<p>So I was looking at the "course recommendations" from the conselors this morning and they said that maybe I should consider doing the honors math sequence Math 31AH,31BH,31CH (equivalent to Math 20F, 20C and Math 20E respectively) because I got a 5 on AP Calc BC. So the honors sequence is obviously going to be more difficult than the regular sequence, but what are the benefits of taking these harder classes. Maybe there are benefits because otherwise, why would students risk their GPA's by taking this honors sequence?</p>
<p>the math honors sequence is pretty new, but i imagine it’s based on the principles of the chem 6 honors sequence – search the archives, lotsa discussion on that one</p>
<p>I looked at some of the archives…and it seemed that the only incentive to take the honors math sequence will be a more generous curve?..is that it? (well besides the fact that you’ll “challenge” yourself 
).</p>
<p>Based on the archives on chem honors, math honors seems pretty suicidal at this point. Assuming that they are similar…</p>
<p>math honors is newer, that’s why there hasn’t been as much feedback on it.</p>
<p>why don’t you take it and come back and be the math dept guru for CC ;)</p>
<p>Haha yes, and be the guinea pig? xD. I don’t think I wanna start my college experience with a risk like that hehe. </p>
<p>Maybe ucsd offers these chem and math honors classes for students who genuinely want to push their intellectual bounderies. For them, that’s the incentive…Haha.</p>
<p>Edit: According to ucsd, the math honors classes will have no more than 50 students in them, which is supposedly a lot smaller than the regular math classes. But that alone still wouldn’t convince me to take the sequence and either study feverishly or hurt my GPA.</p>
<p>i feel like class size is completely overrated. </p>
<p>i took chem 6AH (~90 people) and the professor didn’t get to know ANYBODY’s names (this was pre-hoeger). i took an 8-person freshman seminar and the professor didn’t bother there either. i always got my questions answered regardless of class size by emailing/office hours with the professor or TAs, so all that fluff about “extra attention” in smaller classes tends to annoy me.</p>
<p>More the reason to take regular math…xD.</p>
<p>^So why did you take the chem honors series instead of the regular series?</p>
<ol>
<li>CC probably didn’t exist back then</li>
<li>I was still in the high school mindset that honors and APs were the way to go and would impress future grad schools</li>
</ol>
<p>lies, people. all lies.</p>
<p>didn’t learn a thing in 6AH.</p>
<p>So honors courses aren’t that beneficial like AP classes were? lol I wouldn’t know as I’m only an incoming freshman but if you all could clear that up then it’d definitely be appreciated to save us the trouble lol</p>
<p>no way. the term “honors” is especially misleading because everyone’s fresh from high school. </p>
<p>in college, an A in a regular-level class will always be more valuable than a B in its honors-level equivalent:</p>
<ul>
<li>regular teaches you practical knowledge, you practice it, apply it in labs and on exams, and the level is appropriate for MCATs/GREs/etc. honors classes do more critical thinking, which is lovely to explore if you want, but you should never do it at the sacrifice of losing the practical knowledge</li>
<li>honors classes aren’t prerequisites for anything except other honors classes, are never required for any major, and are more “enrichment” than anything else. </li>
<li>many schools don’t even have separate math/science tracks for different majors, so taking honors isn’t especially impressive if someone at another school covered the same material under a “regular” class. (for example, Chem 4 at Berkeley used the chem 6AH textbook and the curriculum was similarly challenging, but there’s no honors in the name)</li>
</ul>
<p>so not to bash on honors classes or anything - they’re great if you’re genuinely interested and want a challenge. but far too many people are drawn to the false sense of “prestige” by the honors and get nothing out of the class.</p>
<p>I’m glad you cleared that up, thank you</p>
<p>Yea astrina, I think we all appreciate that bit of insight 
.</p>