<p>I just came back from my first class, and I am freaking out about it, b/c the prof makes it seem like that it's very hard. She gave us a pop quiz to start the class off, and to be honest, I didn't do so well, b/c I'm a little dusty on Calc and she focused so much on the minor details that I'm worried that will come back to haunt me when she tests us. When I told her this, she said, "You'll get used to this." But I'm not so convinced. How do people usually do in this class?</p>
<p>Or she is weeding people out because our class is filled to over capacity?</p>
<p>Why did you sign up for honors calc 3? If you want an easy math class, either sign up for a different one or take it over the summer at another college or university.</p>
<p>Howard is a great professor, and I wish that she had been my Math 285 teacher instead of the one I actually had…</p>
<p>She said that there would be MANY quizzes in this classes. She emphasized the word “many” And the way she did the pre-class quiz, I thought that she was implying that calc 1 + 2 minor details were important. Then the way she kept emphasizing how the class would be hard (with the details), I freaked out because I thought that she would kill us grade-wise. I also thought that she wouldn’t care if she fails us because she told us about a story about how she learned it isn’t the grade that you earn that matters but how much you know about what you studied. </p>
<p>But if it’s an A-/B+ average, I’ll stop freaking (actually I’ve spent the past 2.5 hours holed up in the library working). With what you said, I wonder if she said all those things just to make some people drop out of her class (she’s over capacity by 5).</p>
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<p>I don’t want an easy class because I love math and challenging math (this might be sad but I think it’s fun). But I don’t want it so hard to the point that it would kill my grade point (aka getting a C or D or worse). I want my grade point to be healthy b/c I want to go on to grad school, perhaps doing work in math.</p>
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<p>She seems like an amazing person (as in she’s THAT nice), but I’m just worried that she’ll be tricky when it comes to finals (my Latin teacher in HS did that, and now I’m incredibly worried about this in college). Who did you have? Ji?</p>
<p>I had Kriz; unfortunately, he isn’t teaching this semester.
One of my friends had her and she did fine the class. I was looking at one of her tests and that class went way faster than mine did. The test itself didn’t look too bad though. </p>
<p>The only reason that the class is over capacity is because she gave students an override to register, so I doubt that’s the reason.</p>
<p>lol, were you in my class, the one where she threw chalk at someone on the first day?</p>
<p>one of the kids who sat next to me in great books discussion looked at the hw assignment and decided he didn’t want to do it. i did one of the questions already (the easy one).</p>
<p>Howard’s only giving 5 semesters worth of previous exams for practice on her website, and it’s 215 level only. She’s not giving out 285 level sample exams, and she says that the 285 exams will be harder than the 215 exams online.</p>
<p>285 is calc 3. 295 is a mixture of different topics - but mostly it’s an intro to analysis. Think of a rigorous, theoretical proof-based do-over of calc 1 and 2, with some other things thrown in. The point of 295 is to introduce honors math major freshmen to the type of courses they’ll face in the future, and to give them a wide background for these courses. It’s part of a 2 year sequence: 295, 296, 395, 396</p>
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<p>That’s actually extremely generous. The profs aren’t required to give out any sample exams at all, and often they’ll give you just one, or a collection of problems. The material in 215 and 285 is pretty much the same though. If you’re concerned about doing well, make sure you’re capable of (easily) doing all the homework problems. That usually ensures success on exams.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that “honors” courses are always graded much, much easier than non-honors. You’re much more likely to get an A in 285 than in 215, simply because some huge percentage of people in honors courses get As compared to the non-honors versions.</p>
<p>With regards to Tetrahedron’s comments on honors grading (which I am not disputing, but rather adding to), it is important to remember that honors courses often require much more work and/or cover additional challenging material and/or are more rigorous (coming to mind right now is Physics 126 vs. 240 vs. 260). Since the quality of the average student in an honors course is theoretically higher and the material is more difficult, there is more leniency in grading.</p>
<p>A word of caution, though (my opinion): I highly doubt a student getting a B in Physics 240 would be able to get any higher than a B in Phyiscs 260. A student getting a B in Physics 126 would probably fail 260. In my Math 285 class, most people got A’s because most people had around 94% or higher. The borderline between a B+ and an A- was, I think, 93%.</p>
<p>So while you are statistically more likely to get an A in an honors class, if you don’t have the talent or work ethic to keep up, you’ll do poorly…</p>
<p>I agree with everything you said. I do think that the E&M physics class is one of the more extreme examples. I know 260 has the reputation of being truly tough, and it probably takes a great deal of ability to do well in that class. It seems like the difference in material and difficulty between honors and non-honors varies pretty greatly. I took physics 160 - and I believe it is not much different from 140. Since I haven’t taken 285, I’ll have to defer to pancakes and others who have taken it for advice on how difficult it is.</p>
<p>Yeah, since the difficultly between honors and non-honors courses varies greatly (might as well use Physics 140, 160 and 240, 260 as standards), it’s hard to make general assumptions.</p>
<p>I thought 285 was harder after comparing exams with my friends. I can go into more detail if you want. I also thought that Math 295 wiped the floor with 285 and 215 in difficulty. I had to work at least 6 times harder for Math 295 in terms of the time commitment.</p>
<p>To get back to the original post, ab2013, just go to her office hours often so you can get a sense of her expectations.</p>
<p>Yeah, I compared my 285 exams with my friends’ 215 exams… that’s what my statement was supposed to mean.</p>
<p>Kriz didn’t have practice exams, but he was pretty clear about what he expected us to know. Old 215 exams are readily available and don’t seem to vary in content too much from year to year.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the point of your post was, but…</p>
<p>No, ~92.5% was the borderline between a B+ and an A-. Are you trying to tell me that I’m wrong, or are you expressing disbelief?</p>
<p>I don’t see how the office hours of 1 hour a day for 3 days of the week should keep you from attending and getting a sense of her expectations. Either way, 3 hours a week should be referred to in the plural, so yes, office hours.</p>
<p>No … not disbelief nor am I saying you’re wrong. Howard did say she tweaked the class policies this year, so maybe she also changed the grading scale while she was at it. Directly from her syllabus: <a href=“U-M Web Hosting”>U-M Web Hosting. She said that the most important change was the prize for making up a quiz (20% penalty). </p>
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<p>I’ll be sure to become a frequent visitor :D</p>
<p>Btw I was going thru her website, and apparently she doesn’t teach 286. I’m incredibly disappointed</p>
<p>Oh, I must have unintentionally mislead you or something.</p>
<p>My professor was Kriz, but I sat in on all of Howard’s lectures. Since the class performance exceeded Kriz’s initial expectations, he had to change the grading scale at the end.</p>