<p>I'm going to be taking Math 54 (Linear Algebra and Differential Equations) during my first semester at Cal. Can anyone tell me anything about the workload for this course or the relative level of difficulty when compared to other lower level math courses, such as mutlivariable calculus?</p>
<p>Hmm well math 53 seems to vary by semester. I had Rezakhanlou first semester and his problems were hard. The final was pretty much impossible and everybody got raped, and only 10% were assigned A's, with 5% A-'s. I missed the A by 1/400 of a point grrrr...</p>
<p>I took a look at the math 53 this semester and all their problems were soooo easy compared to our's. So, level of difficulty will always vary.</p>
<p>I took Ribet this last semester and it was a lot easier than the math 53 I took. The first 2/3 is linear algebra and the proofs pretty much kick everybody's asses equally, but now I'm pretty solid with my proofs. Any 4th grader can do the calculations...it's no more than simple addition and multiplication, but the theoretical stuff is what makes it hard. The stuff is mind-boggling at first and the definitions tend to get confusing (span, basis, etc). The workload we had was easy. I didn't even go to lectures. Homework twice a week that took about 10 minutes each. The curve was extremely generous (24% A's and A-'s)...allowed me to slack off the whole time and still get an A.</p>
<p>It really depends on what professor you get. I assume you chose between 53 and 54. 53 is very much computational while 54 is more abstract. Depends on where your strengths lie.</p>