<p>How difficult is the calculus placement exam? I'm planning to go over my entire calculus book this week since I took AP Calc BC last year and Multivariable this year. Do you think this is necessary? Let me know from your experience how it went for you.</p>
<p>How about WAFT? What quality of writing is expected from students. I'm currently taking AP Lit. and have one of the highest grades in my class.</p>
<p>The calculus placement exam is really easy–I didn’t have calc BC at all and didn’t have a problem with it. </p>
<p>Also, for you, WAFT will be no trouble either. I wouldn’t bother studying for either of them.</p>
<p>the calc diagnostic is easy,
but the placement exam (i.e. to pass out of ma1abc) is something you might want to study for</p>
<p>@Lizzardfire: We all know the calculus exam includes derivatives and integrals. I’m assuming series and sequences, more complex things covered in calc BC in addition to AB will also be tested too. Right?</p>
<p>@Fizix2: Will we receive information about the exam for placing out of ma1abc or do I specifically have to request it? Is it worth it to place out of ma1abc? What are the advantages/disadvantages assuming I have a fair but not perfect grasp of the material?</p>
<p>Information for the diagnostic exam and the placement exams are both on the web page included in the email.</p>
<p>As for preparation, the problem sets for these classes are online, as is the ma1abc textbook…</p>
<p>Anyway, I do hope people who have taken the exams can provide a little more information about whats on them without breaching test integrity.</p>
<p>Really quick:</p>
<p>Can we test out of only ma1a? Or do we have to test out of all of it?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure you have to test out of either 1b or 1c as well to be able to get out of 1a.</p>
<p>^I second above poster’s question. I haven’t taken linear algebra or probability and statistics in high school.</p>
<p>I don’t remember, davezhan.</p>
<p>You have to test out of at least Math 1a and 1b (Calculus and Linear Algebra, respectively, but note that Ma 1a is not your typical high school calculus class, to be honest it’s closer to an analysis class than the typical AP Calculus class you might have taken in high school.) in order to test out of any math at all. (Otherwise you won’t be able to replace them with Ma 2a and b).</p>
<p>As to the advantages and disadvantages of testing out of Ma 1 and Ma 2, it really depends on your math background in high school, (e.g., how often did you have to do proofs?) and how much you plan on pursuing or caring about math at Caltech. IMO, Ma 1a doesn’t really teach you anything useful (assuming you know calculus pretty well) other than how to get used to proofs. Ma 1b and c on the other hand, are really quite useful, especially depending on your major and what track you take. The analytic track is a good deal more proof based and often approaches the course material in a different way, (esp. in linear algebra, where you start with vector spaces and move to matrices in the analytic track and vice versa in the practical track.) To be honest, if you can pass out of the class you should be fine, unless you were really struggling the with the test, and somehow only got the right answer by a random fluke of nature.</p>
<p>IMO, the most important subjects in core math are linear algebra and ordinary differential equations. (Everyone knows calculus, the multivariable calculus you need to know for most subjects is actually pretty easy, and probability and statistics you can usually learn as you go.) Most people will see differential equations again in ACM 95b, but for nearly everyone, Ma 1b will be the only class they take that is devoted to linear algebra, and the subject is pretty important, so if you feel that you don’t have a good background in the subject, I would advise against skipping out of Ma 1b.</p>
<p>I think probability and stats is a lot more complex than people give it credit for. I also don’t think our treatment of it is enough.</p>
<p>The Calc diagnostic exam letters says that students who took calculus before senior year usually need substantial preparation or something along the lines of that in order to do well on the exam. So, you guys make it seem so easy but the letter states otherwise…</p>
<p>The letter’s just an administrative thing. Don’t worry about it. The tests really aren’t that bad. Ma 1’s difficulty tends to be overrated. (I remember worrying about the diagnostic exams, only to find out the letter wasn’t really correct)</p>
<p>The letter really implies that if you took calculus a while ago and havn’t really touched it since then, you should study a little. (e.g., if you don’t remember how to integrate by parts, you should study, not that every little detail you every learned in AP Calc needs to be remembered word for word.)</p>
<p>Can all exams including this one be submitted by e-mail?</p>
<p>i know the physics diagnostic is submitted by email,
i forget about the other ones</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is one of the biggest lies that is given to incoming freshman. </p>
<p>Ma1a is a typical college-level calculus class. Your AP Calculus BC class underprepared you if it did not go into this much depth. Ma1a goes nowhere near the depth that an analysis class would.</p>
<p>That being said, many AP Calculus BC classes do underprepare their students, and quite a few people find Ma1a challenging. However, calling it “closer to an analysis class” is stretching the truth.</p>
<p>Ma1a is most certainly not a typical college-level calculus class… its focus on proofs and analytical math is not found in any other standard required college calc class. Yes, it’s offered as an option at places like MIT (where it is called “Calculus with Theory”) but is by no means the standard.</p>
<p>Of course, your response will be that because versions of it are offered at other places, it is “standard”, but this is misleading. At no other institution (that I’m aware of) is calculus of such a theoretical nature required for students outside of math and related majors.</p>
<p>Some people don’t even have to take calculus! Compare apples with apples; that is, Caltech’s offering of “Calculus” with another math department’s offering of “Calculus.” You’ll find approximately the same level of proofs required.</p>
<p>I offered the ma1a final to a few seniors when I was visiting my (public) high school over winter break my frosh year; they were able to reason out (correct) answers to all of the problems within 15 minutes. High schoolers being able to do the final after AP Calculus BC seems certainly within the realm of “standard” for me.</p>
<p>so speaking as someone who has actually taken math 1a,
math 1a covers the material you’d learn in a calculus class,
except you don’t get questions like “calculate this integral”
(they assume you can already do everything in AP calculus)
you mostly get proofs
like remember the delta-epsilon definition of limit? there’s a lot of that sort of stuff in math 1a. also proving stuff about series.
and even when they ask you computational questions, you have to know the exact conditions under which theorems hold. like you’re not allowed to just use l’hopital’s rule, you have to prove you can use it.</p>
<p>if you have experience writing proofs math 1a is not that bad. a lot of people at caltech have trouble because they haven’t seen proofs in high school.
but if you do bad it doesn’t really matter anyway because it’s on pass-fail (nobody actually fails), and if you end up hating proofs you can choose to take all your other math classes on practical track.
so don’t worry about it</p>
<p>i would not call math 1a an analysis class,
certainly you don’t learn any analysis there,
but if you can do well in math 1a,
then analysis (at state schools at least) is very easy</p>