Due to life circumstances, my course loads have varied. I am going to be finish Calculus 3 this Summer. HOWEVER, beyond base programming on my own, I’ve NOT formally taken ANY CS courses. Therefore, my concern is that as I progress through the sequence, that my exposure to calculus may have been too elongated to be able to recall the information readily. That is, I wouldn’t get into my core CS classes until Fall 2017 (a full year after finishing Calculus 3). The one upside is that I will have some exposure to Calculus during Fall Semester due to Physics 2.
Beyond these general requirements, how much are you exposed to Calculus itself in the CS curriculum? I’m aware CS follows more a discrete method, and while I know that the thinking process behind Calculus has helped me in different facets of life, I’m not sure I’d be able to recall it in its raw format without frequent exposure prior to Fall 2017. I am also aware that it is dependent on the school, but what is your experience?
Should I take Cal 3 AGAIN in Spring? Or not worry about it?
Calculus is very lightly used, if at all in most programming classes. It can often be used in programs and their computations, but your classes won’t require you to know much, again, if at all.
Math is more related to CS in its thought process and a few of its more specific applications than in general daily use.
You will fare just fine being removed from calculus for a year in CS. Many schools won’t even require Calc 3 for CS. I wouldn’t waste the time taking it again.
The only CS class I can think of where I actually applied calculus was machine learning, and that was just partial derivatives for certain derivations.
Actually for a lot of CS classes, there isn’t much math beyond basic/intermediate algebra and general arithmetic. Some have a fairly high emphasis on linear algebra (machine learning was one of them), but most don’t. The main way you “use” math in most CS classes is in the sense of using logical reasoning as is found in mathematics, and in proofs if you’re in a theoretical CS class.
For your project-based CS classes, you likely won’t have to do much of any calculus unless it’s in a math-heavy subfield (such as machine learning, AI, graphics). Even then, it shouldn’t be so extensive that you need to retake calc 3 to ensure you’re brushed up. Just review what you need as you go and you’ll be fine.
For your more theoretical CS classes, they’re more like abstract mathematics than what you find in a calculus course. I can’t think of a time I actually used calculus in theory of computation or algorithms, for example.
To be perfectly honest, by the time you’re hitting your junior and senior level classes nearly everyone is at least a year removed from calculus, and most people are 2-3 years removed depending on their year and when they took it. We get by by reviewing as needed; if you truly learned the material when you took the class, reviewing it should jog your memory enough to apply it for whatever you need.
You should be done with Calculus courses in CS programs nowadays. Many schools only require up to Calculus 2 for the CS program. You will not need Calculus again until Numerical Analysis (basically computer solutions of Calculus and Differential Equations with built-in primer from the prof) and in Statistics…just to derive a few distributions.
Oh…and maybe for Physics…if the Calc-Based version is required by your school.
As for work in software?..probably will never use it.
Now CS majors who went to school with me 25+ years ago are probably HEATED about the Calculus reduction in CS programs, LOL.
Awesome. Thank you for the responses everyone. The Physics courses do require calculus, but I’ll be done with them after Fall semester. One of the schools I’m looking into does require Calc. III, and the other ones it qualifies as a math elective. I knew that post graduation it’s dependent on your particular field (same with Physics), but wasn’t sure about the curriculum. I can always re-learn it quicker, but I’d prefer to be more efficient and only have to go through it once.
Would it be worth my while to take Differential Equations? Or no point? It was covered briefly in Calc. II, but obviously not as in depth as a semesters worth. I’m assuming the answer is no, but I just want to be sure.