<p>How difficult is Math 126? </p>
<p>I got a 4 in AP Calculus AB and I'm wondering if Math 126 would be manageable? How hard is it to get an A or B in the course? </p>
<p>I'm thinking about being a math major, but I don't want my first college math course to destroy my GPA.</p>
<p>Does anyone know?</p>
<p>USC students are in final week. You may get more replies to your question when finals are over.</p>
<p>Ok. Then, I’ll bump the thread once finals are over.</p>
<p>Math-126 is fine, but definitely requires work. If you want to be a math major then it should be a cake walk. The class is mostly engineers.</p>
<p>I considered math to be a cake walk until Calculus. Once I got to Calculus, I actually studied much more compared to my previous math courses, but I pulled it off. Does that mean I should make a reasonably light course load for my first semester at USC (b/c of Math 126)?</p>
<p>the absolute key to math classes here is to make sure you get a good professor. i started out with an awful 126 professor this semester and switched the second week, best decision i could have made. unfortunately i don’t know any of the 126 professors next semester but check this out</p>
<p>[MATH</a> | USC Schedule of Classes](<a href=“http://web-app.usc.edu/soc/20093/math.html]MATH”>302 Found)</p>
<p>then look them up on ratemyprofessor, read their homepage, get as much info as you can about their teaching beforehand. i have a friend with an awful 126 professor and her midterms/hw are sadistic. 126 in my opinion is not that difficult, hell in my opinion it was easier than 125, but it all depends who your professor is.</p>
<p>I agree. Son got 5 on AP Calculus exam. Went into 126, they wanted certain type proofs that he had never had. This took an adjustment. Ended up dropping at suggestion of advisor/teacher one week before finals. His experience has been much of the math dept is no help in outside explaining and the graduate studnets were worse.
In retrospect should have taken 125 and gotten a better grade. Also, one section of 126 covered completely different chapters x3 than the other section</p>
<p>we just had our 126 final, i have some friends in other sections that got screwed on the final (it is a common final) because they just didn’t go over all the stuff on the test. my professor did most of it and the one thing he didn’t we figured out, but i dodged a bullet by not having one of the other professors.</p>
<p>Math 126 (Calculus 2) is the weed out course for people that would be more successful in non-engineering majors. This is true all around the country. Math courses after Calculus 2, oddly enough, are easier. Exactly like Bio and Chem are weed outs for people who would do better in something other than pre-med. They are extra-hard on purpose.</p>
<p>Then, which one would be better: Math 126 at USC in the Fall or Math X1B through Berkeley Extension in the summer?</p>
<p>I want to take Calculus 2, but not at the expense of my GPA.</p>
<p>I can’t say that I really agree with the posters in this thread. I got a B+ in 126 w/ Montgomery, and did it with just an average amount of effort. I feel a bit ashamed to say this, but actually after the first midterm I just stopped going to class ( 10 am is way too early for me ). If I applied myself a bit more, I think an A/A- would have been very doable. </p>
<p>That being said, I don’t think that the professor you have will have a magnanimous impact on your resultant grade - its more how much time are you willing to dedicate to learn the material on your own. But I did sit in Kamienny (sp?) class and he does seem very good.</p>
<p>everyone has to take calc 2, i found it to be a little easier than 125 honestly. i started in montgomery’s class this semester then switched to bene when he sub’ed one day. </p>
<p>for next semester i don’t see any professors that raise a red flag, you should be fine. if you want to get ahead take class over summer but don’t do it to avoid taking the class at USC.</p>
<p>Then, should I be fine by taking Calc 2 in the Fall? I couldn’t find a local/CA online course open still, so it should be fine, right? I looked up the Fall Math 126 professors on rate my prof and two of the professors are said to be difficult and another professor was described to be a good instructor, but the final is harder than what the instructor teaches.</p>
<p>I think I’ll go with the good instructor because Calculus 2 (Math 126) is new to me because I only took Calculus AB in high school.</p>
<p>If you go don’t skip classes you should be ok. Someone my daughter knows got an F on the final exam despite having 100% on her first test. Dont slack off. Time management is key.</p>
<p>yeah, you will be fine, take good instructor. they make available the last decade or so worth of final exams so anything you don’t know you will have ample time to ask about and figure out. there is nothing that isn’t in the book and there are SI (supplemental instructions) reviews every week if you feel you don’t get something. the nice thing about calc 2 i found is that a lot of the harder concepts you can learn by just practicing and seeing how problems are done, it is easy to make problems sound hard but really it is just following the same set of steps for each problem. the trick is making sure you learn it the first time around, you don’t want to get to a midterm/final and find out you never really learned one topic and need to relearn it rather than review it.</p>