<p>I'm a freshman at Tech right now, and I'm trying to decide what classes to take next fall. I'm finally about to take a lab course, but I'm not sure if I should choose Chem 1310 or Phys 2211. Which one is more difficult and time consuming? I'm also thinking about signing up for Principles of Microeconomics (Econ 2601), any thoughts about that class? Thanks for any help!</p>
<p>Chem1310 is generally considered to be easier and require less effort than Phys 2211. Though that’s usually because most students have taken HS Chemistry but not all have taken HS Physics. Also, the Physics tests are much less forgiving (fewer questions worth more points each).</p>
<p>What is your major and what other classes are you taking?</p>
<p>I took both in high school and it seemed like they were on the same level (to me). But I think I will take chemistry first. I’m an EE major and I’m signing up for Calc III, French 1001, Wellness, and Econ 2106… I didn’t come to school with 20,000 AP credits. :)</p>
<p>You can look up materials on line for physics and chem. at Tech (type in chem 1310 exam or Physics 2211 quiz or exam in the gatech.edu search bar). To me, it seems like physics compared to HS or even AP is way harder at Tech, whereas chem. is on par with AP. In fact I would say it’s a tad easier than ours whereas physics there is infinitely harder (actually E and M may give theirs a run for the money this year mainly b/c a prof. w/a MS and PhD from Tech is teaching it. With that said, he is significantly better than most physics profs. here. I applaude Tech for that). One problem I saw w/ chem 1310 is that it’s multiple choice. So if it’s wrong, it’s wrong, no partial credit. But with that said, it seems like the problems don’t get but so challenging because of it. Not many tricky problems or serious applications.</p>
<p>French…ewww! You need to pray it isn’t as intense or as stressful as ours (we go 4 days a week, have 1million assignments that are graded tough and sometimes harda** quizzes each Friday) . I’m going through it here right now and I often think, “This school takes foreign languages way too serious”. We all essentially bombed the quiz and composition last week, and now I need to work hard this week to raise my grade. Good luck with your schedule. Again, just go look for that material and perhaps see where you stand.</p>
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<p>Phys 2211 is the same. There’s no way a professor or TA can hand grade 200 exams with partial credit.</p>
<p>Well, don’t some of them just do “quizzes” (basically a mid-term) and then a final, with some of the problems being multiple choice and some being non-MC problems? The difference is there are less questions/problems overall, where chem. 1310 may have 20-25 MC. That’s what I saw. I can send a link. It is possible to grade that, my largest class was 175 people, the midterm and final were essay based. The prof. and his single TA read them all and even graded quite harshly. Gen. chem. has upwards to 125 students and a single prof. grades half the exam. Some bio classes have close to 100 students and they choose to do completely short-answer/essay/case-study exams (and they make all 100 of the students do casework in and out of class, so it is possible if the profs. are dedicated/willing to). Note that the profs. for gen. bio or chem. have no grad. TAs to grade. Surely organic chem. at Tech does not do multiple choice and I bet those classes have high enrollment (though admittedly, you guys’ orgo. exams are a lot shorter). </p>
<p>[PHYS</a> 2211 A-B Fall 2010 Quiz Solutions](<a href=“http://phweb.physics.gatech.edu/academics/Classes/fall2010/2211/AB/main/quiz_solutions/quiz_sol.html]PHYS”>http://phweb.physics.gatech.edu/academics/Classes/fall2010/2211/AB/main/quiz_solutions/quiz_sol.html)
This looks like some non-MC problems to me. Have they changed since then?<br>
This syllabus indicates not: [PHYS</a> 2211 A-D Spring 2011 Course Policies](<a href=“http://www.physics.gatech.edu/~em92/Classes/Spring2011/2211ABCD/main/policies/policies.html]PHYS”>http://www.physics.gatech.edu/~em92/Classes/Spring2011/2211ABCD/main/policies/policies.html)</p>
<p>Gen. chem more like this: <a href=“http://ww2.chemistry.gatech.edu/~williams/bCourse_Information/1310/recent_announcements.html[/url]”>http://ww2.chemistry.gatech.edu/~williams/bCourse_Information/1310/recent_announcements.html</a>
Exam solutions are somewhere on this page.
