Being ready to tackle the math courses in my CS program Here's my (long) story cut short. I was awful at math in high school. I did 4 years in the service and now I'm going to start college in just a few weeks. I am really nervous because I will have 5 classes in my first semester; 3 of which will be Discrete Math, Calculus I, and Linear Algebra I. I took Calculus I at community college and got a 100, but I feel like these classes will go into much more depth since it is University level. I have also completed all of Khan Academy up to and including Integral Calculus. 
I am currently doing all of the practice problems in a exercise booklet that my school sent me to brush up on precalculus and some of Calculus I. I have also gotten Gilbert Strang's Introduction to Linear Algebra and just started using it along with MIT OCW's Linear Algebra Course. 
What can I do to better prepare myself in the little time I have left? What advice can you all give me for once the semester starts? The trepidation is giving me a lot of sleepless nights. 
 A: I don't know the requirements of your CS major, your time
schedule for finishing your degree, or the nature of your
other two courses, but I'm curious why you
have scheduled three math courses out of five first term
courses. Is that your idea alone, or have you talked with an
adviser in your major about this schedule? Ordinarily, my
personal preference would be to wait to take linear algebra until
after calculus and discrete math. Maybe your case is an
exception because of the AP calculus. Or because of the pace
of related CS topics in parallel.
That said, you seem to have done what you can to get ready.
You are probably right that the college calculus course will
be different from AP calculus, and it is a good thing that
you expect that. The most dangerous approach would be to think
you already know everything, not notice key differences in
approach or extra topics as the terms goes along, and then
have too much to straighten out just before the first exam.
(In particular, you may find some of the material in Kahn
academy to have been very different from what you are
supposed to learn in a college course. Fundamentally different approaches,
goals, degrees of appreciation for rigor, etc, are possible. Focus on your
instructor's approach for now, you have the rest of your life
to sort out any differences.)
Finally, I would like to agree with the Comment 'don't worry too
much.' Unless being a 'party animal' is also big in your plans,
even a demanding schedule can be feasible if you can manage your
personal stress level along the with the academic work. Take a few
minutes now and then
to ponder the wonder of learning great mathematical ideas from
several centuries all in a relatively short period of time.
