<p>Being that it's June 2nd, for the majority of us, school is out and we have gotten our grades back. </p>
<p>Post your grades with the corresponding courses for the fall and spring semester and give a brief review of how this academic year was for you (i.e. was it hard, a struggle, easy, etc). Also state your year.</p>
<hr>
<p>Year: Freshman</p>
<p>Fall Semester Grades
Chemistry 101: B
Differential Calculus: B
Historical Writing: B
Intro to Philosophy: B-</p>
<p>Spring Semester Grades
Chemistry 102: B
Integral Calculus: A-
American Education: B-
Microeconomics: P* (taken Pass/Fail)</p>
<p>Review: Being that I'm a Freshman, and didn't come from a HS that didn't prepare us for college that much, I'm satisfied with my grades. While it may not be the best and while it's no 4.0, I think for this year to be an adjustment year, I didn't do to bad. The year overall wasn't too hard and not too easy; just very stressful.</p>
<p>CHM 3120C Elementary Analytical Chemistry A-
CHM 4410 Physical Chemistry B
CHM 4970 Undergraduate Research S<br>
CLA 3103 Greek Civilization A<br>
IDH 4000 Hon Sem: Major Works/Issues (mind and brain) A+</p>
<p>Spring:
CHM 3610 Intermediate Inorganic Chem B+<br>
CHM 3610L Intermed Inorganic Chem Lab A+<br>
CHM 4060 Use of Chemical Literature A<br>
CHM 4410L Physical Chemistry Lab B<br>
CHM 4411 Physical Chemistry II B<br>
CHM 4970 Undergraduate Research S<br>
CLA 3124 Roman Civilization A<br>
STA 4442 Introduction to Probability A+ </p>
<p>All in all I’m really satisfied with how this school year went. I had some difficult classes and it took a lot of work to get the grades I did.</p>
<p>@NKChem: Haha. I know. Integral just clicked more and came more natural. I loathed Differential Calculus, we also had a sucky CD textbook and a noob prof.</p>
<p>Fall:
AL 485: Foundations of Museum Studies - 4.0
ANP 432: American Indian Women- 4.0
PRR 302: Environmental Attitudes and Concepts- 4.0
REL 101: Intro to Religion- 4.0
SPN 330: Spanish Phonetics and Pronunciation- 3.0</p>
<p>Spring:
AL 494: Museum Exhibits: Theory and Development- 4.0
ANP 264: Great Discoveries in Archaeology- 3.5
ANP 491: Archaeology of Ancient Egypt- 4.0
RCAH 290: Second Year Tutorial: Radical Education- 4.0
RCAH 292B: Civic Engagement in the Classroom- 4.0</p>
<p>Overall, I’m very happy with my grades. It was a very tough year for me (broke off a 5 year relationship/engagement, got into a new relationship, money issues, cancer scare, 6 people I know died- one of whom was a good friend and only 18, totaled my car in an ice storm, etc) and because of this, school was often put on the backburner so it was a rather rough academic year. But it has also been a very fulfilling year with new friends, a new academic direction, and a great new relationship. I wouldn’t change a thing.</p>
<p>Chem 130 - Gen Chem – 3 – A-
Chem 125/126 - Gen Chem Lab – 2 – A
Math 285 - Honors Theoretical Multi. Calc – 4 – A-
Engr 151 - Honors Programming – 4 – A-</p>
<p>Spring:</p>
<p>Physics 140 - Physics: Mechanics – 4 – A+
Physics 141 - Physics: Mechanics Lab – 1 – A
Math 286 - Honors Theoretical Diffy Qs – 3 – B+
Engr 100 - Intro to Engr: Gaming for the Greater Good – 4 – A
Environ 376 - Environmental Ethics – 3 – P</p>
<p>I can’t really complain. At the end of my first semester I was in a position to get As in all my classes, but I didn’t put the amount of time into studying for finals that I needed, so they all fell to A-s. I learned my lesson the second semester and was able to get As or better in all my classes except math. Really bummed about that B+. I mean, I knew it was gonna come eventually and taking an Honors Calc 4 class taight by a Chinese guy wasn’t gonna be easy, but it still bummed me out. I didn’t really even care about the A+ in Physics… that B+ also made me not get some Angel Scholars Award thing too… bummer.</p>
<p>But all in all, a good first year. I’ll just do better next year</p>
<p>^^^Don’t beat yourself up man. You did wayyy better than me LOL.</p>
<p>Question though: how “hard” would you say is Diffy Eqns and how helpful would you say Multivariable was to learning/processing Diffy Eqns? I’m considering taking Diffy Eqns after Multi.</p>
