Understanding Calculus (MCV4U): A Helpful Guide for Ontario High School Students

As someone who took MCV4U just a few years ago, I remember how fast-paced and overwhelming it felt at times. That’s exactly why I started tutoring, to help students who feel the same way I did.

When I was in Grade 12, I knew how important it was to succeed in Calculus, especially since I was applying to competitive programs like Computer Science at U of T and Engineering at Queen’s and Western.

What Makes Calculus MCV4U Hard?

Everything prior to Calculus builds off previous material, like how grade 10 math leads to grade 11 functions, then to grade 12 advanced functions. Calculus MCV4U is kind of a hard restart on a completely new topic, that being the topic of derivatives. The first few units will focus on introducing you to derivatives, usually starting with something called first principles. Eventually this will tie back into previous work with curve sketching using derivatives. You'll pretty much learn how to use derivatives to graph functions that are higher order than quadratics, like y = x³.

How to Succeed and Get Help in Calculus MCV4U

Because calculus is a hard restart on a new topic, this is the perfect opportunity to not fall behind, focus on understanding topics in class and asking questions on anything that confuses you. This should make doing most homework questions easy, just don't fall behind on homework as material builds off each other very quickly. You need to make sure you can keep up to be productive in learning when the teacher teaches the next lesson. If you feel yourself falling behind or unable to keep up with the pace of the course, feel free to contact me or our tutors for online tutoring.

What to Do If You Need Help After Falling Behind in Calculus MCV4U

Just because you have fallen behind and may have a unit test coming up, does not mean it is over for you. Go to your homework and start from the beginning of the unit, you don't need to do every question, just enough to understand the main idea of each homework section. Do not worry if you cannot even start the homework, Calculus MCV4U is a well documented course with lots of tutorials online to teach you how to do it, the hardest part is knowing what to search online.

Where to Find Calculus MCV4U Help Online

Let me show you my strategy for Calculus MCV4U that helped my sister go from mid 70s in advanced functions to low 90s in calculus. Apart from 1 on 1 tutoring, I showed my sister the Jensenmath website. I'm not sure who made this, but it's a really good resource that fits the Ontario curriculum really well. Most of the types of questions that will be on your tests will have lessons documented here. If there's one problem that you're just stuck on and cannot figure out, I highly recommend you skip it, it's more important you can do the majority of questions on the unit as a whole rather than quirky, one time thinking questions. Just don't skip every question though...

Final Thoughts

Calculus can be challenging, and if you are already taking it, many of your peers probably feel it's easier than advanced functions, but if you're reading this, you are likely still struggling from falling behind. Remember to focus on homework problems, I wouldn't even bother looking back at lessons unless it was to help with homework. Use the Jensenmath website if you need tutorials on homework problems. If you still need help, feel free to contact me for tutoring on this website. I tutor online and am flexible with timings so I can make it work for you. Good luck studying!