialised obviously.

Did it for Higher maths.

Haven't used it since 1989. Have never been in a job, or situation where I've ever needed to, or wanted to.

Have no interest in re-learning what I once knew about it.

I teach calculus at A-level but I know that I’ve forgotten an awful lot of calculus I did at degree level. So where does that put me?

I'm probably a C.

I probably used to be an E whilst doing my maths degree, don't think I was ever an F.

I also don't think calculus has anything to do with being an adult.

F currently teaching the DC and had a bit of refresher.

Used to be E, probably now at C

C at best, did a maths degree 30 years ago, haven’t used it for 25 years.

It doesn’t matter to me, why does it matter to you OP? Is it something you need?

F. Use it at work and have a couple of degrees where it was very useful to me. Still have to look a few bits up now and then though.

I have a degree in maths so I'm pretty good. I enjoy calculus.

I think lots of people can do calculus but wouldn't call it that.

B/C which is quite embarrassing given my job/degree. I never really properly got the hang of Lebesgue integration . Only ever use it to help DC with maths homework. I tend to solve problems at work using brute force computing and simulations where I can literally see what’s going on rather than genuinely advanced maths.

@DadDadDad I didn’t do maths a level (I did a compsci at degree level and there was a maths catchup module for non a level havers but I was not a good student and only scraped a pass in it) but there’s lots of mathematical related things that really interest me. I actually have cause to use calculus in my hobbies (sahm so don’t work) so my inadequacy is confronting me often. I’m working through khan academy to fix it.

E

A, 90% of the stuff I learned for O'level I never used again from walking out of the exam hall, I scraped a grade C. Worked for 27 years in Revenue and Customs, never needed anything other than standard arithmetic, only had to do stuff by hand for probably a year before computers were introduced.

I’m interested in what your hobby is that requires calculus!

Well I’m interested in data science for instance.

Not sure what data science is, but do you know about Wolfram Alpha? It’s a bloody amazing website that can do calculus for you. If you pay for the app, it does a step by step breakdown of its working so you can see exactly which methods it has used to do it.

E to F. Don't use it much nowadays but no problems when I need it.

D, have learnt E but don't remember it.

fun of calculus

Now there are two words which really don't belong in the same sentence.

A or B
I scraped an A in GCSE maths, but didn’t choose to study it in my A levels
I could be wrong but I don’t think this was part of my GCSE syllabus or maybe I only learnt the basics? I really can’t remember

Probably a C, just about. Did well in A-level but that was 16 years ago and haven't really used it since.

@Grapetree wasn't on WJEC GCSE maths when I did. I think the people who did it not as part of A Level did it as part of O Levels. Or maybe they did further maths.