Freshman course load

Out of curiosity, is one able to sign up for 2 different discussions for a particular class? Then drop one of them?

@ProfessorPlum168 No, but you can switch discussions if there is space.

@ProfessorPlum168 It is not officially possible. However, I had no trouble attending 2 discussions especially one discussion section time was better than the other, or the graduate instructor was better, and wait it out until enough people dropped the class and the respective discussion section.

It is a pretty fun permutation exercise deciding the courses and the discussion sections within the courses.

I’ve taken a look at the Math 1A and 1B curriculum/finals. After completing the final for Math 1A, I did not do as well as I’d anticipated. So although I’m allowed to skip it, I don’t think I will.

I’ll take Math 1A first semester and Math 1B second semester.

Out of curiosity, does UCB have some sort of Math placement exam? In retrospect, my kid should have taken his Calculus classes at his CC instead of taking BC in 11th grade. Then he wouldn’t have to worry about placement (and most likely would have gotten As).

@kjake2000 I’m a proponent of skipping as many classes as possible with the AP exams & scores. The first reason is it saves a semester’s worth of work which you can use to take other classes or fewer units. The more important reason is it’s not necessarily you have forgotten the concept/material of Calculus, but you simply haven’t been used to Berkeley’s style of exam questions. This can be addressed by taking plenty of past exams which is available not only in the math department website (https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/archives/exams) but also in various honor society websites such as TBP (https://tbp.berkeley.edu/courses/math/). Spend plenty of time ‘working backwards’ from the past exams and if you eventually understand every question, then there is a really good chance to ace it, whether you take 1A or 1B.
This is my opinion, but without understanding the ‘system’ such as mentioned above, and this has nothing to do with individual intellect, I don’t think taking Math 1A gives you any better chance of getting a good grade. If you happen to receive a ‘5’ on the BC exam, then I always advise go straight to 53, or straight to Physics 7B if you took Physics C exam and got a ‘5’, or whatever else you can skip out.

@UpMagic you are right, no point in taking classes you already have credit for. At Berkley or any other university, the testing methods are very different. I think the difference between high school level tests and university level tests is that in high school you are focusing on the concepts. If you have understood the basic concept well and know how to use the equations you will be fine. At college level it in more in-depth application of the concept and equations to solve problems that are worded differently or asked to use a alternate method to arrive at a solution. It takes a lot of practice problems to understand various interpretation of the same concept. If you put in enough time to solve all the problems in a textbook and some more from other resources you will be able to get a good grade.

Not a mandatory one.

There is an advisory one for students without calculus in high school (or too-low score on AP/IB/A-level exam) considering whether they are ready for MATH 1A: https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/placement-exam

There are also the old MATH 1A, 1B, etc. final exams at https://tbp.berkeley.edu/courses/math/ for those who want to check their knowledge when deciding whether to take advanced placement.