<p>I never got the hang of that class from the beginning. And you know math - you need to know everything if you want to learn anything else. I've been trying to understand all this, but basically, I didn't take enough prereqs. Right now, it's a D, the teacher might give me a generous curve. Still. How screwed am I and how can I try to unscrew myself?</p>
<p>current GPA 3.83 uw.</p>
<p>dream college... nahh ur just going to hurt my feelings again</p>
<p>yeah...since this semester is the most important part of the most important factor (GPA) in most college admissions. Can you have absenses over the limit and lose credit? Will your school just leave the course as No Credit? If it does, then you might try it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How screwed am I and how can I try to unscrew myself?
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Learn the material and pass the class? Linear algebra is a class that relies little on prior material, so I don't understand why you say you didn't have enough prereqs.</p>
<p>What have you been doing to learn the material? There are just tons of steps you can take; you don't have to rely just on the textbook you have been given. Probably the most popular linear algebra book for intro classes in college is the one by Strang. You could get that book. In fact I looked on the web and it turns out that the actual course taught by Strang at MIT is available online -- video of the lectures, applets to help you test out the concepts, etc. All absolutely free. You can buy one of the Problem Solver guides for linear algebra that has thousands of worked examples; cover up the answer, see if you get it right, repeat until you can do the topic quickly and accurately.</p>
<p>I second the MIT OpenCourseWare suggestion. I've been using it myself for physics this year, and I can't imagine the Linear Algebra being bad. So work on bringing your grade up, and maybe ask for some extra credit?</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack, but what's this MIT book and how can it be used for physics? Any good? You can PM me the answer if you don't want to add to my hi-jackingness.</p>
<p>I thought Linear algebra was not that difficult when I took the course...</p>
<p>the Strang lectures only seem to cover like 1/3 of the course I'm taking (seen it). He emphasized a lot on eigenvalues and eigenvectors. My class is talking about... quite frankly I don't even know how to explain it nor do I freaking care anymore.</p>
<p>Dual spaces and normal adjoint operators? Just search for tons of practice proofs and know all the theorems.</p>