<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>I'm just planning my schedule for the next couple years (you know, to make sure I knock out all the right classes in time to graduate). I was examining the possibility of taking a few graduate classes, 202A, 218, 223, 215, 250A, 254, 256... certainly not all, maybe a couple from the list. </p>
<p>What are some general differences between Undergraduate and Graduate math classes, if any?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>You need 202ab or 105 for 218a, and 218ab for 223, though they don’t tell you that.</p>
<p>202a and 250a are good starting points for grad classes. You can take them after doing 104 and 113, respectively. 114 is actually a topics class, I hear.</p>
<p>I think 185 may be one of the tougher upper div math classes (I haven’t taken 128a yet, which I’ve heard is also difficult), so I use it as a reference point. I didn’t take any honors classes though.</p>
<p>I found 250a to be more difficult than 185 despite being more of a discrete math type. I think 202a was a little easier than 185.</p>
<p>General rule: for undergraduate courses, the prerequisites are actually what you need. For graduate courses, aside from courses that survey a large number of topics within a broad field of mathematics, the prerequisites are more or less up to the instructor. The students are often graduate students, and they generally will have a great deal more of mathematical maturity than someone who just meets say, the course catalog prerequisites. </p>
<p>For instance, if a course requires something like 250A as a prerequisite, chances are, it might actually be beneficial to know a lot more than that to actually get something out of the class. What they mean by having that prerequisite is that you should really know the theorems and ideas from that course cold, but hopefully have familiarity with other mathematics that helps you process how you use the prerequisite material to do something pretty new and unique to itself (after all, a graduate course is usually somewhat specialized).</p>
<p>The rule of thumb is that in a graduate course, the people who are learning the subject for the first time will almost never learn most of it well. Only those who already have significant experience in related areas will really be following along properly at the professor’s pace. Of course, sometimes these classes go slower in pace than they could, which is an exception to what I’m saying.</p>