Penn's "weed out" courses?

<p>Yes. A 5 in BC will place out of 104.</p>

<p>phew, i get to place out of 104! </p>

<p>is it possible to place out of the science weeder classes as well?</p>

<p>You can place into 121, but that's just as bad.</p>

<p>The most useful credit, IMHO, is Physics.</p>

<p>is 121 for math? </p>

<p>for the physics you're talking about, how would you get the credit? a placement test? or physics b/c AP?</p>

<p>Oops, I mean Bio 121.</p>

<p>and I meant Physics C.</p>

<p>Math 104 is one of those classes where people discover they aren't as smart as they thought they were. Another thing, the reason Math 104 has such bad grades is because most of the people in that class never took math beyond pre-calc in high school and aren't even mathematically gifted in any way. All the smart freshmen are in 121.</p>

<p>By 121, you mean MATH114?</p>

<p>in wharton a lot of people who thought they'd pursue a certain major are discouraged after taking the intro course in the core. For example, some people get discouraged from majoring in finance when they end up getting a C in one of the 2 core finance courses. A lot of whartonites struggle with OPIM too...that class sucks.</p>

<p>OPIM is the journey into sucktitude.</p>

<p>"Math 104 is one of those classes where people discover they aren't as smart as they thought they were. Another thing, the reason Math 104 has such bad grades is because most of the people in that class never took math beyond pre-calc in high school and aren't even mathematically gifted in any way. All the smart freshmen are in 121."</p>

<p>People who didn't take calculus in high school are in Math 103, not 104. Math 104 generally consists of people who only took Calc AB in high school. A lot of [mathematically gifted] science and engineering majors do take 104. 114 is for people who got a 5 on the Calc BC exam or placed out of 104 another way.</p>

<p>Bio 121/122 cover the same material as 101/102, but it goes more in depth and expects you to think and analyze on exams instead of simply memorizing and regurgitating like in high school. You should take 121/122 if you want to major in something like Biology or Bioengineering.</p>

<p>bern, I'm told that the core classes don't really represent actual upper-level classes. Do you think this is true?</p>

<p>Whats the benefit of getting placed out of math 104 which would just get u into a more advanced harder math course (I assume it would)?</p>

<p>Or is Math 104 like un-objectively and un-reasonably difficult? How would it compare to IB High Level math if anyone knows.</p>

<p>Thankx</p>

<p>If you place out of a class, I'd strongly recommend not taking it. The information will be redundant and in general, you'll probably be bored to tears. No point in lagging behind. Take the classes you deserve to take.</p>

<p>But yes, you'll take a harder math class (Math 114 or 115 depending on what you want to do)</p>

<p>All science/engineering majors require upper-level math courses (114 or 115 and possibly 240 and 241), so it's helpful to get Math 104 out of the way if you can place out. That being said, I actually thought Math 104 was rather easy (I think I just lucked out with my professor) and got an A without doing much work, and trust me I'm pretty bad at math.</p>

<p>I'm not sure how it would correspond to IB level, but anyone who's taken at least one year of calculus in high school shouldn't have too much trouble in Math 104. We learned stuff like integration by parts, natural logs, disc/shell methods, and power series. You won't be expected to understand in-depth calc theory, just how to solve different types of problems like in high school.</p>

<p>definitely agree with the above post - basically, if you're just looking for a class to fulfill a requirement (such as the formal reasoning sector), just take 104 or even music theory to get it out of the way (especially if you're in wharton or majoring in humanities). However, for something like engineering (or science, econ, etc.) I'd recommend placing into 114 or 115 if you can, because that's one less class you'll have to take.</p>

<p>hey, im a junior and im taking calc bc, im expecting to get a 5 this wednesday. next year ill be taking multivariable calculus honors. i was wondering what math level i would take at penn if i was there as a freshman. thanks guys!</p>

<p>i take calc ab right now in high school, but haven't really learned anything. i have about an 87 average. would i be able to start with math 103 or would they make me take math 104?</p>

<p>
[quote]
Whats the benefit of getting placed out of math 104 which would just get u into a more advanced harder math course (I assume it would)?</p>

<p>Or is Math 104 like un-objectively and un-reasonably difficult? How would it compare to IB High Level math if anyone knows.</p>

<p>Thankx

[/quote]
</p>

<p>If you get a 7 in IB Math HL, you can definitely skip Math104 and it would definitely not be unreasonably difficult. That's what I did, and I was pretty comfortable in Math114. And also, I think if you get a 7 in IB Math HL, you get credit for Math104, even though the website says you need IB Further Math too. I got credit for Math104 by just getting a 7 in IB Math HL...</p>

<p>You don't have to take any class...you can take 103 if you want to. It just typically won't count as anything, and will only serve to give you proper background so you don't fail 104.</p>

<p>~CollegeBound~: The highest class my high school offered was AB Calc -- you can probably go into 104, which in itself is pretty much AB Calc all over again in my opinion. But if you don't have the IB Test for it or the BC AP then I'd say go 104. 103 is for newcomers to calc -- they introduce the concepts in that class.</p>

<p>I didn't realize this till later but apparently you can take placement tests. Haaa :P</p>

<p>Generally, how long are placement tests? An hour?</p>