P.S. One more comment to what Anna wrote: << A solid understanding of discrete math concepts (for example, more familiarity with summations than the brief introduction they get in calculus, or the binomial expansion) would make calculus far less threatening.
The fact that in the past many students came to calculus without adequate preparation has been appreciated years ago, and for this reason the oddly named "pre-calculus" course has appeared in many, many H.S. and college curricula. It includes trigonometry and other subjects, and has replaced what used to be a full year of trig in many H.S. curricula. --Dan ________________________________________________________________________________________ "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." --Groucho Marx