<p>I will be entering UF this Summer B as a freshman; I plan to study industrial and systems engineering.</p>
<p>I am researching potential classes to sign up for to take in the Summer B session, and I am considering taking Calculus II over the summer as one of my classes (the other would be something less rigorous - probably a lower level general education requirement). I am in AP Calculus AB right now, and I am doing well. I will most likely score a 4 or 5 on the exam coming up. </p>
<p>I am worried that the fast pace of the summer classes will not work out well with Calculus II, which I am aware is a challenging class. The increased speed of material may prove to be too fast for me to master the concepts. I am not worried about the difficulty as much as the demanding workload of a summer class, especially Calculus II.</p>
<p>What do you know about taking Calculus II over summer B versus in a regular semester? Do students typically favor one mode over the other? Is the class considered easier, harder, or about the same?</p>
<p>I have seen a lot of posts saying the summer is a nightmare, but I want to think wisely as knocking it out sooner will be convenient.</p>
<p>I took Calc II in a 12 week summer session last year and it wasn’t too bad. Even in a 12 week session I had to go 4 days a week for 1:30 or 1:45 a day.</p>
<p>6 week session would probably be a little insane for Calc II. You’d have to go to class for 3.5 hours a day, four days a week. Just sitting in a class like Calc II for 3.5 hours straight is difficult, but you still have to learn the material.</p>
<p>The biggest problem would be getting “stuck” on a topic that you don’t learn adequately. The class moves at such a fast pace that you can be quickly left behind.</p>
<p>If you do attempt the 6 week class you should study 4 key things (beforehand) which will get you through it: </p>
<p>1) U substitution
2) Trig Substitution
3) Integration By Parts
4) Polar Coordinates</p>
<p>If you know all of those topics before you go into the class, then it will be a breeze. It will free up time for you to learn Sequences and Series at the end of the class.</p>
<p>Honestly, I’d push Calc II to the Fall semester if I were you.</p>
<p>I took Calc II last year over the summer. It was 6 weeks course. Let me tell you this, be prepared to do your work. It was very fast paced and required lot of understanding compare to Calc I and Calc III. If your willing to put in enough effort and do your work your assigned to, then you should go for it.</p>
<p>EDIT: Forgot to mention, it also depends on the teacher. If you have a teacher who manages his/her time very well then you’ll be in good shape. I had a teacher who would go over the homework problems for 1 hour and teach 2 new sections in 1 hour. It was 4x week for 2 hours each session. Personally, I would have done better if she thought new material for at least 1hour and 30mins rather then going over the homework for that long.</p>
<p>Perhaps it may be wise for me to just take two general ed humanities over the summer. Based on these responses so far I am definitely leaning toward pushing Calc II back. I mean, I think I am good enough at math and all, but I would rather not burnout before school even starts.</p>
<p>I still think it is very doable.
Regular semester you probably meet at most 3 times a week (we have either twice a week, or three times a week, and the latter is shorter per class, of course). SO if you meet 4 times a week three times a week it is equivalent to the regular semester.</p>
<p>Some schools, however, have easier professors in the summer (don’t ask me which, a big state university…) and everyone just takes the hardest science / math class during the summer.</p>
<p>At CCNY the summer math section is 3 hours each day, 3 or 4 days per week. Hella fun. (For calculus 3 it is 4 days a week)</p>
<p>Kill liberal arts over summer - good idea too.</p>
<p>The only confusing part of calculus II would be the integration. But I didn’t have any problems with the same material in calculus 3 (which is done in xyz plane, rather than xy plane).</p>
<p>For me it is important to kill a math / science earlier so I can move on with my upper-level study.
Of course, it is totally up to how your curriculum is structured.</p>
<p>jw, I definitely think you can do it if you commit yourself to studying. Use khanacademy and your school tutoring center for support. </p>
<p>I’m thinking about teaching myself Calc I (M408C UT Austin) in about 8 weeks of intensive study (May 10th-June 30th), then taking a self-paced online extension course in Calc II (M408D) from July 1st-August 31st, and then during the add/drop week trying to add Discrete Mathematics (M325) or Advanced Calculus (427K) for the fall semester. </p>
<p>I know it sounds crazy, but for one, I won’t really be doing a whole lot else this summer except for brushing up on some other subjects, and two, I am a HS dropout and already had to teach myself elementary, intermediate, and most of college algebra, as well as trigonometry. I just pretend the textbook is my teacher, which in a lot of classes is truly the case, and like I said, lately I have discovered khanacademy, which speeds up learning a lot. </p>
<p>Don’t doubt yourself. If I can do this, you can do this, and we can maybe even help each other out or something.</p>
<p>With regards to the things that you should study for a better chance to succeed in the accelerated course. IMO, I think that in addition to studying the entire chapter on integration (you stated Integration by parts and U substitution) and polar coordinates, you should take a long look at the contents of Series.</p>
<p>Well, series is not necessarily in Calculus II. So I think we should ask him to look over the syllabus / course description on his school website.</p>