I am intrigued at how nicely Sixth College can overlap with my Human Biology major, yet I can still receive good breadth of knowledge for myself and for the appeal to med schools with Sixth's cultural, artistic, and technological focus. Thanks to the advice of many on this forum as well as others, I realized that :)
With that being said, I am curious as to the nature of the CAT classes? Are they difficult or easier than most? Anyone recommend I take the class with a certain professor? What types of assignments are there, and how heavily are they weighed (I know a lot of it is writing and research, but more specific perhaps)?
Your responses are appreciated, and to anyone who is in the UCSD class of 2022, congratulations!
Any additional advice regarding CAT, Sixth GEs, or anything else would be wonderful, too.
From what I’ve heard, CAT is the easiest writing sequence by far. My friend had to write a couple of joke essays about aliens for one of them, and everyone I’ve talked to never had any issues with the lower-division CAT classes. Considering your other options are MCWP (short but brutal), DOC (tedious), WCWP (tedious), MMW (long, tedious, and brutal), and HUM (long and absolutely brutal) I’d say Sixth students have it pretty good.
@DoctorP thank you for your response!
That is certainly a relief to hear. According to my Four Year Plan, this is what my first quarter will look like:
CHEM 6A
BILD 4
MATH 10A/20A
CAT 1
I'm not too worried over biology or CAT based upon what you told me about it being an easier writing class, but I'm a bit anxious about the Calculus class as well as Chem 6A-- particularly with the fast-paced quarter system UCSD has. The last time I took chemistry was in my sophomore year, and my teacher wasn't very good (read word for word off of slides she didn't even make). What's more is I never took Calculus in high school; I'm in IB, so I was required to take IB math instead. Do you perhaps have any insight as to the difficulty of Chem 6A and Math 1A or advice relative to my situation? I would greatly appreciate it!
Admittedly, I’m among oncoming freshmen with a pre-med major frantic about maintaining a high GPA. I know there is a lot more to college than GPA, but I see the standard of med schools being 3.7+. I just wanted to know what it would take for a student like me to excel in my classes and not wind up obliterating my first quarter, or my first year for that matter. Is it really only proper time management and studying with a healthy balance of social life/ family time, or do I need to do more, very much above and beyond? I already intend on brushing up on basic chemistry over the summer, and I am going to attempt to familiarize myself with calculus concepts, but I’m still a bit anxious.
Either way, I really appreciate you for taking the time to read this and hear me out. You’ve been very helpful already
If anyone could respond–especially those with experience in the class–I would appreciate it. I’m panicking a bit at some forums where I read CAT is actually hard, especially CAT 3 where some students even wish it was pass or no pass.
Someone please give insight? How are the CAT classes really, especially if I’m taking Calculus, Biology, and Chemistry at the same time?
I’m getting quite worried.
Wow, I’ve had this sitting in my drafts for weeks. Sorry for the non-response:
@eas4vr that’s a pretty standard/manageable schedule! I wouldn’t trip. CHEM 6A-C generally isn’t challenging imo, although that depends a lil on your professor. The MATH 20 series is a pain; can’t speak to the 10 series but my understanding is that it’s a bit easier. Didn’t take BILD 4, but most lab classes will be disproportionately time-consuming
Definitely time management and study habits are key to succeeding. Brushing up on material beforehand can’t hurt but you won’t have that opportunity every quarter. The first step is to respect the workload—college is way harder than high school, and the lack of structure/guidance means you might be prone to wasting time. Don’t. Take time outside of class to study the material and complete assignments even when there aren’t any upcoming exams or deadlines, because otherwise you’ll lose a lot of sleep to this quarter system. Make friends in your major and classes so you can study together and take overlapping classes. Be disciplined with your schoolwork and your extracurricular pursuits. And don’t worry too much! Have fun with it. It sounds like you’re already on top of things and have a good grasp of what it’ll take to do well. Maybe look into getting into a research lab early on, like fall or winter quarter, so that you’re forced to learn to manage your time
Edit: A lot of classes at UCSD are hard. CAT is, relatively, not known to be very hard. Maybe I’m just an elitist Revelle student, but the CAT curriculum and grading are pretty weak by most comparisons.
@MomLA2018 sure, sorry. The writing sequences are Revelle - HUM; Muir - MCWP; Marshall - DOC; Warren - WCWP; Roosevelt - MMW; Sixth - CAT. In addition to this requirement, each college has its own set of required classes listed on its website
@DoctorP Don’t apologize, I really appreciate all of your advice. I’m currently in the semester system, so the transition to the quarter system coupled with the increase in rigor and competitive nature of UCSD has been very intimidating, but your insight is very reassuring, so thank you very much.
I typically study 2-4 hours per day and finish assignments as soon as possible because of the rigor of IB, so I’m hoping these habits alone can at least keep me on par with the average in each class. I really just don’t want to stress for 3 years because of a bad first year. Perhaps I’m being paranoid, but again, your input helps me a lot!
Not sure about the freshman CAT courses but I am taking the upper division CAT class as a transfer (which you’ll take too eventually). You can take it online and it seriously the easiest class I’ve ever taken.
