<p>Alright, I'm not 100% sure if I am attending but I was admitted EA and its pretty likely that Chicago will be it--especially because I want to study economics. So, I am taking Calc 1 at a community college and I want to know how I can place out of calc 1 at chicago. Should I take the Calc AB exam? Can I get credit for the course itself? If I do get credit, do I still have to take the calc placement exam at chicago? </p>
<p>Answers to any of these questions would be awesome. </p>
<p>Everyone has to take either the Math placement exam or the Calculus placement exam during O-week, regardless of credits received. The math exam is for those without previous exposure to calculus; the calculus exam for those who have.</p>
<p>Getting a 4 or 5 on the AB exam is usually enough to guarantee placement into Math 15200 (Integral Calculus), and the same with the BC exam and Math 15300 (Third Quarter of One Variable Calculus).</p>
<p>UChicago has three ‘tracks’ of Calculus, 13000’s, 15000’s, and 16000’s. 13000’s and 15000’s are primarily computational, with 15000’s having some exposure to proofs. 16000’s is primarily proof-based.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll get credit for a CC course, but if you take the AB exam I think you can place out of calc I with a 5. There is a placement test at the beginning of the year to determine what level of Calc you should take.</p>
<p>Okay. Three levels of calc at UChicago. 130s is the lowest level, for those without a particularly strong math background. 150s is kind of like AP Calc on steroids. 160s is the honors sequence, and probably totally different from anything you’ve seen before. The calc placement test can place you into 131, anywhere in the 150s sequence, 161, or higher. You have to take the test no matter what, but if you have AP credit, that will override what your placement would otherwise have been.</p>
<p>A 5 in AB Calc, or a 4 in BC (I think?) gives credit for 151 (differential calculus), and you would start with 152.
A 5 in BC Calc gives credit for 151 and 152 (integral calc), and you would start with 153 (sequences, series, and some other junk).</p>
<p>A student with strong understanding of everything in BC Calc–not just enough to get a 5, everything covered by that course–could probably place into 161.</p>
<p>So basically I could just take the placement test and get credit for 151 if i do well enough? I’ll probly just take the AP Exam just in case and then not have to worry about doing well on the placement test.</p>
<p>Everyone has done a great job answering your question, but they forgot to tell you that maybe you asked the wrong question.</p>
<p>If you are going to study economics at Chicago the way they want you to study it, you should be focusing on “How do I learn the most math possible?”, not “How do I get out of math?”</p>
<p>Assuming that you don’t place out of single-variable calculus altogether – a number of people do every year, but they generally know who they are in advance – in order to get to the higher level math you will need for economics, first you have either to take the 160s sequence or to finish the 150s sequence and then take 199. Those are really the only two practical options. Having taken one of 163 or 199 is a prerequisite for almost every upper-level math course at Chicago. If you place out of 151, you could complete 152-153-199 in a single year, but you could take 161-162-163 in a single year even if you don’t place out of 151. 160s honors calculus is really one of the Math Department’s signature courses; they wish everyone would take it. (And that’s something I think haavain may have gotten wrong, at least unless they changed practice a lot in the past three years. My son – and several friends – were offered, even pressured to take, placements in 161, notwithstanding failing to place out of 151.) So you should be trying to figure out whether you want to work to be in a position to skip 151 and take 152-199 your first year, or whether you want to plan on taking 161-163 in any event (and still work hard now to learn as much as you can). No one, by the way, including many BC test-takers with 5s, complains that 161 is too easy for them.</p>
<p>The math department definitely did push for the 160s this year (at Diane Hermann’s faq session at least) and I knew a lot of people whose placement test results said “strongly urge 161”. Basically, if you are placed into 150s, you’ll get a recommendation for 151 or the other equivalent math course that isn’t calculus (if strong precalc, no calc background), or you’ll get 151/2/3 with a strong urge to take 161 (strong precalc, yes calc background), so placing into it isn’t very difficult.</p>
