Hi, I’m an entering engineering freshman and only took AP Calculus AB (high school doesn’t offer BC). Is it a good idea to self study Calc BC over the summer and try to take the placement test to skip into Math 1920 (multivariable) during my first fall semester?
I already have AP credit for Chem 2090 and I want to take Physics in the fall but I would need to skip Math 1910 and place into Math 1920.
Does anyone have past lecture notes, practice problems, handouts, or tests/finals from Math 1910 to study from? I’ve tried pulling up some online pdfs but there’s not that many…
Also, does anyone know how easy it is to pass the Math 1910 placement test?
Thanks!
I do not recommend skipping math 1910 by self studying, if you had taken a class that touched on the subjects, I would say go for it. 1910 is a hard class but I think it’s a necessary foundation for the following math and engineering classes, especially for 1920.
I would start taking distribution requirements (and an ENGRI) instead if you can’t start on the science sequence yet. If you want to consider the business minor for engineers or just the liberal arts distribution classes that are interesting to you.
Hi, Cornell freshman engineer here.
You’ll have a hard time… I took calc BC as a junior and got a 4, so technically I got the credit for 1910. But since it was a year since I touched things like infinite series and complex integration techniques, when I took the placement exam as a double check, it was bad. I had left within a half hour because the test made no sense to me … you’d have a hard road, since that placement exam is meant to wreck you if you’re not prepared.
That being said, I retook 1910 to make sure I knew the material. It was an okay class, but yeah, it’s hard if you hadn’t taken BC and thus seen the stuff before at all. You cannot slack off. 1920 was not too terrible, but you needed to be an integration master for it. If you thought AB went over your head, thats going to make it a lot harder. In fact, if AB was that bad, take 1910 so those concepts have more time to cement before 1920. Make sure you have no issues with calc 1 or 2 material before doing multivariable, no matter what path you choose. By the way, it can be a bit harder in the fall.
And since I believe AB only touches integration with kid gloves, it is not enough at all. You’ll need to work hard to self study that stuff to the same mastery of a 1910 student. These are some topics to help guide it. It may not be complete, but it was a while ago, so forgive me.
Topics in 1910-
Fundamental theorem of calculus
U substitution
Integration by parts
Solids of revolution
Trig substitution
Hyperbolic trig function calculus
Infinite series and convergence tests
Ps - if you do take 1910 in the fall, take it with Hadas Ritz. Her lecture time is an 8 am probably , which is hard, but she’s better than the other lecturer. One classmate actually woke up extra early to show up to her lectures despite signing up for the other lecturer, that says something.
thank you for all the suggestions!
I’ve taken Math 1920, so I’ll tell you what the class requires mastery of before hand so you can decide whether or not you should try to place out of 1910.
The class gets real intense real fast. Mastery of derivatives, integrals (all the good single-variable calculus stuff concepts essentially) is needed. You’ll be doing lots of integrals (line integrals, double integrals, triple integrals) but you don’t need to know these before hand–you’ll learn. What you do need to be familiar with is how optimization of functions work (max/min of functions), how to derivate and integrate complicated functions, and be able to have a working knowledge of how a function looks when graphed. We never touched on series in 1920.
Now to be honest, I think if you’re comfortable with everything in Single-Var Calc aside from series, you should give the test a shot. And I mean REALLY COMFORTABLE–know integration by parts, quotient rule, product rule, how these look graphically, etc. Honestly most of the content in 1920 is rather new stuff based on simple concepts (i.e. to understand flux you need to understand the double integral, which required knowledge of what an integral is).
Sorry for the late reply, but I really appreciate all the help and insight! I’ve been studying up this summer and will definitely try to pass. Thanks again! 
You’ll need the same textbook for 1910 and 1920, so you can read all the single variable calculus sections(anything before vectors) to really be sure you covered everything. Might want to get that textbook early since not much time remains before classes start.
May you have luck in your math journey!
Does anyone know if there are a lot of proofs in the test? Or is it mainly calculations?
I think it was mostly calculations except for proving convergence of infinite series.