Question for those who took all 3 levels of Calculus

<p>I just took calc BC in high school and got a 5 on the exam and felt pretty good about the stuff and now I placed into calc III this fall. Can anybody tell me if this will be really hard or not because I don’t think many people start off with III the first semester</p>

<p>only 3? i’ve taken 4… and what’s calc 5?</p>

<p>NYJETSFAN, I started in honors Calc 3 (should have been 4 but umich has stupid transfer rules) and it wasn’t that uncommon.</p>

<p>If you did well in BC you should do fine in a normal Calc 3 class.</p>

<p>go blue! Im going to michigan as well hah. i think honors calc 3 was 285? i think my advisor said i could take it but i didnt want to since im taking organic chem 1st semester. but thanks on the advice, hopefully I will be ok. Did you do Calc BC/AB in high school?</p>

<p>Kind of related, but how much trig is used in Calc? I’m taking precalc right now and I hate trig as much as I did back when I took precalc in high school. Didn’t do so hot on the math placement exam so I’ll be taking Calc I in the fall.</p>

<p>You won’t need much trig in Calc 1 but you should have the trig identities down cold for Calc 2.</p>

<p>NYJETS, I took BC my junior year.</p>

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<p>Yea, there’s no real standardization for how Calculus is divided. At some schools, Calc 2 is where you first learn about integrals (usually if they’re on quarters), at other schools, Calc 2 is multivariable. Though I’m not really sure what Calculus there is past multivariable (maybe diffeq?).</p>

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It seems to be pretty standard that Calc 1+2 cover single-variable calculus and Calc 3 multivariable.</p>

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Differential equations, partial differential equations, real analysis, complex analysis, harmonic analysis, functional analysis, geometric analysis, measure theory, calculus of variations and many more obscure specialties. And then there’s the use of calculus in other branches of mathematics: differential geometry, differential topology, analytic number theory, etc.</p>

<p>None of the schools I’ve been to have had the set up of Calc 1+2 being single-variable and Calc 3 being multi. And I guess I should have been more specific, I meant just like courses with Calculus in the name and then followed by a number. I don’t think functional analysis would ever be taught in a class under a name like Calculus 6, but I guess that’s possible.</p>

<p>warbain, may I ask which colleges you have been attending? I have looked at the course sequences of dozens of colleges over the years and <em>all</em> of them followed the calc 1+2 = single variable, calc 3 = multivariable pattern. The closest I ever saw to an outlier was Carnegie Mellon: their Calc 2 class is not a prerequisite for Calc 3, but the material still follows the same basic pattern.</p>

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<p>The school I’ll be attending come fall follows Calc 1 + 2 = single variable, Calc 3 = multivariable, as well.</p>

<p>After the Calc sequence, it’s Linear Algebra, Diff Eq, and then start higher level maths?</p>

<p>I actually found Calc II to be the easiest and most enjoyable. Integration is far more interesting (and useful) than integration. Calc III is mostly 3-d modelling, so… meh.</p>

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<p>wait…wut.</p>

<p>Well for example, Stanford and U Chicago seem to teach single-variable calculus over three courses but Harvey Mudd and CalTech use only one.</p>

<p>Also, after multivariable calculus I don’t think there’s any set progression. I’ve taken two semesters of abstract algebra and a semester of analysis, but still have to take diff eq at some point.</p>

<p>***** Lol… I meant integration is far more useful and interesting than differentiation. ******</p>

<p>warbrain, I won’t accept those as counterexamples for the following reason:</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd and Caltech don’t teach introductory calculus classes at all, since high school calculus is an admissions requirement. </p>

<p>Stanford and Chicago are both on a quarter system and teach the regular two-semester sequence over three quarters. I will grant you that Chicago is using the words “Calc 1”, “Calc 2” and “Calc 3” differently from schools on the semester system, but their curriculum looks identical to me. </p>

<p>I guess what I was really looking for was a college that follows a different curriculum: they might teach calculus from scratch in a single semester, or spread single-variable calculus out over 3+ semesters before moving on to multivariable calculus, or organize their curriculum in a funky way (e.g. 1 semester of basic single-variable differential and integral calculus, 1 semester of multivariable calculus, and then 1 semester of more integration techniques, differential equations, sequences and series).</p>

<p>Unpopular opinion… Calc II was the easiest/most fun. I just got sequences and series without any effort. </p>

<p>Calc III sucked. I hated it.</p>

<p>^ Calc III did suck. Differential equations/linear algebra/calc IV was so much better.
Calc I and II were dirt easy. Calc II is most fun I agree, but series were stupid and useless.</p>