<p>Edit: I don’t think you have to take Math 199 (intro to analysis) as an econ major (unless you’re doing math w/ spec. in econ). You can take 195 & 196 (both computation based) but the econ department recommends the highest math you place into, so if you wanted to take 203 & 204 (analysis) to fill this requirement, you’d have to take 199. In any case, do not worry about this. All the plans you make now about first year will inevitably change during O-Week, so don’t stress out. :)</p>
<p>^^ No, you’re right; I oversimplified things a little. You can also get a Start 151/152/153, Urge 161 placement, although not everyone who places into the 150s does. (I still wonder what I did wrong on that test…)</p>
<p>Apparently it’s not that hard to talk yourself into 161 regardless, though. Like JHS says, they really do love that course.</p>
<p>How difficult are these freshman year calc classes? I’m probably going to do the 150’s sequence. How many people get A’s in the 150’s sequence? A few? Some? Many? None?</p>
<p>To clarify, I am only trying to get out of calc 1 because it seems to be much easier to do the econ major that way because you have more time to learn the necessary math. Therefore, I am trying to skip this course (as I am already taking it at a community college) so I can learn more math. I am not just simply trying to learn less math…how does that make sense anyway? I’m trying to take more advanced math so I’m not sure where you spun my question.</p>
<p>^ One of the things you will learn after coming here is that the best way to learn more is not necessarily by skipping to the higher level classes as quickly as you can. I think that’s what JHS means.</p>
<p>If you place into and decide to go the 160s route, you would not skip or get credit for your current calc class. 161 is very different from what you’ve had, but the background would be helpful. Most of the students in the course will have had some calculus already.</p>
<p>If you don’t do that, you could probably expect to skip and get credit for (at least) 151, either on the basis of an AP score or the placement test. The 150s sequence takes a fairly standard approach to teaching calculus and there is no point in repeating material you’ve already learned.</p>
<p>I don’t know the numbers, but I’m sure there are econ majors on both paths. Which way to go is a decision probably best made during Oweek when you’ll have your placement test scores in hand and can talk to advisors. (I think it is also possible to try 161 and then switch to a 150s level course up until a few weeks into the quarter.)</p>
<p>^^ Not at all–many kids who could have skipped some or all of 150s take 160s instead, especially if they are in a major which requires a great deal of math.</p>
<p>In general, when faced with a choice between cashing in your AP credit to take higher-level classes sooner and forgoing that credit to take the honors class, the wiser choice is to take the honors class. That’s if you think you can hack it there, of course.</p>
<p>I am not even considering doing the 160s…just not that talented in math. </p>
<p>My question to you guys now (especially haavain who seems to know a good amount about this) is if many kids do the entire 150s sequence (151,152,153) if they are econ majors or do they try to go right into 152? I’m assuming very few econ majors start in the 130s but I could be wrong about that too.</p>
<p>While the 150s are challenging, do not do 151 if you are placed into anything higher; one of my friends is doing that and she is bored out of her mind. I’ve either met econ majors who are doing honors calc or who are completing the 150s sequence from where they placed (I’m sure there are those who do 130s), so there’s no “right” way. Keep in mind also that your teacher has a lot to do with the rigor of the course, so 150s experiences vary a lot.</p>
<p>Definitely second zakuropanda on the variability among the teachers. Also, I’ve noticed a difference between, say, 15300 taken in the fall and 15300 taken in the winter/spring (i.e. the latter is more difficult/ covers more material). Of course, my prof also had never taught 150’s before . . . lol.</p>
<p>Depending on what you want to do with economics, you don’t HAVE to take a lot of math. For example, I am more interested in government finance and international relations, that sort of thing, and I don’t plan on doing a PhD in economics. Calculus 153, Math Methods for Social Sciences, Linear Algebra, and one quarter of Statistics is all of the math required, and it’s not terribly difficult.</p>
<p>You can make these requirements more math-intensive by taking the 160’s and using Calculus 163, Analysis or Honors Analysis (the former would require taking Math 199 Introduction to Analysis and Linear Algebra), and a higher-level Statistics course.</p>
<p>In short, if you place into 151/152/153, you can take the remainder of that sequence and be fully prepared for further coursework in economics. If you place into 160’s, you should probably take it just for the experience, but you don’t have to.</p>