<p>I have a question regarding this. My curriculum sheet is telling me to take these classes concurrently which seems strange since I always thought you took Calculus 3 before Diff EQ?
Anyone here done this before?</p>
<p>At many schools, neither of these two courses depends on the other as a prerequisite (both typically depend on second semester freshman calculus).</p>
<p>Ok so if I am solid on calculus 2 (covered from integration through Infinite Series), then I should be ok? For some odd reason, at my school diff eq has a prerequisite of Calc 3. Maybe the physics department feels that there is not a true need to take these courses one after the other</p>
<p>The only reason I can see that they would want Calc 3 as a prereq is because partial derivatives are used in DiffEQ. Fortunately, partial derivatives are very easy, so this is not an issue. Just make sure you have a solid understanding of Calc 1 and 2 and you will do just fine in both classes.</p>
<p>Oh, and as a side note, I took the classes separately, but plenty of people in both of my classes took them concurrently with no problem at all.</p>
<p>You are right, partial derivatives aren’t hard. Had to work with them a couple times in physics, so at least I have seen them before.</p>
<p>I had both classes separately but then again, we were on the quarter system. That meant (for Michigan State) that Calculus I, II & III became Calculus I, II, III & IV with sophomore winter and spring quarters used for Diff EQ and Linear Algebra respectively.</p>
<p>i would think you would want to take linear algebra before taking diff eq… i guess though that my diff eq class wasn’t really about differential equations. we learned much more about dynamical systems than how to actually solve differential equations.</p>
<p>If calc III is a prereq for Diff. Eq how are you going to take them at the same time?</p>
<p>They don’t care if you take a class that you don’t have a pre-requisite for. The system doesn’t block you from doing so, it just assumes you are being stupid for doing it and will pay the consequences. Apparently, it is doable according to the physics department so I will go with that. And according to many other sources, it is not unusual.</p>
<p>lol. That’s interesting. I think the math dept. here does the same thing because the prereqs in the dept. are listed as “informers” instead of “enforcers”. I actually really like that because it gives the students a lot more flexibility.</p>