Dear Math 142 Student,

Hi! I am writing this letter you in order to help give you some helpful hints about how to succeed in this class.

My first piece of advice would be not to stress too much. Get to know Professor Hanusa because he is extremely helpful and accessible outside of class! If you have any questions at all be sure to ask them, and don't be shy. That is definitely one thing I wish I took more advantage of throughout the semester. The first part of class is usually spent going over any homework questions so be sure to stay on top of that as well. Trust me, the homework IS actually helpful and really shows you how to break down the different topics.

My second piece of advice would be to definitely make sure you understand the homework. The homework gives you a bunch of different examples that really make sure you know all the different ways to go about solving a problem. Furthermore, if you don't understand the homework you most likely will do poor on the assessments. You will also most likely be very confused in the next topic that gets covered because the majority of the topics that are covered lead into one another. Make sure you have a strong grasp and understanding of the topic before you find yourself completely lost for the remainder of the semester.

My third, and final, piece of advice is to make sure you stay on top of your assessment grades. Professor Hanusa let's you reassess at least one standard every week. In doing so you can only help yourself do better in the class because he takes the highest scored assessment or reassessment received for that standard. Checking gradesly allows you to make sure you're on top of all of your grades and makes sure that you know what your grade is and where you stand for the end of the semester. So be sure to check gradesly and that you stay on top of your grades and take advantage of all the opportunities Professor Hanusa gives you to one better your grade. Remember he's there to help you do well, so don't be afraid to bring him any questions! I wish you the best of luck this semester!

You’re probably required to take Mathematics for your major if you’re taking 142. If you’re taking it for fun, I commend you. If you’re lucky enough to take Professor Hanusa’s class, you’re in for a good time. Professor Hanusa cares, understands, communicates, and teaches. He takes extra measures to make sure every student has the opportunity to learn and succeed. Your friends in other math classes wish they registered for his class.

Assessments. Professor Hanusa shifts away from the conventional methods of having one or mode exams throughout the semester and then a final exam. Instead, he has a list of specific standards that all students should learn and understand throughout the semester. What makes this important and effective is the emphasis he is now able to put on actually understand why certain rules and methods to answering a problem are what they are. On top of that, if you did poorly on an assessment, you have infinite opportunities to correct the grades you receive for the standards — so long as you communicate with him.

Communcation. Professor Hanusa is very good at communicating with and understanding each student. If you feel behind or left out, reach out to him and see him during his office hours. I’m certain he loves to chat as well. Besides, communication will ensure success in his class since you’ll probably need to do at least one or two reassessments. (I know I’m not the only one in the world who needed to do them.) Aside from himself, Professor Hanusa is very insistent that students work and study together. I’ve definitely seen a change in my studying and ability to understand the material after understanding group dynamics. Group work is for your own good. It’s important to be able to understand teach the material you must know for his class.

Final Project. Not only does Professor Hanusa care about you and the material he’s covering, he goes as far as to even have a really cool final project for the end of the semester. It’s not difficult or extremely time consuming at all, and you’ll have a group to do it with.

To the future student it may concern,

If you're probably reading this, it means you're interested in taking Calculus 142, with Professor Hanusa. If you're taking this class expecting an easy A without putting in effort then this class is not for you. Similarly, I used to be like this, always procrastinating, and never putting in the amount of time I should be learning calculus to do as well as I wanted. However, Professor Hanusa puts in a positive spin that allows you to see how well you do week by week, so you can manage your short term goals well. Consequently, before you realize, you have built a solid foundation for calc 2 just by working to do well on every assessment.

Some things to know about this class is that this is not a normal calculus class. Professor Hanusa utilizes assessments rather than 3 standardized tests for the whole semester. As a result, you would be taking an assessment every other week, rather than a test every month. This is beneficial because it allows you to really hammer in the skills required to do well. In addition, you can reassess up to 2 assessments per week, which is very forgiving just in case you do poorly on the assessment that week.

Finally, my biggest advice I can give to upcoming students is to always keep up with the assessments and reassessments. While it is convenient to put them off for the following week, it is better to develop the habit of doing better week by week. This way you do not end up having to reassess 5 or more assessments at the very end of the semester during finals week. It is going to be a lot harder to study for the assessments and the final, in addition to all your other classes all at once.

For some unknown reason you have chosen to embark on this journey of math 142. First of all, welcome to the nerd club, I hope that this class gives you all the skills and knowledge you're hoping for! We all know college is rough, especially a new professor, so in an attempt to make sure you feel as comfortable as possible I want to give you some 'words of wisdom' I wish I would've known going into this class.

