Freshman course selection (over)Load? - eecs

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Need some advice.</p>

<p>Thinking of taking the following classes, next Fall as freshman in EECS.</p>

<p>First Sem:
Math53 or Math54 (I will take one of these this summer)
CS61C
Physics 7B
RC or AC </p>

<p>Second:
CS70
Physics 7C
EE20N or EE40
RC/AC</p>

<p>Opting out of Math 1A/1B with Calc BC (5)
Opting out of CS 61A/B with AP CS AB (5)
Opting out of Physics 7A (if I get a 5)</p>

<p>Questions:</p>

<p>Q1. Should I reduce this load?</p>

<p>Q2. Should I take Math 1B before 53 and 54? I think my base is reasonably strong.</p>

<p>Q3. Any other alternate suggestions welcome.</p>

<p>Q4. For Phase I and II, I was thinking of the following:
Ph I: 1. RC/AC for sure
2. Should I go with CS61C or Math 53 (or 54)</p>

<pre><code> Ph II: 3. Physics (I have to wait for my AP scores to see if I can skip 7A)
4. CS61C or Math
</code></pre>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>You can’t opt out of CS 61A with an AP. The only way to get out of 61A is if you’ve already taken it in high school (as in, you came to Berkeley to take that exact class during a summer session or something).</p>

<p>This load is fine. It’s what most people take.</p>

3

<p>OK, I am confused.</p>

<p>Per the UG advising handbook,
<a href=“http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/students/current-undergraduates/advising/advising07-08.pdf[/url]”>http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/students/current-undergraduates/advising/advising07-08.pdf&lt;/a&gt; (page 10)</p>

<p>Getting 4 or 5 in AP CS AB will credit 2.7 units and also satisfy CS61B. And isn’t CS61A is a pre-req for 61B?</p>

<p>I read the course descriptions - CS61A seems like an intro programming class and CS61B is data structures.</p>

<p>So, I need to do CS61A, skip CS61B, before CS61C?</p>

4

<p>You should not skip out of CS61A. It might catch up to you later. Some of the upper div CS classes assume knowledge of CS61A or that you can self study the material in CS61A. </p>

<p>In fact 90% of the students taking CS61A had some programming experience. If you want a head start, why don’t go buy a copy of the textbook (purple) that CS61A uses and study from it over the summer. If you can do 80% of the exercises in that book on your own, maybe you can skip out of CS61A.</p>

5

<p>You can’t skip CS61A. It’s a graduation requirement for EECS, and AP CS doesn’t satistify it. You’ll take CS61A in the fall, then CS61C in the spring.</p>

<p>The reason AP CS satisfies 61B is because they are both in java, wheras 61A is in scheme.</p>

6

<p>Believe me, you probably cannot. A friend of mine actually took the self-paced version of 61A in Berkeley AS A COLLEGE STUDENT, and was promised it’d replace the normal lecture course, and now they’re trying to tell him that he’ll have to take the standard course taught by Brian Harvey. In my experience, 61B is easily skipped, but the prerequisite thing doesn’t work that way.</p>

7

<p>OK, got it, CS61A it is. Thanks. Need some feedback on the the rest of the Qs:</p>

<p>Q1. Can I “safely” ditch Math 1A/1B and not get into trouble with Math53/54? Comments in general are that AP Calc BC doesn’t quite prepare you for “proofs” and “theory”.</p>

<p>Q2. Which of two should I pick for Phase I - CS61A, Math 54, R&C?</p>

8

<p>

Yes, no need to kill yourself in a curved class where nearly everyone has taken ap calculus before when you already know the material.</p>

<p>

R&C, and math 54</p>

9

<p>JP_Omnipotence, why is skipping out of 61A such a bad idea?
I thought that once you cover the higher course, 61B, that the lower course is also exempted.</p>

<p>My possible is also really similar to the OP’s, but I’m in L&S and I was thinking of transferring into EECS. =/</p>

<p>First Sem:
Math53
CS61CL
Nuctsx 10
AC</p>

<p>Second:
CS70
Physics 7B
EE20N or EE40
RC</p>

<p>I have a 5 on Calc BC, 5 on Comp Sci AB, a 5 on Physics C: Mechanics and a 5 on Chem (which might get me out of Chem 1A [the EECS required lower division science elective]? or not? help me!?)</p>

<p>Should I attempt to transfer into EECS, or just stay in L&S and do a double major in Haas & Computer Science? Thanks!</p>

10

<p>ppl please beware that cs61a is not a JOKE, and can NOT be skipped if you are a CS or EECS major no matter how high u got on ap cs ab exams. Btw, you will have a better learning experience when you take cs61c with dan garcia. Also, do not equivalent cs61b with ap cs ab exam, that exam IS a JOKE compare to cs61b, so I would advice you guys to take it if you have time to improve your java skills.</p>

11

<p>

Because they won’t let you, unless you’ve taken a similar course elsewhere, and
CS61A is VERY different from AP CS AB.
While AP CS while let you skip 61B (java, data structures), it will not let you skip 61A (scheme, recursion/iteration, mutual recursion/trees, symbolic programming, oo-programming (this is where apcs helps), logic programming, mapreduce, streams, interpreters, logo, environment diagrams)</p>

<p>And like edward says, apcs is a lot easier than cs61b, though after taking apcs, 61b feels easier.</p>

12

<p>You can’t skip cs 61a unless you plan on not graduating.</p>

<p>61a is harder than 61b even though it is a prereq.</p>

13

<p>CS61 series isn’t hierarchical. You can take the 61 series out of order, so 61B is not a “higher” course than 61A. 61A is, in Harvey’s words, unlike any CS course you could’ve ever taken (unless, presumably, you were at MIT). </p>

<p>61A is basically everything you’ll learn about CS in a nutshell. You won’t want to skip out of it even if you could. 61B, on the other hand, is on data structures and sorting. This is basically what the AP CS AB test was about. It’s not a good idea to skip out of 61B, but if you’re in a rush to get your prereqs over with, you can skip 61B. Be warned that during a lot of job interviews, depending on the job, you will be asked about data management and proper organizational algorithms (data structures and sorting).</p>