I’m drowning in derivatives, I can’t keep dy and dx straight

Elementary algebra was easy,

Algebra I and advanced alg II, I breezed through

But geometry and trig slowed me down,

College algebra tripped me up,

And calculus stopped me dead.

I’m drowning in derivatives and somehow I need to find a conjugate

Factoring quadratic polynomials I can take,

But it’s this graphing cubic and exponential functions,

That I really hate

Partial fraction decomposition may be tedious but

Trigonometric identities are fun

(Except when I spend three hours and only get two done.)

I’m drowning in derivatives, please let my confusion abate

Give me an arithmetic or geometric series,

And I can sum it

Or maybe to find the differential volume

Of a pool, in regards to time

But when it comes to inverse trigonometric functions,

My interest is tangent

I’m drowning in derivatives and now I have to integrate!