Math 104, 113, or 128A?

<p>hey all, </p>

<p>NEXT semester I have to take ONE of the following: math 104, 113, or 128A. and in the spring of 2012 (ie next, next semester) I will have to take the remaining TWO.</p>

<p>which ones do you recommend I take, and when? (i will have already taken 110 after this semester, btw)</p>

<p>extra info: for fall 2011:
serganova is teaching 113
chorin is teaching 128A
and the following profs are all teaching 104:
givental, vanvalkenburgh, vojta, & rycrof.</p>

<p>does this flag any outstanding "must do"'s or "must avoid"s? thanks for your trouble, peeps</p>

<p>I had Serganova, she is good. The others I have either not heard much about or heard negative things, but haven’t heard firsthand.</p>

<p>104 and 113 are proof and derivation oriented (no idea about 128A, but it does not look as much so from the catalog description). If you find that more difficult or time consuming, you may want to take them different semesters.</p>

<p>Going off the courses alone, most people have more trouble with 113 than 104. 104 is easier if you have a pretty strong calculus BC background, and I at least found it easier to grasp concepts since properties dealing with functions are easier to conceptualize than groups, permutations, etc.</p>

<p>I think i’ll go with 104 in the fall (and try to avoid givental… lol) and then 113 and 128A in the spring. </p>

<p>idk, i kind of feel taking 113 after 110 would be an easier transition. my reasoning being that they both have “algebra” in the name (i know this is a painfully shallow reason…).
but i guess 104 would be better since it’s more “concrete” per se… </p>

<p>meh.</p>

<p>bump because now im confused again since i asked my GSI and he told me that serganova is a pretty chill teacher for 113 and all the teachers i named for 104 are relatively tougher/worse than average profs for 104.</p>

<p>anyone want to add any extra opinions to help me out on my decision? thankies…</p>

<p>Hey. Ill be taking math 104,113 and 128A +170 next sem too. See you there.</p>

<p>^^ all at once?? holy ****.</p>

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<p>Four math courses seems like a relatively light work load – no labs, giant term projects, heavy computer programming, etc… Of course, if your have a hard time wrapping your brain around math, the course content could be very difficult, but I would imagine someone majoring in math or otherwise taking four math courses would be able to wrap his/her brain around math.</p>

<p>i guess there’s some truth in that, but i’m just thinking about what the math department website said: *Be aware that top students spend 12 to 15 hours per class beyond the lectures and sections, so plan your study load accordingly. *</p>

<p>lab and project classes are way more time consuming than math classes. The material might be more dense, but if you understand it, then its not that bad. For lab classes, you have to finish the lab no matter how annoying/boring it is. For project classes, you are going to run into so many problems/bugs that will take up so much time.</p>

<p>For 104, any comments on the textbook? I hear Rudin is a classic book, but more difficult? Anyone knows who teaches it?</p>

<p>Also any advice on Math128A? I haven’t heard much about it. All I know is Runge-Kutta from E7.</p>

<p>Who are you taking 104 with, GW?</p>