<p>DD took Calc BC in high school and scored a 5 on the AP exam (she was a bit surprised to have done so well). Her plan was to use the AP credit for first semester Calc, but take second semester Calc this fall as a BME major.</p>
<p>On Friday when she met with her advisor, she was encouraged to use her AP credit for second semester Calc as well, since these two classes are "used as weed outs".</p>
<p>Since she will be able to drop back to second semester Calc if the third semester class seems overwhelming, she decided to give it a try. This approach also offers more flexibility later in her program since she will have one more requirement met.</p>
<p>Do any current students have thoughts on her dilemma? Are first and second semester Calculus really used as weed out classes? Will Calc BC have thoroughly prepared her for her engineering program?</p>
<p>Not a current student, BME class of 2010. But Math 32 (or w/e it’s called now) has always been a high fail rate class though multivariable isn’t much better. I’ve always been a fan of skipping out on as much of the math as possible mainly because they are time consuming, schedule constraining, and GPA busting. If your DD has a good grasp of integration and derivation, that’s probably good enough for multivariable. The rest of the engineering curriculum won’t use much beyond that, some differentiation equations, and maybe a bit of linear algebra.</p>
<p>Skip all the math you can at Duke. The intro classes are not any easier. A lot of Duke engineers thought they were good at math and decide to take the Math 32 as a refresher. They soon discover that the class is calculus on crack; combined with a bunch of engineers who were all excellent at math in high school, the class is actually really difficult. Math classes are pretty much the only classes where I saw people failing not at fault of their own (ie not getting the content, instead of not doing work). </p>