<p>I was looking at the Cognitive science major and thought it was interesting,but it requires you to take Math 1A. I am not the best at math, I always get A's in high school, but I dont particularly enjoy it and have to work hard. Should I forget about being a Cognitive Science major? If I teach myself calc during the summer, could I do well in Math 1A? I didnt take calc this year ( i am a senior) I took Stats instead.
What should I do?</p>
<p>for cog sci, you can just take 16a, which is directed at people who haven’t really had calculus before and who aren’t planning on going too far in math. it’s a pretty easy class.</p>
<p>I know but I have to take cs61A and that class requires you to take math 1A. Would I still be able to take CS61A if I take math16A?</p>
<p>The hardest math in cs61a involves adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing (no joke). CS61a is not mathy at all, math 1a wouldn’t help you in the course.</p>
<p>Computer Science is a subset of Mathematics…</p>
<p>Math 1A course material should not be especially difficult for someone good enough at math to have gotten A grades in math at a decent high school.</p>
<p>However, the grading curve may be affected by “academic sandbaggers” who retake Math 1A even though they already know the material well (e.g. 5 on AP Calculus). In part, this is encouraged by medical school and Haas UGBA admissions policies, where a GPA inflated by retaking courses in already known material is viewed more favorably than a slightly lower GPA in harder or more advanced courses. The grading curve in Math 16A is likely affected in a similar way.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about competing with true math superstars, who are probably in H1B or H54 or more advanced courses like 104/H104 etc…</p>
<p>you can still take 61a without 1a, and trust me… you won’t really need to know much math to do well in the class.</p>
<p>I would much rather take 16A, but the only thing that is keeping me from picking that class is that the catalog says the following about CS61A
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<p>Would I be dropped from the class if they find out i’m taking 16A? Also, Should I take CS10 in order to gain programming experience?</p>
<p>You can preview CS 61A lectures and book over the summer here:
[Courses</a> | EECS at UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Courses/Data/185.html]Courses”>Course Homepages | EECS at UC Berkeley)</p>
<p>You can download MIT Scheme to install on your computer here:
[The</a> Scheme Programming Language](<a href=“http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/projects/scheme/]The”>The Scheme Programming Language)</p>
<p>The CS concepts will be useful even if the course changes to using Python, as hinted by the book listing in the schedule. The Dive Into Python 3 book is free online:
[Dive</a> Into Python 3](<a href=“http://diveintopython3.org/]Dive”>http://diveintopython3.org/)</p>
<p>As is the Python 3 interpreter to download to install on your computer:
[Python</a> 3.2 Release](<a href=“http://www.python.org/download/releases/3.2/]Python”>Python 3.2 Release | Python.org)</p>
<p>Thank you so much ucbalumnus!!! have you taken the class? Do you think they would drop me from the class if I take 16A?</p>
<p>They won’t; however, even though you don’t explicitly use Calculus in CS61A, the requirement is there to assess your mathematical maturity. If you’re comfortable with mathematics, it’s highly likely that you will be comfortable with CS ideas, such as functional programming and recursion, etc.</p>
<p>jay, first of all I never denied that computer science can be considered a subset of mathematics, my argument was that the COURSE cs61a is not math based at all.</p>
<p>Second, you seriously overemphasize the need to know any math for 61a. You don’t. Recursion, all the paradigms and data structures you learn about have NOTHING to do with math.</p>
<p>If you plan on taking math 55/cs 70 or upper-div computer science, I suggest taking math 1a to build a better foundation of logic and problem-solving because math 16a requires none of that to get a good grade in, it is pretty much plug and chug all day.</p>
<p>Has anyone here taken 61A? It sounds like a hard class i think I would like to take it my second semester or during the summer if they offer it. Is this a bad idea?</p>
<p>Some people find CS 61A (and CS courses in general) quite easy, while others find it hard. I cannot tell you how it will be for you. Try previewing the lectures and books and doing the homeworks and exercises over the summer. That will tell you if it will be easy or hard for you.</p>
<p>One thing does make CS courses much easier now than for students who took them or their predecessor courses in years past: the $300 computer in your dorm room is faster and more powerful than the computer or cluster of computers that an entire class of students had to share.</p>
<p>CS 61A and its predecessor courses have used the same book (though over two editions) since the late 1980s. Back then, there was probably a cluster of 40 computers with 5 megaflop processors and 4 megabytes of memory each. Your cheap computer now probably has a processor 1,000 times as fast and 1,000 times the memory. Even if you added all of them together, your cheap computer would be 25 times more powerful than the entire cluster of computers that the class had to share.</p>
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</p>
<p>[Recursive</a> definition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_definition]Recursive”>Recursive definition - Wikipedia)
[Lambda</a> calculus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_calculus]Lambda”>Lambda calculus - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>The point is that if OP is afraid of Math 1A being “hard,” he’ll be in for a very unpleasant surprise for CS61A. The point of Math 1A being a prereq is to assess one’s mathematical maturity, as I pointed out earlier on. If you’ve gotten through Math 1A, you will at least have some analytical skills to deal with CS61A.</p>
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<p>That’s kinda true… I guess. But processing speed has very little effect on what you do in CS61A. It takes a very SMALL fraction of processing power to run your recursive function etc. Not to mention the EECS servers are actually decently powerful as they run 8core Ultrasparcs; oh, and they save you the pain from installing all the needed tools locally.</p>
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<p>Enjoy the class and it won’t be as hard as you think! Though the grading system is pretty brutal. Miss a few points here and there and you’re down to an A-. Homework was manageable for the first few weeks then it got ridiculous; it’s also graded upon effort, not accuracy. Projects take, say, 5-10 hours each.</p>
<p>I don’t know about taking it in summer as taking it over a regular semester seemed too fast. We only got through 4 out of 5 chapters of SICP. Be aware that within the 14 weeks, you’d be learning an ENTIRELY new topic twice a week. We seriously blitzed through a lot of material – staying on top is what makes CS61A hard.</p>
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<p>True about the processing power these days. But memory is probably the biggest gain. Can you imagine a lab full of CS students starting up emacs (a joke acronym was “eight megabytes always constantly swapping”) on 4 megabyte computers swapping over NFS?</p>
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<p>It is not a big deal to download Scheme and Python 3 and install them.</p>
<p>Jay, you are consistently ignoring and misconstruing the key parts of my posts.</p>
<p>I never denied that CS is a subset of mathematics and that higher level CS will require it. But my argument is that:</p>
<p>THE COURSE, CS61A, DOES NOT REQUIRE ANY SORT OF KNOWLEDGE OF CALCULUS. I AM TAKING THE COURSE RIGHT NOW, AND I KNOW THIS FROM FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE. MATH 1A KNOWLEDGE IS ABSOLUTELY NOT NECESSARY TO DO WELL IN CS61A.</p>
<p>If you are going to continue making the argument that calculus is sooo necessary to do well in the course, I want you to point to me exactly what topic in the course requires knowledge of derivatives or integrals.</p>
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I guess so, but it’s still a hassle compared to ssh-ing in. For Windows users, cygwin and emulation are needed. Things are more likely to break, etc. MapReduce, library resources, and a few other things needed to do your projects aren’t needed.</p>
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<p>I took Stats 21 this semester and Math 1A was also a “prerequisite.” My professor explained that the prereq was there to assess one’s mathematical maturity, as you don’t need any sort of calculus knowledge in introductory stats. The thing is that if you’ve completed Math 1A with success, you are more inclined to be prepared to do well in introductory stats. Sure, you don’t need calculus in 61a, but the point I’m making is that if OP is afraid of Math 1A being too hard, he/she will find 61a even MORE difficult.</p>