Math 221

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Wisconsin
1

<p>I am an incoming freshman and I need to take Math 221. I want to take a professor that will be managable but they all are foreign and I'm guessing will be hard to comprehend. I saw on rmp that denissov does curved grading but I wanted to take a fig (good, truth, beauty, and the meaning of life) and a class conflicts. Do the professors Song or Feldman have grading curves? Or is is possible to move a class for a fig to a non fig section? It's only a discussion that falls in the timeslot... Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>You cannot make any changes to your FIG.</p>

<p>Have you gone to SOAR yet?</p>

<p>Generally, professors curve math courses.</p>

<p>Have you perused the UW Registrar’s Grade Distribution Report? The last link below is for the Spring 2012 semester report. Math 221 is on page 255/404. It looks like the two sections offered were curved to about a 2.5 GPA.</p>

<p>[Course</a> Grade Distributions | Office of the Registrar | University of Wisconsin?Madison](<a href=“http://registrar.wisc.edu/course_grade_distributions.htm]Course”>http://registrar.wisc.edu/course_grade_distributions.htm)</p>

<p><a href=“http://registrar.wisc.edu/documents/Stats_distribs_2011-2012Fall.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.wisc.edu/documents/Stats_distribs_2011-2012Fall.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://registrar.wisc.edu/documents/Stats_distribs_2011-2012Spring.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.wisc.edu/documents/Stats_distribs_2011-2012Spring.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Yeah, I already went to SOAR. I’m going to have to contact the director for the FIGS if I want to get in. Is there a limit on the amount of kids? And I looked at that grade distibution but can’t really make sense of it… All I got from it is that less than 20% get A’s in the course. I took AP Calc in High School and got a 3 on exam and an A in the class. Will I be set if I take Prof. Song?</p>

4

<p><a href=“http://figs.wisc.edu/documents/FIGs_2012_Course_Schedules.pdf[/url]”>http://figs.wisc.edu/documents/FIGs_2012_Course_Schedules.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>FIG #40 is the one you are interested in (see pages 81-82 for more detail). It has a capacity of 25, with 18 spots taken and 7 available as of today.</p>

<p>For enrollment information (permission?) call: (608) 263-5844</p>

5

<p>Professor Song taught both sections of Math 221 this past spring semester. As you can see from ratemyprof, she didn’t have very favorable reviews. Also, from the Course Grade Distributions report, the avg GPA for her sections was about 2.5 (15.7% A, 10.3% AB, etc) which is slightly lower than the average for all Fall 2011 Math 221 sections.</p>

<p>As you stated, you took AP Calc in H.S., so this should be helpful to you, but no one can tell you if you will ‘set’ if you take Prof Song.</p>

6

<p>Do not discount your discussion TA for help in understanding math. Also be sure to make use of the math lab facilities - open most evenings. Your AP exposure to calculus will help, but most who took AP calculus in HS will be taking 221 as well (recommended by UW for most instead of struggling with 222- the UW course will have more content than the AP course did along with the faster pace). Your AP exam score counts a lot more than the letter grade from your HS math teacher- some courses are taught much better than others (one reason AP has a standardized exam). Be thankful the best math students will take the Honors sequence of courses. Your grade and understanding will depend most on the amount of time and effort you choose to put into the subject, not the professor you choose.</p>

7

<p>Okay, thank you! I now feel confident about taking math this fall now that I know it will be mostly dependant upon me vs. the teaching abilities of the professor. SO if I put in the work, I think I can pull an A. Thanks for the help!</p>