it depends on what sort of person you are...for me math comes a lot easier than a subject like english. but when i had to prepare for calc exams i would usually go through and do several problems on the material and work them out and understand the concept. my dad told me growing up math was really easy as long if you understood the concept the rest is just plugging in the numbers and working it out. i dont know what level of calculus you are trying to prepare for...if its basic differentiation and integration you should be fine if you work out a bunch of problems. i know that was vague, but good luck
With calculus, I always found that the hard part wasn't the calculus concepts themselves but the algebra that was involved to get problems solved, especially some of that obscure algebra that you don't get around to because it is at the end (like completing the square, anyone?). Everything you learned in algebra (and sometimes the things you weren't able to get to) comes back into play in calculus. All you can do is work as many problems as you can and like someone else said earlier, try to understand the concept and process and not be so focused on the answer. Now this is coming from someone who has a math degree and never made below a 90 on a single calculus test (and never below an 87 on a differential equations test) but the first math class I took in college wasn't calc I - it was an algebra and trigonometry/pre-calculus class. I had close to a 100 average for that class but I was so glad I took it because it gave me the confidence to do well in calc I. You may just need to have a boost of confidence.
Very, very true. A lot of what I get bogged down on in calculus are the algebra portions of it. For what it's worth, I feel I did pretty well today. It was a Cal I test, and I have a good feeling because I even got the optimization problem right, which is a huge step in the right direction, lol.
Oooh...optimization problems - I remember those problems - they, along with triple integrals (which is in calc III and it was only when you changed the intervals in doing your integration) were the hardest topics for me in the calculus. Glad you think you did okay - good luck the rest of the way.