Paul's Online Math Notes Calculus Ii -

“What website? Chegg? I’m not paying twenty bucks to be told ‘the answer is left as an exercise for the reader.’”

With nothing left to lose, Leo typed the clunky URL into his browser. The page loaded with the aesthetic of a 1998 GeoCities site—blue headers, Times New Roman, zero images. It was profoundly ugly. It looked like someone’s dad had coded it over a weekend in 2004.

Paul taught him the Shell Method when the Washer Method made him want to smash his laptop. Paul demystified Integration by Parts with the simple mnemonic “LIATE.” And when the final exam loomed, Leo printed out Paul’s “Calculus II Cheat Sheet” and taped it to his wall like a sacred scroll.

He smiled. He could hear Paul’s voice in his head: “Alright, let’s work an example. This is a classic integration by parts problem. You’re going to let u = x^3 and dv = sin(x) dx. It’s going to take three passes, but you’ve got this.”

Leo laughed. It was a hollow, tired laugh, but it was real. He bookmarked the page.

His friend Maya, camped out two seats away with a statistics textbook, didn’t look up. “Did you try the thing? The website?”