<p>Differential Equations can be really theoretical or really applied, so it’s hard to say. Although solving them isn’t trivial, many of the techniques aren’t too bad once you get the hang of them. However, extremely theoretical classes may not have you solve them at all - my course was essentially a differential geometry class, in which nearly every single problem was a (relatively complicated) proof about the existence of a diffeomorphism that had a certain property. ymmv, but linear algebra is generally pretty important to differential equations, while multivariable calculus would be useful for more-theoretical classes rather than the applied ones (the Inverse Function Theorem is pretty important, for instance).</p>
<p>Well, Multi is considered Calc 3, and Diffy Qs is consider Calc 4… At least I think.</p>
<p>Anyway I’ve always thought Diffy Qs was the hardest. When I took AP Calc BC my Jr year in High School my worst test grade was in the beginning Diffy Q questions. So, I think out of anything from Calc 1 to Calc 4 Diffy Qs was the hardest.</p>
<p>That being said its not impossible, and if you aren’t taking honors, you’ll only do about 60-70% of what my class had to do, and it got pretty hard near the end. Try not to get a Chinese teacher, practice a lot, and watch khan academy videos. A lot of Diffy Qs is a bunch of formulas and steps to remember. </p>
<p>In Calc 2 you learned a bunch of crazy ways to integrate… in a regular Calc 3 or 4 class you won’t need to use that really. They keep the integration easy because that’s not the point. If you take honors though, our teacher would drop all those crazy methods and even bring back a bunch of trig identities.</p>
<p>Anyway… to get to your question… Calc 3 (Multi) has nothing to do with Calc 4 (Diffy Qs). Calc 3 is easier than Calc 2 actually. So it really doesn’t matter the order you take it. All I could see is if someone was a little shaky on their integration after Calc 2 they should take Calc 3 to get continued practice, and then Calc 4.</p>
<p>I’m actually not finished with the school year yet-University of Chicago is on the quarter system.</p>
<p>First quarter:
Calculus I-B
Intro to Macroecon: B
French 201: B+
Humanties course: A- (lucked out and had a ridiculously easy grader as a professor)</p>
<p>Second quarter:
Physical sciences class: B+
Intro to Microecon: A-
Calculus II-B
Humanties: B- (got a huge ***** of a grader.)</p>
<p>Third quarter isn’t finished yet, but as of right now it looks like:
Calculus III-B+/A- zone
Linear Algebra: B+/A- zone
Statistics (calculus based)- B/B+ zone </p>
<p>Overall, fairly disappointed. I want to go to a top Ph.D program for economics after bachelor’s, and my poor first year will likely put me at a significant disadvantage.</p>
<p>Wow NKChemeng…those are incredible grades. I certainly envy your transcript haha.</p>
<p>E&M is so much more interesting than mechanics, though. I got a B+ in mechanics only with a lot of effort, and then pulled an A in E&M effortlessly. Maybe it’s just me, I don’t know. I have a lot of fun tutoring E&M now.</p>
<p>Also, there’s no “calc 4” here and no honors math classes, but diff eq was somehow so much harder for me. I got a C in it, compared to A+ in calc 1, A in calc 2, and A- in calc 3.</p>
<p>Fall Semester Grades
Ancient Mediterranean World: A
Intro to Western Music: A
Multivariable Calc: A
Statics: A
World’s Writing Systems: A</p>
<p>Spring Semester Grades
Ancient Philosophy: A
Differential Equations: A
Intro to Computing: A
Linear Algebra: A-
Mechanics of Solids: A
Thermodynamics: B</p>
<p>Review: I’m extremely satisfied with my first year because it should’ve been much worse. Don’t let the pretty A’s deceive you: for a lot of these classes I was going into the final with a C or low B. The way I was studying was WRONG. Stopped going to class the middle of the first semester and started cramming everything the night before for tests. I should’ve taken the hint that this was a dumbass move when I failed the following Statics test, but I’m stupid so I did the same thing the second semester. Both semesters I was on the verge of a mental breakdown during finals week.
