Calculus Redemption Arc
Failed the first two calculus exams at UNIFEI. Not “barely passed,” just failed. The kind of failure that makes you question why you thought engineering school was a good idea.
Professor Tião
First, credit where it’s due: Professor Sebastião (Tião to his students) was a badass. After 30+ years teaching calculus, all he needed was a piece of chalk and his epic mustache.
He’d walk into class and ask “what volume and chapter were we on last time?” Someone would say “2.3” and he’d just start writing on the board: “2.4 - Differentials using whatever method.” No notes, no slides, no textbook. He had it all memorized. There was no textbook. He taught everything from the heart.
Watching him go nuts on the board was genuinely amazing. Pure math, everything made logical sense. I could follow along, understand the derivations, see how one step led to the next. And therein lay my problem.
The High School Trap
I had a super easy time during high school. Never really had to study. That gift turned into a curse: terrible study habits that university was about to expose.
I’d watch Tião work his magic on the board, understand everything in the moment, and think “yeah, I got this.” I was wrong. Understanding in class and being able to reproduce it on an exam are two very different things.
First exam: 25/100. Second exam: 35/100 (after what I thought was “enough” studying).
Average: 30. Held for finals.
The Context (2010)
YouTube existed, but it wasn’t the educational powerhouse it is today. And even if it was, I was living at my grandma’s farm with nothing but a horrible 3G USB stick for internet. Streaming video? Forget it. Loading a webpage was an achievement.
This was the era of flash drive culture. Downloaded materials passed hand to hand like samizdat literature. Someone finds something good, they copy it to a drive, pass it on. Educational content spreading through sneakernet.
The Mystery Professor
One day, someone handed me a flash drive with hundreds of videos. Some professor from somewhere. I have no idea who he was or where the recordings came from. Just a voice and a screen.
The setup was beautifully primitive: some paint program on Linux, and he’d draw out the calculations with his mouse. Differentials, integrals, one after another. No fancy animations, no production value. Just a guy methodically working through problem after problem, mouse-drawn equations appearing on screen.
It was exactly what I needed.
The Grind
I spent two weeks watching those videos almost 24/7. Pausing, rewinding, working through problems alongside the mystery professor. When I ran out of his examples, I hunted down veterans (older students who’d already passed the class) and got them to hand over their old exams for practice.
I studied like I’d never had to study before. Not because I suddenly loved calculus, but because failure wasn’t an option and I’d finally found a method that worked for my brain.
The Result
Final exam: 100/100. Perfect score.
Now here’s where Tião proved he was as generous as he was talented. The normal rule was: (your average + final) / 2 needs to be over 50 to pass. That would’ve given me (30 + 100) / 2 = 65. Passing, but nothing special.
But Tião gave us an extra chance: the final grade would also replace your lowest exam score. So my 25 became a 100.
The math:
- New average: (100 + 35) / 2 = 67.5
- Final calculation: (67.5 + 100) / 2 = 83.75
From nearly failing to one of the highest grades in the class.
Sometimes you just need to find your footing. Sometimes your savior is an anonymous professor drawing integrals with a mouse in a Linux paint program, passed to you on a flash drive through the sneakernet. And sometimes you need a legendary mustached professor who believes in second chances.
Related
- UNIFEI - Where this happened
- Computer Science - The broader field