How hard is Calculus for Business?

[ChaoticShadow]

This probably isn't the best place to put this, but oh well.
I'm in high school, but I can take college courses, and I have the option of algebra for business calculus or calculus for business. I have no experience in calculus at all.

Can you give example questions for each course? Thanks!

 

[10tacle]

It's been about 20 years since I took business calculus in college, but it is much more complex and different than Algebra II (my high school at the time had Algebra I and Algebra II as well as calculus in succession).

The biggest difference between Biz-Calc and regular calculus is that Biz-Calc does not use trigonometry functions and instead uses statistical and financial functions. You don't say where you are in geometry or trigonometry. So hopefully that little bit of info helps you a little on what you are going to deal with. I still have all my books...somewhere.

 

[ChaoticShadow]

It's been about 20 years since I took business calculus in college, but it is much more complex than Algebra II (my high school at the time had Algebra I and Algebra II as well as calculus in succession). The biggest difference between Biz-Calc and regular calculus is that Biz-Calc does not use trigonometry functions and instead uses statistical and financial functions. So hopefully that little bit of info helps you a little on what you are going to deal with. I still have all my books...somewhere.

Thanks for the reply! I guess that makes sense, but I want to learn trig, so I guess Business calc is out the window for me.

So should I go with College Algebra or College Algebra for Business Calculus?
The way you explained it felt like College Alg for Business calc was more complex but lacked trig?
So College Alg is the equivalent of Alg 2?

 

[10tacle]

So should I go with College Algebra or College Algebra for Business Calculus? The way you explained it felt like College Alg for Business calc was more complex but lacked trig? So College Alg is the equivalent of Alg 2?

Honestly I'm not sure. Every state has their own definition standards of a course, so it's really hard to directly compare them. Also I know that standards have changed over the decades. What may have been called Algebra II in my high school in 1995 may be called College-Prep Algebra elsewhere. I've even heard of pre-calculus algebra.

Just based on the titles you mentioned, "algebra for business calculus" sounds like the better option since you have no calculus experience for "calculus for business." Sounds to me like the former is more of a pre-calc class. Of course if ever in doubt, consult your guidance counselor who is trained and has the experience to point you in the right direction based on your goals and your curricular capabilities.

 

[calmstateofmind]

The biggest difference between Biz-Calc and regular calculus is that Biz-Calc does not use trigonometry functions and instead uses statistical and financial functions.

I've been a college math tutor for the past 3 years, and from my own experience in having taken "standard" calculus courses and then tutoring in the math dept, this mentioned distinction is right on the money..

In business calculus, you will most likely touch on various statistical/financial concepts, and the problems you solve will most often have "real world" descriptions accompanying them.

"Regular" calculus, however, will include more proofs, use a decent amount of trig, and the examples/problems you solve won't be as "tangible" as the business calculus problems are.

All in all, you can consider business calc to be a special case of general calc.. Business calc will focus more on how to use calculus given various business applications, whereas general calculus will focus a little more as to why the calculus works.

Hope this helps!

 

[MU_Engineer]

This probably isn't the best place to put this, but oh well.
I'm in high school, but I can take college courses, and I have the option of algebra for business calculus or calculus for business. I have no experience in calculus at all.

Can you give example questions for each course? Thanks!

The biggest question is "what do you want to do for a job?" If you want to go into engineering, skip the "calc lite" classes and see if you can go to the local junior college and take the first semester of single-variable calculus (used to be called Calculus 1) in place of whatever math class your high school offers. That way you can test out of Calc I in college and go straight into Calc II and save yourself a bunch of money. If you want to so something that doesn't even require calculus, skip it entirely and do something that would be useful.

Disclosure: I am trained as an engineer and took all 3 semesters of calculus and differential equations. I at most use very simple algebra at work as I currently work in the medical field. A decently intelligent junior high school student could easily do all of the math I do at work. My hobbies actually require higher math than what I do at work, I enjoy woodworking and working on cars, which involves high school algebra, trig, and a little statics of materials which is a freshman-level calculus-based course.