<p>the hald midterm was hard but the curve was generous</p>
<p>there were 7 problems and 26/35 was teh lowest A-</p>
<p>This thread should be stickied atop the Berkeley page...classic!</p>
<p>Brings back memories. </p>
<p>OP, I took Math 54 my first year as a transfer student. I didn't do well...I got a D. I had two finals back to back that kicked my ass - avoid this if at all possible. I attended summer session and retook Math 54. The grade was replaced with an A. </p>
<p>I agree with other posters that if you don't do well in Math 1A, you should consider changing majors.</p>
<p>kenf1234:</p>
<p>i am in olsson's class....i found the midterm for the most part straightforward but there were two questions on it that olsson did not teach us until literally in passing a day before the actual midterm...also, i am not sure if it was like this for the others sections, but 50 minuted for 6 problems with like 3 subproblems each is not easy to complete in 50 mins</p>
<p>I am also in Olsson's class and took that midterm and got an A. I can't advise you on how this will affect you as a math major, but I can tell you how I prepared for the midterm. </p>
<p>To be honest, I never really got a chance to study for the midterm until the morning right before the exam because I had a lot of homework due that week, but i made a point to attend every lecture, discussion, and visit during GSI and professor office hours to grasp the concepts. Despite the fact that I did not do a single practice problem before the exam outside of homework and discussion, I was able to do well because I had been working to understand to material for such a long time. It really pays off to understand the concepts, because what I've noticed is that college math is very different from high school math. I got a 5 on AP Calc AB because I was good at plugging numbers, but here I have to work hard to understand the ideas and thought behind what all that number plugging was about. Doing 10 sets of practice problems is good, but I don't think it will be helpful if all you're doing is number plugging.</p>
<p>I think the most helpful thing is probably to go to office hours. You can actually predict what the professor will put on the test during office hours. Perhaps half the test was based off of questions that students asked him during office hours the last two weeks before the midterm. Furthermore, he told us (I don't remember if this was in lecture or OH) that he will only test us on the concepts he taught us through examples in lecutre so going to lecture and taking notes on the examples is very important.</p>
<p>If you are going to be a math major, I think perhaps you should dedicate yourself more to understanding the concepts in math and learn to love proofs. And talk to your GSI or the professor about your midterm grade and math major. I believe they would be the most helpful on this matter since some of them may have experienced the same problem.</p>
<p>^^That's very interesting. It's important to remember, sometimes the professors want to reward you for going to class and paying attention. They are happy to telegraph what is going to be on the exams, because so many students don't show up for class, or aren't paying attention, and they want to punish those students.</p>
<p>I show up to class and go to my GSI's office hours. i've noticed that my professor gets his midterm problems from the book and my GSI gets his quiz problems from the book, also. These problems weren't assigned, though.</p>
<p>Thus, I have lately been doing extra problems and being more proactive in office hours.</p>
<p>Quit your major.</p>