<p>What topics should I review this summer? To be honest, I didn't have the most amazing Calc BC teacher in high school and I have no idea how I got a 5 on the AP :P. I think someone may have said series would be helpful.... does anyone have any insight? Thank you :)</p>
<p>Don’t review anything. Really. Calc III has very little to do with Calc III.</p>
<p>Okay thanks 
That’s what I heard at first but then someone said something about series and I’ve pretty much forgotten all of Calc II since the AP lol.</p>
<p>Also, what’s the girl to guy ratio in the class?</p>
<p>Uhh, in Calc III? Probably about 50-50. Why? It’s a lecture class so that doesn’t seem very relevant to me.</p>
<p>No sorry… in Math 201 which is the freshman seminar like Calc III but with more theory.</p>
<p>Oh. I didn’t take that class so I don’t know, but I would guess maybe around 50-50 or a few more guys than girls.</p>
<p>So far on facebook it’s 3:1 haha but we only have about half of the class in the group… I guess it’s not a huge deal either way.</p>
<p>Last fall I think we had 9 guys, 1 girl; the first class had 12 guys 3 girls I think. So 4-1 initial to 9-1 final. Definitely wasn’t 50-50…</p>
<p>Math majors at Wash U is probably 75-25 (statistics is closer to 50-50) so I’d assume what generallyyoung posted is roughly right.</p>
<p>This year less people will probably be dropping though since there’s no calc 3 section at that time. How’s the class by the way? I did well in Calc BC relatively easily… but this isn’t HS calc lol. We already made the Facebook group I was talking about though so we could form study groups and stuff more easily :)</p>
<p>It’s good, you work hard, you learn a lot, you ask a lot of questions in class and out, you work together a lot (study groups are a necessity), you go to office hours a lot, you have a lot of fun, and the prof is really nice and grading itself shouldn’t be stressful (Weiss right?). The material itself is not for everyone though; “like Calc 3 but with more theory” and proofs, is an understatement =P. The course title is accurate: it’s really foremost a course on teaching you to think and do mathematics like a true mathematician.</p>
<p>ps. marcdvl, that’s not my name, but it’s funny</p>
<p>^lol, saw a y in the middle and didn’t read past the rest of your name…sorry</p>
<p>Weiss is indeed really nice…I’ve had him for some other classes. Just be prepared for lots of homework (but he’ll help you a lot if you go to his office hours.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice and info :). I’ve never really been exposed to “mathematics like a true mathematician” so let’s see how it goes!</p>
<p>Would watching some Calc 3 lectures on Youtube beforehand be helpful, or would it make things worse since I would learn everything without as much (if any) theory and proofs? I’ve never done any math theory, so I don’t know if it’s easier to learn things for the first time with theory, or to learn the concepts before being exposed to the theory.</p>
<p>It’s probably better to get a cheap proofs book and work through that than Calc 3 concepts, but I haven’t taken 201 so can’t say for sure. But for upper level classes, knowing how to do proofs is more important than the material itself.</p>
<p>Most people will be in the same boat and have had no prior proof experience. Some people will have had some; I actually had quite a bit from HS competitions so I fared easier at the beginning. Proofs is a lot like learning to play music; it’s a skill and a way of thinking, and it comes easier to people who have had some experience with the language/notation and methods before; you’ll benefit from practice, effort, patience, and learning from others. Like music, it also shapes your thinking in ways that will help you in other subjects as well. It’s also a lot like doing puzzles, and it’s pretty cool when things just “click”. </p>
<p>You’ll start from the very beginning in terms of concepts and theory, so there’s no need to see it beforehand (not that you even know what you’re gonna see :P). Here’s a pretty good introduction to proofs I just looked up:</p>
<p>[How</a> To Write Proofs](<a href=“http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~larryc/proofs/proofs.html]How”>How To Write Proofs)</p>
<p>marcdvl: What other courses did you take that Weiss taught? Just curious.</p>
<p>Thanks We did those trig “proofs” in 10th grade but I don’t know if those count lol.</p>
<p>By trig I mean geometry… lol I was thinking triangles so I wrote trig.</p>
<p>they present proofs as such a horribly banal, dumbed-down, ugly, hand-holding, useless, dead-end exercise, that it honestly does our country a disservice that anyone ever thought it should be in our geometry curriculum.</p>
<p>Yea I didn’t think those counted 
It’s like “This triangle has 2 congruent sides AB and BC, prove it has angles a and c congruent” LOL</p>