<p>So as a Cog Sci major I have to choose between either Math 55 and CS70, and I'm now leaning towards taking CS70 because of my desire to eventually take CS188. I was wondering if this would be a bad idea for someone who doesn't have all that much math/cs experience? I've taken 2 years of HS calc, but only 16a here, and I took CS61A and 3L last year. I'm not sure what to expect, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Also, I was wondering if all cs70 lectures are webcasted? I saw that they were posted for spring of 2011, but i didn't see any for fall of 2010.. Does that mean they don't have webcasts for each semester? Or was it just not offered then? The reason I ask is because I will most likely be missing the friday lectures if I end up taking it, so I'd like to know if I could easily catch up with webcasts... If it so happens that there aren't any webcasts, do you think it's necessary to attend every lecture? Or will I still be able to do well if I miss about one lecture a week and catch up with the book? Also, if I need to, is there a way to contact someone/the prof to ask about the webcasting? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance. :)</p>
<p>EDIT: One more question... How much coding should I expect there to be in CS70? I've heard that there's hardly any coding... Is that true?</p>
<p>Why did you take two years of calculus in high school, followed by Math 16A at Berkeley??? When I was in high school, the (very few) people who reached calculus in junior year were the top math students in the school; they took Calculus BC as juniors, got scores of 5 on the AP test, and then went straight to Math 53/54 equivalent courses in college.</p>
<p>^ I probably would have gotten a 5 on the AP test, but I (for whatever reason) never ended up taking the AP test. That’s why I had to retake a calc class here. Does that really matter for CS70 though? Would I be at a serious disadvantage somehow?</p>
<p>^ Well, I really enjoyed CS61a (and I wasn’t terrible at it), and it’s also a Cog Sci requirement (since i’m considering making computational modeling my focus)</p>
<p>While CS 70 is basically a math course, it does not depend directly on calculus. However, it will likely be new to you, unlike taking calculus three times where you saw the same stuff the second and third times. But if you were good enough in math to reach calculus in junior year of high school, you should be able to handle it without much trouble.</p>
<p>CS70 will be hard. I suggest you look at some basic proofs such as how to prove square root of 2 is irrational and basic induction proofs to ease yourself into the course. </p>
<p>Work hard, read the lecture notes / textbook, don’t wait till the last day to due your problem sets (but if you do, there’s always a group of 30-40 students that procrastinate till the last day and work next to the homework boxes, so join them if u do), and ask questions immediately if you don’t understand. Basically, the usual advice for succeeding in a class</p>