<p>Is there a general rule of thumb about which calc to take depending on how you did on the AP exam?</p>
<p>Fermat's thread had some good info about choices, but wasn't completely applicable to my D's situation since she is taking the AP BC exam. </p>
<p>Background: D will be 1st year; initially majoring in psych, but I've planted the seed about minoring in math or stats since she is good in math (790 SAT 1), and both would be very helpful for job prospects in psych.</p>
<p>Hazel had a nice post about being proficient at parts etc in order to be comfortable with calc 3. Is there a correlation from the BC exam that would relate to that?</p>
<p>When I was in school, calc 1 and 2 were huge weed-out classes, and I found calc 3 to be less hard, and diffEQ and LA to be even less hard. Is it the same at UVA?</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure she will get a 5 on the exam, and if she does, what would you recommend for her 1st semester? How about for a 4? Same course?</p>
<p>I don't want her to be swamped her 1st semester, but I also don't want her to take something too easy, or that may put her behind schedule if she ever does decide to minor in math or stats. By the same token I don't want her to find the course so hard that it turns her off from a minor since she doesn't love math, just is good at it. </p>
<p>Any thought would be appreciated!</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Calc II is hard because it’s a weed-out class, not because the material is actually that difficult (or, at least, much more difficult than any standard Calc II course). I suspect your experience still applies.</p>
<p>If your daughter gets a 5 on the BC exam, she’s probably ready to take Calc III first semester; I would say the same thing for a 4 as well. If she’s feeling particularly ambitious, she might even want to consider Diff Eq or Linear, both of which are good options for a first 3000-level math course.</p>
<p>Calc III first semester (or even Calc I or II) will not put her “behind schedule” for a math minor/major- while it might take a little bit longer, once you get past Calc there are relatively few dependencies in the math classes, which makes it pretty easy to schedule things.</p>
<p>In particular, there are no required courses for the minor that require anything other than Calc II as a prerequisite. The same thing is true for most of the major options. Although lots of people take, for example, MATH 3354, Survey of Algebra, before taking MATH 5652, Intro to Abstract Algebra, it is not a mandatory prerequisite, and in any case the 5000-level courses are only required for some major tracks.</p>
<p>In general (not specific to calc), a student should be careful to not take an overly aggressive schedule their first semester. There many adjustments that need to be made in college life, both academically and socially. There is plenty of time to take advanced classes in later semesters. </p>
<p>First year, first semester, I believe it is best to choose classes where most of the other students in the class will also be first years. That also provides a more supportive environment because it will be easier to find people in your dorm who can help if needed, or who can study together.</p>
<p>Diff Eq is hard here, like Calc 2. Calc 3 is easy from what I have heard, and linear depends on your professor. Your daughter (not you) needs to choose to major or minor in math because if she doesn’t enjoy the class she will get poor grades. Let her choose her own schedule at orientation. 1/2 of all students switch their intended major anyways.</p>
<p>^ Diff eq is not bad here, depends on the teacher like every other class. </p>
<p>Start with Calc 3, take it with Tim Emerick too, he is such a boss.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am. I just plant the seeds and hope that a combination of a sunny outlook and a liberal sprinkling of facts will cause it to sprout :)</p>
<p>In fact, just today she told me that she was thinking she might like to minor in math. I did some research and found a calc 3 class w/ Ajay Chandra who gets very good reviews. She liked what she read from students who have taken it with him. I see from 110% that Emrick is also very highly rated.</p>
<p>You really don’t want your daughter saying things like this</p>
<p>friend: “Why are you taking such and such class anyways?”
daughter: “Oh, my parents picked my schedule for me”</p>
<p>Seriously, time to let go. It’s college scheduling, if she got into UVa she can do it by herself. Coming from she who also had helicopter parents, -hazel</p>
<p>ps. college math is nothing like high school math. Let her take a class and decide on her own. you can’t go to her job interviews for her, fix her roommate fights for her, or take her finals for her (or research the best study guides). Time to let her try things on her own.</p>
<p>It is helpful for a parent to nudge their son or daughter to try to fully understand the course registration process before they come to orientation in the summer. There is time to do that after high school tests end, but before it is time to leave for orientation. </p>
<p>As noted above, a student should have a long list of classes and various times, and should start with the times of the most critical classes. Encourage your son or daughter to spend time on <a href=“http://www.thecourseforum%5B/url%5D”>www.thecourseforum</a>. However, for first year students, there are not a million choices. Most first year language and first year math classes are taught by grad students, who don’t typically show up in <a href=“http://www”>www</a>. thecourseforum. There is not much choice among profs for some of the 1000 level science classes. The social science classes with the more popular profs often are full before 1st year students get to register. If the student is prepared, they won’t be as frustrated by the process.</p>
<p>There is plenty of discussion on this message board about what how everything worked last year - just look back at UVA threads from last June to August.</p>
<p>One trick - on Lou’s list - if you hold the cursar over the name of the course, a description of the course pops up. It is best to keep thecourseforum and Lou’s list open in different windows and switch back and forth between them.</p>
<p>Hazel- thanks for the advice. I typed up a really long pm to you but I am pretty sure it got lost in cyberspace because I wasn’t logged in when i sent it (nothing is in my sent folder). </p>
<p>Anyway, I will give you a brief version here. You seem to think I am too involved in her life and ‘need to let go’ and ‘let her try things on her own’. I promise you- I am the most non-helicoptering parent you have ever seen. My DW would get mad at me when I wouldn’t ever help her w/ homework and let her do everything on her own. I’m only helping her w/ this process (researching profs etc) because she wants me to and I think I can help. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that she is going to do what you suggest, and simply take calc 3 next year and then decide if she wants to continue or not with math as a possible minor.</p>
<p>Thanks for being such a great resource.</p>
<p>I don’t normally attack parents like this, it’s just when you spend hours on thecourseforum and so on, I wonder why you have more time to do that than her, etc. I loved exploring course options, but if she is overwhelmed by it, sitting down together instead of doing it for her might be less overwhelming the next time around for her. I wish you both the best of luck :)</p>
<p>^^^No problem. I do indeed have MANY hours a day with nothing to do and nobody around, and one can only workout so much. She, on the other hand, barely has time to think, let alone spend hours online. </p>
<p>Also, some of the time it has been a joint project (like yesterday after she got home from the BC exam), and I expect it will become even more so (or mainly hers) after APs are over.</p>
<p>If you know the BC material, then I see no reason to take anything but Calc III. But that is if you actually know it. Both my friend and I learned the BC material, he took the exam, but since my high school makes us travel elsewhere to take exams, I just sort of blew it off. However, it wouldn’t matter now anyway. Neither one of us could integrate a really complex integral or work with series, etc now. We knew it before, but a year of not using it does a lot of damage. If you are in BC as a senior though, you shouldn’t have any problem. </p>
<p>This is going to be pointless because I know you didn’t mean anything by it, but I want to point out that a high SAT score doesn’t correlate with math skill. Most students who do well just use a study book and memorize the same type of questions that are on the test every time. I once scored an 800 on the math section of the SAT I, and when I took the math II subject test this year, which is far easier, I scored a 690. Those tests are just annoying. So hopefully you daughter is “good” at math (never really understood what that actually means) and enjoys (what is actually important) working with it.</p>