Masters of calculus come prepared, Harvard study shows
Calculus. The word alone is enough strike terror into the hearts of even the most accomplished students, but for those who break out in cold sweats at the thought of differentiation rules and integral tables, researchers Philip Sadler and Gerhard Sonnert bring a message of hope. Contrary to conventional wisdom, taking high school calculus isn’t necessary for success in college calculus. What’s more important is mastering the prerequisites — algebra, geometry, and trigonometry — that lead to calculus. That insight comes from a study of more than 6,000 college freshmen at 133 institutions carried out by the Science Education Department of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Sadler, the Frances W. Wright Senior Lecturer on Celestial Navigation and Astronomy, and Sonnert, a research associate, led the study, which was described in a paper published in May in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. “We study the transition from high school to college,...