My first suggestion - don't be scared of Professor Hanusa, he is actually really calm and very understanding. If you feel concerned about the standards or about the assessments just email him with them. He listens, he really does! The cherry on top? He even is willing to change his outline to accommodate the class. Also, go to class, I know we all get tired and it seems boring and exhausting to go to class when we've had that bad day but going to class and sitting in the front is really beneficial in the long run, it also affects your final grade so that something to think about- ☺ Make sure you also keep an eye on Gradesly! This is something I wish I had realized earlier. I get really bad anxiety checking my accounts but trust me when I tell you it gets easier and you'll be happy you did it.

Finally, I'll leave you with one last piece of advice: work with someone. Walk up to someone the first day and ask them to be your study buddy. Professor Hanusa likes group activities so trust me when I say it's easier to do this now rather than later. Please remember to have fun and do't stress too much. We're all learning so there's no crime in asking questions or admitting you're lost. I promise.

Good luck!

Future Students of Math 142,

In the second semester of calculus there are some things I wish I had known before going into this class. One of those things being just how much there is to go through in a short amount of time and how difficult some topics would be. This is expected with two classes a week but I didn’t consider how much more difficult some of the material would be compared to 141. You should expect an increase in difficulty in 142 compared to 141 simply because it uses the material you learned last year and builds of from it. Many of the problems that you will solve in 142 may be considered difficult depending on the individual but it all comes down to practice. With practice and effort it will make many of the topics in this course easier, but that is if you’re willing to put in the time.

One of the things I would do if I had to do it over again is to organize my notes as best as possible, even if it meant rewriting them. It will help a lot when you’re looking back at your back notes to see how you go about solving a certain problem. It won’t help you if can’t understand what you wrote. Another thing is to be careful when you’re looking at how a certain problem is done, you may think you understand it, but two days later you may forget how to do it. This ties it back in with practice, even if you do the homework, get it all right, don’t neglect that material completely come back to it every now and then to make sure you still know it. Ultimately math 142 may be more difficult for many you but don’t get discouraged, put in the time, practice, and effort and you will do fine.

Dear Future Students,

Now that I’m here at the end of the semester, I have thought of a few things that might have helped me if I had known them in the beginning. Know your derivatives; memorize them! Memorizing them will make your life infinitely easier. Also, make sure you have a solid understanding of derivatives and why to use them because they are the basis of the entire course. Derivatives are the rate of change of a function with respect to x, and can be used to find the velocity and acceleration of an object. Finally, while the class does have several formulas to memorize, it has more to do with understanding the concepts. If you only memorize the formulas without understanding how to get them, this class will be that much harder.

This class can be a lot of fun so long as you keep up with your work and can follow along with the material. This is not a class that you can do minimal effort and breeze through without already knowing the material. My advice to you would be to take your time through this course and make sure you can understand key concepts before moving on to new material. After you finish a lecture, go into the textbook or homework and do some problems. Practice really does make perfect in this class. Make some time to study outside of class, preferably with other students. I recommend studying with other students specifically because it was my fellow classmates that helped me clarify what we learned in lecture if and when I needed it. Finally, understand that this can be a difficult course at times and just keep studying. As hard as it might seem, never give up. You never know when a single problem in the homework might clarify an entire concept. Good luck to you all and welcome to Math 142!

Welcome to Math142 class! This is a very cool class, even though it might not seem like it at the beginning. In the end it will all make sense to you when you get to do your class project and actually see and hold the math you are going to learn in your own hands. That feeling was magical to me, and I hope you will feel the same. You will learn in this class that calculus has a wide range of applications in your daily life. Derivatives and Integrals are so important, they are an essential part what is building our future. Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning, and Automation, are big buzzwords we hear everyday in the news, and the algorithms that make these things work all involves Derivatives and Integrals. This class is cool!

One piece of advice I want to give you is that you should pick more than one person to be in your group for the project. Because when that other person decides not to come to class in the middle of your project, you get stuck with the project all to yourself, all of it! I wish I had known that earlier in the beginning, so my advice to you is , be more social, join a larger group, and make new friends! Also spending time practicing homework problems is very important too, otherwise at the end of semester you will forget what you've learned and be overwhelmed by trying to relearn everything the day before your final exam, and it is impossible! I hope you enjoy this class and enjoy learning more calculus!

