<p>I've heard plenty of horror stories about calculus at Michigan and I really want to know how difficult this class really is. I'm a winter admit and I'm considering taking calc in my first semester at U-M as an elective (I'm not a science, engineering, business major) since it is a pre req for other classes I may be interested in. For those of you who have taken this course, is it really that bad?</p>
<p>My cousin told me that it requires a lot of dedication, and it is very time consuming as well. He told to take Calc in high school, because it saves money and is a lot easier.</p>
<p>As someone who didn’t take Calculus in high school, I feel kind of overwhelmed and as if I have to work much harder than everyone else just to keep up with them. It kind of depends on your GSI though, and there is not one person in my class who thinks that our GSI is even remotely competent at teaching. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m not too happy with the Math department so far. I am only taking this class though to apply to Ross.</p>
<p>Calculus I and II are notoriously tough at Michigan. Thankfully, I placed out of both, but most of my friends who took those classes (both are highly recommended for Econ majors) struggled.</p>
<p>I took calculus in high school and took Calc I here. I thought it was very hard. The content is not bad if you put in effort and do the web homework, but the exams are crazy (and they make up 95% of the grade). I remember that the average on our second midterm was a 43.
In short, don’t take calculus here if you can avoid it. Take it at a community college instead and save yourself the pain.</p>
<p>I really hope I get a 4 or 5 on the BC exam.</p>
<p>yeah what’s the rule for the BC exam? do you only need a 4 to get credit for calc 1 and 2?</p>
<p>yes 10char</p>
<p>nice, that shouldnt be too hard should it?</p>
<p>U of M gives you 8 credit for a 5 on the BC test and 4 credits for a 4 on the test. And they don’t give any credit for AB subscores which is gay because I got a 5 on both the BC and the AB test too</p>
<p>Also, don’t feel overwhelmed by the AP test in may. You only need a 70% to get a 5 and about a 60% to get a 4 on the BC test. Just make sure you study adequetely</p>
<p>i heard calc 1’s first midterm avg was like 60% ish, which isn’t too bad. calc 2 avg was like 48%, pretty ridiculous, calc 3 varies from class to class, 53% to 65%.</p>
<p>Note: they don’t give you the eight credits up front. You’re required to take a calc class here. Much to my annoyance.</p>
<p>this was a few years ago, but i took bc calc in high school and calc 1 and calc 2 at michigan. calc 1 was not easy, mostly because of the tests. calc 2 was incredibly difficult for me, i used to consider myself a math nerd, but after calc 2, i took my calc 3 at a community college, it was like 5000 times easier, and i took calc 4 at michigan, also much easier than calc 2. for me, calc 2 was the hardest by far. avoid, they are not gpa boosters no matter how good u are at math.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you about calc 1 from personal experience (I placed out and started in 2), but I have a friend from high school who came here and took calc 1. He was in my BC class in high school and did pretty well (he just wanted to pad his gpa by taking calc 1 again). Anyway, I was talking to him on the bus one day and he said he got a B on the first exam, which leads me to believe it’s fairly difficult.</p>
<p>Also, I just want to clarify something about the AP Tests that confused me when I came here. collegebound_guy is right about the AP credit but only for college of engineering. Here’s how it works for LSA:</p>
<p>If you get a 4 or 5 on AB, you get 2 credits and are eligible to register for 116 (calc 2).</p>
<p>If you get a 4 or 5 on BC, you get 4 credits BUT you are still only eligible to register for calc 2. If you want to take math 215 (calc 3), you have to take an extra test from a math placement advisor and if you do well they will allow you to take 3.</p>
<p>Honor Calc 3 (285) is averaged to an A-
It’s definitely worth taking AB and BC exams.</p>
<p>Svtcobra is wrong. I took BC, did well, did well on the placement test as well, and was pretty much allowed to pick what math course I wanted. The math adviser did not ask me take another test.</p>
<p>I am currently taking calc 1 now, although I got a 5 on AB I thought it would be smart to retake calc to brush up on my calc/ maybe learn a few things that we didn’t learn in HS. Kinda a bad decision for me because, the class is not as easy as I expected (Not a free A). You take a quiz weekly, and have team hw assignments weekly. ([Math</a> 115/](<a href=“http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/courses/115/]Math”>http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/courses/115/)) If you click on the side you can see the class avg for previous exams. I’d suggest to take the AP credits if possible</p>
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<p>Then you’re an exception. Every single BC person I know in LSA took a separate test if they were trying to get into calc 3.</p>
<p>Why do you need to take an additional test? And what is the test like?</p>
<p>I’ve not heard anywhere but here about having to take a separate test after BC, except for the general math placement exam which everyone has to take. </p>
<p>And, 285 is curved to an A-!?!?! All sections of it?</p>