<p>Hi,</p>
<p>so my phase II is on 25th of July which is quite late I guess.
Since I will double major in CS and math, I have to fit one of those two(CS 61b or math 53) to my fall schedule. Which do you think is better?</p>
<p>Everyone is like avoid Hilfinger and Givental but I have to make a choose b/w two duh......</p>
<p>People say you will get bad grades with Hilfinger but you will definitely learn a lot. I have some programming experience and am taking 61a this summer.
AND for multivariable, I already took it in high school with the exact same textbook(I know college one is way harder) so I am at least familiar with the basic concepts. Will this help me survive in Givental's class?</p>
<p>Considering good gpa, fair workload, and most importantly "learning a lot" in class, which one should I choose?</p>
<p>THANKS GUYS IN ADVANCE:)</p>
<p>I think Hilfinger is hard/time consuming but eventually helpful while Givental is hard and confusing and thus useless for your education.</p>
<p>You might have other options for math:</p>
<p>Math 54 (Grunbaum or Teleman)
Math H54 (Gu)
CS 70 (Vazirani)</p>
<p>Givental is probably a terrible teacher. The only thing you will get out of his class is how to study for upper division mathematics (which might not be a bad thing). The thing is, math 53 is meant more for engineers and scientists than math majors. Consider an alternative, Math H53 or Math 214, for a more rigorous approach toward multivariable analysis. Though, it seems H53 isn’t offered…</p>
<p>You could always take H54, though I’ve heard terrible things about the quality of Ming Gu’s classes (ie, too easy, too many people get 100% on the midterms) so you may not learn too much about linear algebra/differential equations in H54. Grunbaum has the same reputation. I would highly advise against him. Personally, I try avoiding the easy “A” professors but I also try avoiding the 1.5 gpa professors (givental) as well, as much as I like to be challenged. I find that you learn the most from the middle-ground teachers (moderately difficult, decent at teaching), but that’s just me.</p>
<p>Instead, math H110 (linear algebra) is being taught by an awesome teacher! I’d say that you will learn A LOT in Harrison’s H110 class. If you aren’t confident enough, then Nadler’s 110 is a good alternative, but it’s significantly less abstract than H110. </p>
<p>Also, I’ve heard that Hilfinger doesn’t grade harshly, but you just get a lot of work. You would learn a lot in his class for sure.</p>
<p>From the information you provided, I’d say go for hilfinger. If you are more mathematically inclined, go for math H110/110 or 214. The brilliant thing about math classes is that most of the introductory classes are self-contained! This means that everyone theoretically starts at the same starting point, with different levels of mathematical maturity. Basically, this means that ANYONE can do well in ANY math class given enough time/effort! Contrast this with most other majors, where most courses have prerequisites.</p>
<p>Thanks all. Especially ^ for such detailed one:)
actually I am taking math54 this summer and math 53 is my last step towards declaring major but I will look into math 110 after that. looks really hard but interesting hmm. I am avoiding Givental for sure this fall anyways.</p>
<p>My fall schedule will now be like:
r&c course
espm 40
cs 70
+cs 61b (Hilfinger)</p>
<p>14 units! Will fitting one more a&c course be disastrous? … maybe I think so…</p>
<p>Hilfingers class is just a lot of work, not necessarily super hard. If you get 100% on projects and 50% on tests and the final it comes out to an A-. You also get autograder feedback for the projects so there’s no reason not to ace them if you put the time in. </p>
<p>cs70 with vazirani was horrible. His lectures are very confusing and he wrote the lecture notes (there’s no textbook) so they’re also confusing somewhat. In the first few weeks he will seem fine but later it gets a lot more confusing. I also felt like when I went to discussions, the GSIs expected us to know some things already, which I have no idea where we were suppose to learn them from. Ask a lot of questions on piazza and go to office hours for help. I’m still not sure the best way to tackle his class even after completing it. I felt like in lecture and the lecture notes, he did a poor job of outlining what was going to be taught. The structure was bad. He just goes into talking about things or into a proof and you have no idea why is useful or anything. Yea I can’t really explain it. I just got really confused and am glad I made it out without dampening my GPA too much.</p>
<p>^ Do you mean 50% on tests after the curve?</p>
<p>^there’s no curve in the class. That’s 50% uncurved. So technically that IS sort of the curve. Also FYI none of the 61B or 61A teachers curve I believe.</p>