Talksyic: You can maybe look at these to see what you’re getting into.</p>
<p>I don’t care how many problems there are - when you grade a free answer exam with partial credit, it takes considerable time to go back through a wrong answer and diagnose exactly where the student went wrong. Then you have to resolve the problem from the student’s mistake to see if that was the only mistake. </p>
<p>With 200 students, even with a 5 or 6 question short-test, that would at least 100 man-hours of grading. It would take 5 TA’s to be able to get the exam back in a week, and no professor gets 5 TA’s unless it’s a Calculus class.</p>
<p>The only way to get around that is to either take longer to return exams (which students complain about) or to use short cuts in the grading (give points for a certain equation on the sheet, give points for the first part of the answer, etc). However, that method of grading is basically the same as a multiple choice test.</p>
<p>But back on topic…</p>
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<p>You have a relatively light schedule, so I think you would be fine with either Chem or Phys this semester. It would be nice to ease into college with an easier first semester (by taking Chem) so long as that doesn’t overload you in the second semester (taking Phys with other difficult courses). </p>
<p>Do you have credit for CS 1 and 2? It might be better to work that into your first semester instead of Econ.</p>
<p>A few clarifications:
- The next fall semester will be my third semester at Tech; I’ll be a sophomore.
- I have already taken CS 1371 and am currently taking 1372.
- In all of the Calc and CS classes that I have taken, all of the tests (including finals) have been short answer and there was a chance to get partial credit on all of the questions.</p>
<p>Well, there you have it. Perhaps you underestimate the profs./TAs. And yes, here on such exams, it does take about a week. Biochem had only 2 TAs and there were 120 or so students. Most of the exam was short-answer essay/drawing (and they were like 9-10 pages, try to figure out how many problems there were). Then again, I think we get less exams (like 3 midterms per semester and a final or 2 and a final, instead of like 5-6) so it could be different. They used to have the same style when the class had 175 students last year and it took like a week.
Also, they normally have pre-set grading standards before the grading even begins. It makes it easier. The same scheme applies to math-based science courses like chem. and physics here. The think may say, award 1 point for each of these if the student does it correctly. The hardest “baby” physics(non-calc. based, the one for lame pre-meds) profs. here publishes common deductions on his answer key so that students know exactly how they were graded. </p>
<p>Talksyic: Again looking at those pages should let you decide for yourself (of course as a rising sophomore, I guess you may have seen them before). Sounds like you’re strong in calc, so maybe physics won’t hurt that bad, though it appears to be harder than chem. That may be just me though.</p>
<p>CS and Calc have a team of TA’s working every lecture course (because they have recitation sections). Typically 1 TA for every 20 students in those courses. With that number, it is very easy to have all tests hand graded in a week (about 10 hours of work).</p>
<p>Physics and Chem are different. They don’t have recitation sections and don’t have a team of TA’s grading (other than lab assignments). </p>
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<p>Then there should be some major classes in that schedule.</p>
<p>Especially in ECE, if you don’t go ahead and get 2030 out of the way, you’ll never graduate in 4 because 2030 -> 2040, 2025 -> 3040 -> 3042 -> 4001 -> 4007. Prereq chains everywhere!</p>
<p>Econ 2106(microeconomics) is a joke.</p>
<p>Chemistry courses are extremely time consuming because of the extensive lab reports. The physics material may take more time to mentally digest, but in the end I think that you will be spending less time on it overall. 2211 (especially modern) is not a terribly difficult course. It is 2212 that tends to trip up the majority of the students.</p>
<p>Also, a note regarding the physics tests: It is true that there are fewer questions, but they are multiple parts and written as opposed to multiple choice. This tends to allow for partial credit, which many students feel is to their benefit. In 2211, the professors all use WebAssign to grade weekly assignments, providing them and their TA staff more time to grade the written exams.</p>
<p>Mind your pre-req chains, and try not to group your social sciences all together in one semester. Spreading them out provides a distraction from your hard-core science courses that will make you want to beat yourself over the head. I also wouldn’t mix two lab sciences if I were you… nor would I split up sequenced courses. For instance, don’t do PHYS 2211 CHEM 1310 and then PHYS 2212 over three semesters.</p>
<p>Based on all of the input, I think I’ll sign up for these classes:</p>
<p>Chem 1310
ECE 2025
Math 2401
French 1101
Econ 2106</p>
<p>Would it be too difficult to take two lab classes at the same time?</p>
<p>No if you’re referring to CHEM and PHYS.
Ehh…if you’re referring to ECE 2025 and CHEM 1310.</p>
<p>Although I took ECE 4175 (lab course), ECE 3090 (C++ programming course…you can think of it as a lab), and ECE 4551 (a lab integrated course) all in one semester, I don’t think that it was as bad as taking ECE 2025. That class was amazing though.</p>