Online Resources for High School Calculus

There is a wealth of learning resources for calculus students and many of them are available for free online. The following is a collection of courses and resource materials for students studying high school calculus that can help with learning lessons and passing tests.

Introductory basics

Calculus Help: This online tutorial helps students understand the introductory basics of calculus. Tutorials focus on the following topics: Limits, Continuity, The Intermediate Value Theorem, The Difference Quotient, The Power Rule, The Product Rule, The Quotient Rule and The Chain Rule.

Calculus for Beginners and Artists: This introductory online tutorial, developed by a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gives a comprehensive overview of calculus and includes interactive applets to help learners visualize concepts.

High school AP calculus courses

CollegeBoard.com: This downloadable study guide gives students an overview of calculus subject guidelines used in SAT scoring. It also includes sample problems. Completion of the AP Calculus Course allows students to continue to more advanced level college courses in mathematics and to participate in calculus based science courses.

Brightstorm: This website offers a complete online AP Calculus Program and relevant resources for about $30 per month. Study guides are included along with worksheets and strategies for boosting test scores. Comprehensive subject areas are:

• Limits and continuity
• Derivatives
• Differentiation techniques
• Applications of derivatives
• Anti-derivatives and differential equations
• Definite integrals

ARS Mathimatica Online: This website offers AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC in compliance with CollegeBoard guidelines. It is a rigorous program with a focus on understanding rather than rote memorization of technique. It’s intended for well-prepared students with a strong interest in math and science. Tuition is in the $600 to $700 range for each course segment.

Resources

A medley of online resources can assist students. These include problems with step-by-step solutions, graphical animations and software that can solve algebraic and calculus problems using mathematical symbols.

Calculus.org: This free online resource offers a collection of calculus problems with solutions on a variety of topics. There are also sample exams and solutions to problems in differential, integral and multi-variable calculus.

Gallery: This collection of calculus and related animations is designed to demonstrate concepts in Analytic Geometry, Differentiation I and Applications of Differential Calculus.

Maxima: This free software can perform calculus operations and check calculations. It runs on Linux and Windows and is one of the oldest computer algebra software programs ever written. Another program that is commercially available is Mathematica, which is also computational software used in scientific, engineering and mathematics.  However, it is very costly.

The best way to learn high school calculus is to take the time to understand the concepts. Using multiple tools like those listed above to learn subject matter can help a student master a topic.