Important Advice for any Freshmen Intended Life Sciences Majors for MATH requirements

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>If you are planning to major in Integrative Biology, Molecular and Cell Biology, or another Life Science Major, I have important advice for you.
The Math courses you are required to take are the Math 10 series, or the Math 1 series. My advice is to warn you that although the math 10 series has extra mathematical curriculum that are meant to be useful to biologists, the course is MUCH more intensive and faster paced than the Math 1 series.</p>

<p>Math 10A will cover almost everything in Math 1A, plus a few weeks of math 1B, and most of Stat 20. This curriculum is set at an accelerated pace relative to the Math 1 Series, because Math 10 covers all of differential calculus, Integral calculus, infinite sums, taylor series, and many probability methods from stat 20. They do not even go over basic functions and limits except for perhaps 10 minutes of a lecture.</p>

<p>Math 10B is more intensive, as it will cover FOUR modules of mathematical curriculum, one on discrete math or combinatorics( Math 55), Statistics and Probability, Differential Equations and Dynamics( Most of Math 1B), and Linear Algebra( A lot of math 54, how to calculate the determinate of a matrix, do row operations and reductions, solve systems of linear differential equations, find Eigen Values). They do not cover all the material in Math 54 and 55 obviously, but go over many of the major points and techniques.</p>

<p>Overall, I am only saying this because, When I was at CALSO two years ago, they were advising for people to take this course because it is easier and goes at a slow pace than the Math 1 series. I took both Math 10A and 10B and I can tell you this is absolutely NOT TRUE. Although Math 10 is very useful for Biologists, It is a tougher course and will go much faster than the 1 series.</p>

<p>If you have not taken any calculus in high school, I recommend reconsidering enrolling in Math 10 and considered enrolling in the Math 1 series instead. This goes also for those who have trouble learning mathematical concepts at an accelerated pace.</p>

<p>Thank you All.</p>

2

<p>Thanks for this. Can any other Cal students please weigh in??? This advise is actually contrary to what we’ve heard, so I’d love more opinions.</p>

3

<p>The problem is, there is no control. If an intended MCB or IB major takes either 1A-1B or 10A-10B and thinks it is hard, can we know for sure whether the same student would find the other option to be harder, easier, or about the same difficulty. Most biology majors would not take any additional math courses after 1B or 10B, eliminating any comparison to other math courses.</p>

<p>Note that while 10A-10B covers many of the topics in 1A-1B, the course outline indicates that it does not cover them in as much depth. For example, 1A-1B has 7 weeks on integration, versus 3 weeks for 10A-10B.</p>

<p><a href=“https://mcb.berkeley.edu/undergrad/courses/courses/math91/#syll1”>https://mcb.berkeley.edu/undergrad/courses/courses/math91/#syll1&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“Lower Division Course Outlines | Department of Mathematics at University of California Berkeley”>Lower Division Course Outlines | Department of Mathematics at University of California Berkeley;

<p>However, students who do not do well in courses with rapid switching from topic to topic may find 10A-10B more difficult than 1A-1B for that reason. Also, the bits of 10A-10B from Math 55 and CS 70 are unlikely to resemble anything that the students have seen in high school math, so they may be viewed as “hard”.</p>

<p>A biology major (or pre-med) who does not take 10A-10B probably would want to take a statistics course, since it is very common for biology and medicine articles and papers to use statistical analysis.</p>

4

<p>@‌ ucbalumnus,</p>

<p>Regardless of whether or not there is a control, it is a FASTER paced course. Because this is math, it does not matter whether only 7 weeks of a course was covered, because all of the techniques in those 7 weeks can be covered in a much faster time in the math 10 series. </p>

<p>Also, the professors normally do not follow the syllabus strictly. When I took Math 10B in the Spring of 2013, Professor Craig Evans included additional topics from higher level map there were NOT mentioned on the syllabus like Markov chains and Taylor Expansions of statistical distributions.</p>

5

<p>This is the only opinion I’ve heard indicating this (although OP has said classmates felt the same), the semester you took it/professor you took it with might have just been different. You cannot definitively say this course is more difficult based on one semester, it’s a pre-req to math54 so the intended curriculum doesn’t go too deep into their topics.
I also find it peculiar when someone believes a class is much more difficult than another when they haven’t taken that other class (as I assume OP hasn’t taken the math 1 series). </p>

<p>I believe they are starting the process of making the 10 series the requirement for MCB so this point is moot if that becomes the requirement. </p>

6

<p>It may or may not be more difficult, but there IS MORE material covered in Math 10A-10B then there is in 1A-1B, this is something that needs to be understood before enrolling in the course, as some will feel it will be mroe rigorous. </p>