Expert: Dr. Jeffery Raymond - 10/25/2011

Question
im studying chemical engineering 2nd year. so i can't remember much from my first year the calculus i learnt last year is also gone out the window i basically have forgotten a lot of fundamentals over the course of the summer holidays. its probably because i did stupid things like crap 300 pages of organic chemistry in 3 days (which i did successfully mind you).

my question is that in this situation i'm in now i have an unbelievable amount of advanced stuff to learn without a proper foundation... like putting blocks on a dodgy jenga tower.
i feel kinda lost my lecturers just tell me to read up on my calculus est how am i supposed to do that with them asking me to hand in multiple BS assignments and take tests every week.
and i'm studying in the uk so i don't get extensions on handouts est. hence why i am up till nearly 2 am with a 9 am lecture...

do you have any ideas.?
i asked in the time management section and go bless her the sweet lady told me to use a recorder which was just a massive failure in more than 3 ways.

Answer
So, not knowing the type of student you are, here is my initial suggested algorithm for handling this:

First, use khanacademy.org for any math help you might need.  This is an amazing resource for getting a handle on forgotten and missed calc.  It also has modules for chemistry and physics.
Second, pick up the actual laminated subject sheets from a student bookstore.  Yes, they are cheesy, but just having them out while you work helps keep previously covered material in the back of your mind while you work on new stuff.
Third, go online, find an old edition of your book and the FULL solution manual.  This will put you in a situation where you get to look over problems similar to your course and see them worked explicitly... every time you see math that is hazy, go right back to khanacademy and look for the session on that type of operation (they are only 12 min. per video).

Having just taught a second year physical chemistry course for engineers, this is a strategy that I gave to my students on day one.  

I hope this helps... and don't be afraid to put in a half hour a day doing calc. Your doing chem. eng.  and any time put in now will save you a lot of pain later when you get into high end thermo and flow dynamics work.