Hi, Freshmen here.
I was advised to either take Chem 121 or Phys 101 my first semester here, I’m an engi student. The only Physics course that I took in highschool was a conceptual course taught by a very bad teacher with hardly any math and zero calculus involved. I also took an ‘intro’ to calculus course in HS which may not be enough for Phys 101. I also took honors Chem and AP Chem with a not so great, inexperienced teacher, but I have more experience with Chem than with Physics.
Anyway, all that considering and simply in general, which class would it be more manageable to make an A in?
TY
Is this really the place where you want to get Rice-specific course information? With all of the academic advisory support at Rice which you experienced during O-week, you have much better resources at your disposal than you will find here.
You would think that wouldn’t you. After being to PAA, OAA, SSI, and all the other acronyms and senior students I still didn’t get a straight answer
You likely didn’t get a straight answer because there is no straight answer. Both classes are meant to weed out engineers, pre-meds, other pre-professionals, etc, and are difficult in their own ways, with the exams often hovering around a D average
In chemistry, the concepts you’re given are fairly straightforward, but the exams are exceedingly difficult and graded very harshly. But there’s a lot of other grades and assignments you complete to bring your grade back up.
In physics, the concepts are much harder to grasp and understand, but there’s also a curve that brings many people’s grades up significantly.
Chemistry is a lot of work and physics is a lot of things going over your head. So which sounds nicer to you? If it means anything, I hear more people grumbling about chemistry than physics on a daily basis.
I’m late so you’re probably already in the midst of both or just one.
For me Chemistry was easier but it’s more work than Physics and Physics was the one with the curve. But for PHYS 101 there’s a definite formula for getting an A: there are only so many questions they can ask for a topic. For instance, for kinematics there’s the throwing a ball off of a cliff or a glass off of a table. For center of mass questions there’s a good chance they’ll ask you about a pulley with mass.
I would still say take them both at the same time because that’s what most engineers or people who need to take both do here anyway and that’s because you’ll find more support amongst your peers. If that’s not important to you then take them separately, but remember that some courses have one or the other as Pre-reqs and if you’re planning on being something like a MechE or CHBE or BIOE you’re already behind as some of the sophomore courses for those classes require them and those classes are only offered one semester a year. So depending on what you want to major in you’ve already but yourself a year behind.
The OAA is a useless office at Rice. Unless you need to go to them as a requirement for something, you’ll go your whole 4 years without ever needing them. The PAAs aren’t really necessary. They’re students. Any upperclassmen with their stuff together can be a PAA without the title.