God can I relate with this. My college/high-school experience of Calculus was miserable. It was built on already shaky Math foundations, so I simply did not understand it at the time. I did enough past papers to memorize the sequence needed to solve the questions in the format they gave it in, and squeaked by with a B or a C iirc. It was never explained to me why I would ever need Calculus, other than to pass my Math exams so I could go to University and get a good job. All this study; 0 context.
Lo and behold, I went to university to study electrical engineering. I needed it for everything, from differentiator circuits, to digital signal processing, to current flows. Limits, derivatives, and integrals are the backbone of EE. My foundational knowledge of Calculus was non-existent. We glossed over it on my course because the assumption is that most everyone knew it because it's part of the College curriculum. I had to go through hell and back at university, doing my coursework while simultaneously catching up on all of the mathematics I had failed to grasp in my college days.
I would have been much better served by solidifying my Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry. Better yet, do a pre-Calc (not really a thing in the UK afaik) course containing 101 real life examples of where this might be useful.
Lo and behold, I went to university to study electrical engineering. I needed it for everything, from differentiator circuits, to digital signal processing, to current flows. Limits, derivatives, and integrals are the backbone of EE. My foundational knowledge of Calculus was non-existent. We glossed over it on my course because the assumption is that most everyone knew it because it's part of the College curriculum. I had to go through hell and back at university, doing my coursework while simultaneously catching up on all of the mathematics I had failed to grasp in my college days.
I would have been much better served by solidifying my Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry. Better yet, do a pre-Calc (not really a thing in the UK afaik) course containing 101 real life examples of where this might be useful.