<p>I'm thinking of taking this sequence over the summer (next summer).</p>
<p>Is this class challenging conceptually? Does it demand a lot of time? Would it be too much to handle in ten weeks?</p>
<p>For background, I haven't taken a single physics class before, but this summer I will be self-studying "Physics for Presidents", what seems to be a pretty solid conceptual physics foundation offered at Cal. In high school, I took Calc BC, though I had to struggle through it sometimes.</p>
<p>I can tell you that having taken calculus beforehand will greatly help for mechanics. Depending on what you’ve done in your calculus class, it may noticeably help for E and M as well (the difference being that most intro-physics based calculus problems deal with stuff like work and projectile motion, not circuits or magnets). It’s not really the calculus itself that is helpful, as most of the math is really simple, but just the exposure to these types of problems and the theoretical background to know where equations came from. </p>
<p>I don’t have any personal anecdotes about the class, but Courserank tells me that it takes 10-15 hours a week, which isn’t bad for 6 units over the summer (provided you don’t have like a full time job or something). Calculus is also not a prerequisite, so you’ll probably be ahead of some of the students.</p>