I'm 45 and working on my computer science degree. I hadn't taken a math course since 1989 (which was Algebra II, I think?). Anyway, I had to back all the way up to math developmental courses to act as a refresher. I then proceeded to Pre-Calc I and II just so I could resume working on my degree which requires Calc I & II.
Prior to Calculus, the math courses I took I scored A's in with moderate effort. Calculus though? Difficulty ramped up to absurd levels. And, again, I don't find the concepts difficult to comprehend at all, but the instructor expects that you really know your algebra and trig well because the problems get way out of hand. And quite honestly I don't practice that stuff enough to get that good at it. It's like every problem of hers is a complex math puzzle. I guess at a real university (this is a community college) this stuff is made even more difficult? I've heard horror stories of pretty much everyone getting failing test grades and you just have to rely on grading curves in order to pass. It's obviously not that difficult because there are plenty of students getting A's and B's but for me it's taking massive effort to be in the 'C' range.
To add, the main reason I'm not doing exceedingly well is because I fuck up constantly. I'm always screwing something somewhere, or forget some little notation (like the "dx" on an integral), and my instructor punishes you big time for shit like that. It's frustrating because it's ultimately unavoidable...I cannot not make mistakes and there isn't enough time to review your work. Usually half the students are still working right up to end of the class.
