This is what I kept trying to explain to the freshmen and sophomores I used to tutor. The physics is easy once you learn the conservations: energy flows and transforms, can you see where it goes and add it up?

The math is hard.

Same deal in calculus. Conceptually very easy, you can determine the total by adding up the amount in the slices. Calculus is easy, algebra is hard.

For anyone out there beginning their journey reading this, there is nothing I would recommend more than this: do the work; chew the pencil; become very good at algebra.