In retrospect, I’m thankful I didn’t get off the waitlist for UChicago or Yale last year because I definitely would’ve gone and gotten my ass handed to me: this work ethic wouldn’t fly there.
I’m determined to revamp my study habits next semester because thus far, I’ve just gotten extremely lucky. Easier said than done, I know – especially because I absolutely HATE Engineering – but the one thing that has changed is that I have goals now! In addition, what I was doing only made it more stressful, not easier.</p>
<p>@Chandi; @MLD; @Uroogla: I don’t want to annoy you guys by bombarding you guys with questions, but can you briefly explain what was hard it about it? Was it the concepts, algebra, etc? Do you think there is any other math course that you could’ve taken before Diffy Eqns that would’ve helped make it easier?</p>
<p>I’m going to have to take it eventually being that I’m a math major, but after hearing the reviews, I am nervous. LOL.</p>
<p>Well, in short (cuz I gotta go but want to answer), it’s really the theory that can be a **<strong><em>. Most of the regular class is follwing certain steps to solve certain problems, nothing too difficult, but theory cna be a </em></strong>, like I said.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is a class you could take that would make it easier, unless you are having trouble with integrals</p>
<p>Fall Semester
ACCT 225: Intro to Financial Accounting - A
MGMT 250: Professional Communication - B (damn group projects)
MGSC 290: Computer Information Systems in Business - A
PHIL 110: Intro to Logic Honors - A
PSYC 101: Intro to Psychology Honors - A</p>
<p>Spring Semester
ACCT 226: Intro to Managerial Accounting Honors - A
ECON 222: Principles of Macroeconomics Honors - B+
POLI 342: American National Security - A
POLI 380: Comparative Politics of the Developing World - B+
SCHC 115: Descriptive Astronomy I Honors - B</p>
<p>Year GPA: 3.677</p>
<p>Not a bad year overall, but spring semester was somewhat of a disappointment. I definitely didn’t work as hard in the spring, however. But finished half of college with a 3.81 cumulative and once again successfully managed school, fraternity life, and a long distance relationship. In addition, spent half of spring semester finishing transfer applications and so that took a little bit away from my studies, but it’s all good as I’m headed to UVA next year. Need to hit the books hard next year.</p>
Besides not studying a lot for Mechanics (I don’t know what I was doing Fall semester…I just remember a lot of South Park with my roommate), E&M was not that hard to grasp. Vector Calculus tied in was also good to make it click.</p>
<p>My performance in diff eq was unusual. I got 100% on the first test while the material was relatively straightforward, then in the 60s on the second, and somewhere in the 80s on the third. So I had probably a low B going into the final and bumped down to a C after the final. The professor doesn’t give +/- grades and wouldn’t tell us what we got on the final, but he also had a policy where if you got less than a 60% on the final you failed the class regardless of your average going into the final. So I guess I got somewhere on the 60s or 70s on it, and it was hard enough (and 5 hours long) that I believed I would have an F in the class.</p>
<p>It probably primarily was the theoretical type stuff that got me, since I’ve been able to do all of the diff eqs important in physical chemistry just fine.</p>