<p>I have not taken calc in high scool because i chose to take AP stats instead. So, i am wondering if 16A would be really hard for me? How about 1A, would that be even harder given my background? Should i take it at the community college in berkeley next year instead? By the way i am a political science major and a premed, so i need to get a good grade in my math and science courses because i am not going to take that many math and science courses and so if i get one bad grade by science GPA will not be so nice. </p>
<p>you should be fine. 16a is a first calculus course for people who haven't taken calc before. If you do really badly in 16a, you can always drop it. if you seriously doubt your math skills, you can take math 32 (precalc) before. also, consider taking the first semester easy (<14 units) if you're worried. actually the best thing would be to ask the advisors at CalSO.</p>
<p>also, i don't think they let you take classes at the community college while simultaneously taking classes at cal. you can take them in the summer, though.</p>
<p>thanks mrniphty...I do not doubt my math skills at all but i was worried because i thought i would be competing with people who have already taken calc. So, you think if i work hard i can get an A without having taken calc before? </p>
<p>Also, do you think math 1A would be possible at all? Would i have to work insanely hard to get an A in that class?
Thanks</p>
<p>math 1a is marginally harder than math 16a. you cover more or less the same topics (well, more topics), with more rigor. You might want to try 1a initially and if you find it too hard you could probably switch into 16a.</p>
<p>lots of different profs teach the classes so i can't give much advice about which ones are good and bad; they usually don't have the same profs teaching from semester to semester.</p>
<p>don't freak out about your schedule. You'll have lots of time to figure it out. (phase 1 for new students is still quite a while away)</p>
<p>Thanks mrniphty... I am a spring admit so i have been advised to turn in my final schedule by this weekend (although the deadline is June 1). I am wondering if you guys think that given my background with no calc in high school, should i take calc in a community college before i come to Cal or do you think i can get an A in 16A?</p>
<p>You probably will have to struggle a bit to get the A-, because many students have taken Calculus in high school, and thus they have an advantage over you.</p>
<p>ab_med - will you receive email or mail confirmation after you mail in the paper with the classes you plan to take? im asking because FFP registration is not on the checklist on myberkeleyapplication so you wont receive an online confirmation.</p>
<p>Im sending my course schedule today!!Ahhh!! I have put down math 16A...Is that a bad idea if i have not taken calc? Will i have a lot of trouble getting an A?</p>
<p>You probably will have to struggle a bit to get the A-, because many students have taken Calculus in high school, and thus they have an advantage over you. So yes, you will have trouble.</p>
<p>jesus unlimited, you act like calc is some weird form of math that it takes a while to get good at. if you can: look at a graph and figure out that some parts have different slope than others, some parts have more area under the graph than others, and you can do basic transformations of polynomials (moving the exponent down to be a coefficient, etc), calc will be a cake walk for you. its more actual math than stats is, but its not hard math.</p>
<p>Perhaps that didn't come out the way I wanted it to. What I wanted to say is that you would have to work really hard to get the A/A- because many incoming students would have taken Calc in high school already (so to them it would be relatively easy), so they already have an advantage over you; therefore you may have to struggle a bit to get the high marks.</p>