1. Go to www.google.com and type in the “buzz words” pertaining to the concepts you are trying to understand.  There is an entire universe of tutorials/info for every concept being taught in this class (and other classes as well).  Use the internet.  Although much of the material you are responsible for comes from Sullivan’s Trigonometry 8/e book, I have added some material not in the book (to aid your understanding) and we’ll skip much of the material in the book due to time constraints.

  1. Remember, most books have the same material in them, some just have different wording and/or approaches.  All of them give an incomplete picture.  You should use many books for reference in all of your classes.  It helps.

  1. Tutoring

Q-Lab:http://www.utsa.edu/trcss/assistance/tutoring/index.html
Math Tutoring Lab:http://math.utsa.edu/~lab/
MAPhttp://www.utsa.edu/trcss/tutoring/map.html

  1. A math tutoring lab with tutors located in SB 2.01.02.

  1. The Q-Lab is located in the center of campus in room MS 2.02.54.  Precalculus and Calculus 1 tutors are available in the Q-Lab.

Windows Only:    A simple graphing program called Graph can be downloaded here.  Or click here to try out one made by Content On Demand Inc. and let me know which one you like better and why.

Mac OS X Only: If you have an Apple Computer running Mac OS X then you can use the built-in graphing program "Grapher" found in your Utilities folder within your Applications folder.  This is the best graphing calculator I’ve seen yet.

Resources

The Internet

  1. Books

Graphing Calculator Programs

and

A Computer Algebra System (CAS) is a computer program that does math.  There are many that range from free to expensive, simple to complex, and you can check out a comparison chart of the different CAS’s available here.  Make sure you learn to use one of these during the semester to check your answers and learn how you can use it for your other classes.  This is a necessary skill that unfortunately isn’t taught in college but many science majors will be expected to have mastered by graduation day by those industries looking for fresh grads to hire.  Of those programs listed in the comparison chart mentioned above, I have used Maxima and Sage, which are free, and Maple and Mathematica are not free but student discounts are available.  Find one you like and learn to use it.  Ask the professors in your field of study which one might be best for you.

Computer Algebra Systems