<p>It's been 2 years since I've taken calculus (I got a 5 on the AP exam in High school) and now the only remaining prereq for Econ at Cal is Calculus 2. It's not required that I take it before getting to Cal, but I'd like to finish it here so that I just have to take stats and some other random classes my first semester at Cal.</p>
<p>Obviously I'm worried that my Calculus might not be up to snuff. That's not to say that Calculus 1 was hard for me (it was an absolute joke, in my opinion), but it has been a while since I've taken calculus. Can I use my pass/fail (never used a pass/fail before) on this course and still declare econ as my major at Cal? Or do I have to take it as A/B/C? </p>
<p>I took Calc 1 twice because there was a two year gap between when I first took it and when I took Calc 2. I got an A in both classes (and an A in Calc 2 & 3) and honestly the second time through felt a lot more like busywork that I could have skipped. I think if you pick up a book to review from that you don’t need to take the class again. If you understand derivatives/integration and the rules (also Trig/exponent/log rules), it’ll click right away. Plus, usually Calc 2 teachers will do a small review or assign old problems to get you started in the semester.</p>
<p>Your AP credit will count for your class so I’m pretty confident that you can take it pass/fail and it won’t really count as anything (other than extra UC transferable credits). You could also try asking the professor if you can continue sitting in the class if you drop before the W deadline.</p>
<p>I had a 3 year gap between AP Calculus AB and Calculus II at a CC. I had a rocky start, received a C on the first exam then the rest are A’s. And fortunately the lowest test score was also dropped. It’s definitely possible, I actually had a month to prepare for it. What I did was read some notes online (Paul’s Online notes to be specific). I got a 4 on the AP Calc exam and if you got a 5, then I’m sure you can do better :-)</p>
<p>I didn’t mean that I was going to retake Calc 1 to prepare for Calc 2 lol. If anything, I’ll just get a review book or do some review like you mentioned. </p>
<p>I would just like to know if anyone actually knows whether I can use pass/fail on this course since it’s a major prereq. If not, it’s not a big deal. I’d just like to know.</p>
<p>If you didn’t want anyone’s advice on taking Calc 2, then you probably could have left out the first 75% of your post and just asked if you need to take major pre-reqs for a letter grade. Despite the fact that this answer is available all over the internet… yes, you must take them for an A/B/C grade :)</p>
<p>“You can use the P/NP option for one of the courses that you use to satisfy your major requirements” - This is from the Philosophy department at Berkeley. The econ department has no mention of it which is why I asked. Thanks for the snide comment and link to anything related to Cal by the way; it was extremely helpful.</p>
<p>From the 2011-2012 Berkeley Catalog, “A course that is required in or prerequisite to your major may be taken on a P/NP or S/U basis ONLY upon approval of the faculty of your school or college.” I’d link you to it but since you’re being a ***** after I put a smiley face, I don’t really feel like it :)</p>
<p>So the actual answer is not the one that you gave me initially. You wonder why I was skeptical…
I guess the answer couldn’t be found all over the internet.</p>
<p>Considering that you need special approval from Berkeley faculty or L&S (FYI the quote is out of context but this is who they are referring to by faculty or college) and since Econ is highly based in Math, I doubt they would approve that. It’s also common knowledge that most of the time you need to take your pre-reqs for letter grades. I still stand by my first answer. </p>
<p>By the way, in another post relating the difficulty of the 3 Calc levels, you stated that you’ve already taken all 3 of them…? o_O</p>
<p>I’m using my friend CC account. We’ll be heading to Berkeley together (he in the Spring and I in the fall).
Anyway, thanks for the answer. I apologize if I came off as a ******; I just wanted an answer since my summer Calc 2 class starts in 2 weeks.</p>
<p>Edit: I might as well also ask if anyone has suggestions for calc 1 review books that I can look over (preferably online or cheap). One person in the thread mentioned Paul’s Online notes. Any other suggestions?</p>
<p>If you are considering whether to take the Math 1A versus 1B equivalent, you may want to read the following (although it is aimed at freshmen in engineering, the same math courses can be taken by economics majors):</p>
<p>The page includes Math 1A and 1B final exams that you can try to do. If you find the Math 1A final exams easy, then you should take the Math 1B equivalent if you need it.</p>
<p>In general, you should assume that all courses taken for your major must be taken for a letter grade, unless they are only offered passed / not-passed. The economics department policy is here, explicitly stating that the prerequisite courses must be taken for a letter grade:</p>