<p>Hi, I was hoping a few of you could check out my planned fall schedule and let me know how tough it may be. I'm taking these courses at a community college, I'm not dropping welding, and I can dial back my work (career) load as much as I want.</p>
<p>Math 401 [Integral calculus (II)] - 5 Units
Math 410 [Linear Algebra] - 3 Units
Phys 411 [Mechanics of Solids and Fluids] - 4 Units
CISP 360 [Introduction to Structured Programming (I hear using c++)] - 4 Unit
EC [Welding] - 3 Units</p>
<p>Last semester I took Math 400 (Cal 1), Chem 300 (Prep for general chem 1 of 2), Engineering graphics, and English Writing composition 300. It totaled about 15 units, which seemed really inflated considering the ease of some of the courses. I'm worrying this will throw off my accurate assessment of next semester's work load. In general I had a LOT of free time last semester, which caused me to additionally procrastinate more than I should have.</p>
<p>-Chem 300 was very very easy - Minimal studying.
-English comp, being taught by Lucifer herself, was made to be laborious. I'm reminded of the scene in the new Rambo movie where Cambodians were made to run across a submerged mine field.
-Engineering graphics was easy. 7 hours a week of work, in class and out combined.
-Math 400 was pretty easy. I'm good at understanding complex subjects, not memorizing.</p>
<p>There is one final variable that may or may not influence the difficulty of my fall schedule, depending on the course material. In high school, for reasons I won't go into, I didn't take any math classes after geometry. I studied for a while before my college entrance exam and gained a working, if untested, knowledge of the material that followed. This didn't hurt me in cal 1 at all.</p>
<p>I would recommend dropping linear because from what I’ve seen of friends, taking it after Calc1 is not wise. I haven’t taken it, but I hear that it is an abstract subject. From the title of the courses…by any chance are you going to the Los Rios Colleges?</p>
<p>Some programming courses are absolute killers with labs (which can consume 15-20 hours per week) and some are not. You might contact the professor to ask what the expected amount of homework is.</p>
<p>Yup I go to CRC too, when I saw the course titles, they looked all too familiar so I had to ask. This upcoming fall semester is my last one. I’m doing Civil Engineering by the way and transferring to Sac State. Nice to see that a local is on this forum!</p>
<p>It’s thanksgiving, and a gut full of ham is keeping me awake, so I thought I would update this post for future reference.</p>
<p>If anyone is interested in taking a similar schedule to this one, don’t underestimate linear algebra. This class is so far the toughest I have ever taken. While the actual work load is light, I have spent more time thinking on this class than any other so far. </p>
<p>Our most recent test covered abstractions such as: vector space/sub spaces, eigen stuff, and was the real transition into intense proofing. In the week that followed, much of the class was gone. That test LEVELED what must have been 10 people’s grades that otherwise had A’s up until that point.</p>
<p>There’s no real advice I can give on succeeding in this class, as it is a completely new way of thinking. Just make sure you can prove (formally) anything in the book. You should straight away develop the parts of your brain that figure out how to start proofs, and where to take them. Linear (in)dependence also seems to have been the biggest part of this class so far. It has been a major player in every chapter, and has played the largest role in proofing so far. I would advise anyone considering taking this class to master the topic asap.</p>
<p>My son took Linear Algebra after Calc 3 and Discrete Structures. He was already familiar with formal proofs from high-school geometry and some time spent in chapter one of Michael Spivak’s book. Calc 3 provides a moderate amount of preparation for Linear Algebra in that you get used to working in more than two dimensions. Discrete Structures also had a section on formal proofs. He didn’t have any trouble with Linear Algebra with that background.</p>
<p>Linear Algebra is usually allowed after Calc I but it’s easier after Calc III.</p>