Best Wishes

Former MA142 student

Dearfuture Calculus Math 142 students,

I congratulate you for coming this far into your mathematical academic careers. Calculus is not an easy subject, but an interesting one as you come to realize concepts you will be taught need patience and time. As the semester began, I was positive and believed I was able to do well in this math course as I previously took the semester before Math 141. I advise you however to skim through your previous calculus notes. Although new material will be taught, old topics will reappear and it is your responsibility to remember previous material to apply to certain present solutions. Professor Hanusa teaches how to solve solutions, but most importantly the purpose and explanation of what that material is useful for.

I suggest completing all homework assignments. Participate and ask as many questions that trouble you. Work in study groups as you come to realize group study play also an important role as it broadens your understanding in a particular subject material. Most importantly, practice, practice, practice on more problems as it benefits you to work on the material later on in a timely manner especially during weeks of assessments which are given out to see how well you know that standard you will be tested on. In calculus, it is significant that you master the concepts and their definitions through daily practice. Benefits of practicing these standards helps you familiarize the structure of the lesson in order to comprehend the concept skills efficiently.

My advice to you is have a positive attitude. Practice daily and you will see how your math skills will improve. Do not fear Calculus. Throughout the semester topics such as anti derivatives, definite and indefinite integrals, exponential, logarithmic functions, area between curves are just a few of the many standards you will be taught and tested on. At the end of the semester you will be able to create a Goblet project as the goblet must be a solid of revolution created by revolving a piece-wise-defined function along where you will follow criteria listed for the project to see your Goblet come alive through the art of 3-D printing where it will be presented in class. GOOD LUCK!

So, you are taking Math 142—Integral Calculus! Firstly, congrats on managing to get into Professor Hanusa's class. He is the best, in my opinion, at explaining the abstract concepts of calculus. If I were to describe calculus in one word, I would describe it as logical. Calculus is abstract but logical, so understanding the logic behind many of the concepts you will learn will help you a great deal. For the next few months, live by the motto "understand, don't memorize" (except trig functions, you have to memorize those).

Also, form study groups! What's better than one head? two, or three, or ten. The point is, if you are having difficulty with one question, going over it with a peer can really help you understand it, and you might learn to approach a problem from a different angle. Also, helping others with a question, also helps cement the concepts in your mind. Keep up with the homework, write down questions you don't understand, and ask for help in class, or ask your peers. Last of all, Enjoy! Trust me, calculus can be fun, and the feeling you get when you finally tackle that really hard problem, there's nothing like it!

To All Future Students,

I would like to start by saying Professor Hanusa has been the very best math experience I have had in Queens College. Throughout my school career, I have never had an issue with math. Math was always my strongest subject, sleeping in class and pulling 90's and A's type of strong. That was until I had to take Calculus 142 last semester, I managed to only get a D. It was demoralizing to have my lowest grade in my strongest subject, especially since it was a requirement to my major, and I have been intimidated by Integrals since. Professor Hanusa made the priority for me to truly understand math itself, rather than worrying about the grade. Truth is integrals is an extremely difficult topic, all the people I have asked also acknowledge the difficulty, but Professor Hanusa changed my perspective on how to learn this. Giving us multiple opportunities to understand topics, not just the math of it but also the things behind the scene, verbally explaining why we do it, how to do it, and when to do it, it all helped me tremendously to understand math, and it will help you too.

I recommend all future students to not underestimate this topic, for it blew my peers and my own mind away. Integrals is much different than typical math, and is much more complicated than 141/Derivatives. Do not take a day off and never miss this class, you will learn a bunch of stuff and it is much more difficult to understand something when the Professor does not show exactly how to do it. Homework is something else that is extremely important, and although it is a burden, every homework adds up and the homework is how you can drill this stuff into your head. Most importantly, from what I learned from this semester, is that understanding how and why things in math work is equally if not more important than knowing how to punch in the numbers and solving functions. This is something that Professor Hanusa did a fantastic job emphasizing.

I truly could not have asked for a better math professor than Chris, he does such a fantastic job teaching and he truly cares about his students. Any time you have a question about something, he makes sure he responds and helps as much as he can. Getting this type of support is extremely rare in college and I really thank Professor Hanusa for going out of his way for his students. I recommended him to all of my friends and I hope I can come across Professor Hanusa as a professor for another math class somewhere down the line. I can not stress how thankful I am for having him as my math professor and you will feel the same too. If Professor Hanusa is your instructor, take a sigh of relief because I promise he will do his best to take care of his students. Good luck to all future students!