My students in china hold a belief that: "If I work out 1000 calculus problems, I can make great improvement." However, sometimes it turns out to be quite disappointed.

Yes, I did much more than 1000 calculus problems. And I do suggest students who work on calculus do as much practice as you can. Solving math problems sometimes needs "common sense". The so-called common senses are from piles of practice. However, before I did those problems I may took a few more steps. Here, I want to share you with my tricks on how to practice efficiently.

First, I strongly recommend people sort the problems on hand. For example, when you do integrals, you may find there are a lot of kinds of substitution types: direct subs/trig subs/derivative subs etc. After you sort them, you can do each kind of problems without repetitions or misses. What's more, you can find out the "weak" parts or types you are not good at and practice more.

Second, never do those problems without detailed solutions. Because you need suggestion and advice from the solutions. Also sometimes solutions and you answers are alternative, then it will be helpful to broad you horizon for this kind of problems.

Third, set up your know collections of wrong problems you ever did. It will be very helpful I promise. When you prepare for a test, this kind of collections will reminds your weak points and traps in those kinds of problems. You won't hope a similar mistake happens twice.

Enjoy the world of calculus.

math tutor for college students and high school students