<p>for calc 3 (also for other classes) it is usually a lecture and discussion right? so it would for example your discussions is AD, then you also need a lecture AL (which is 5 hours a week total). but what does it mean when its just like, D8 (only 4 hours week)? is it like lecture and discussion put together or what?</p>
<p>ill add a screen shot in case my explanation was confusing.
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http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/7645/13227997.png
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<p>Uploaded with [URL=<a href="http://imageshack.us%5DImageShack.us%5B/URL">http://imageshack.us]ImageShack.us[/URL</a>]</p>
<p>D8 (and B8) are Mathematica sections. They’re centered around a computer algebra system called Mathematica rather than being paper-and-pencil. I took 241 with Mathematica. The benefits/downsides of the different system are debatable, but knowing Mathematica has been VERY useful in electrical engineering. It beats any calculator and is more useful than MATLAB for just doing calculations (MATLAB dominates at simulations, however).</p>
<p>The other MTWR section, E1H, is the honors section. These 3 do not require discussion sessions. The rest do. Check this website for more detailed descriptions of courses: [Course</a> Information Suite, Course Catalog, Class Schedule, Programs of Study, General Education Requirements, GenEd](<a href=“Course Explorer”>Course Explorer)</p>
<p>I’m hoping Bone chimes in here, but my understanding is that you’d be much better of taking the regular, non-mathematica based, lecture-discussion sections of this course. Bone will elaborate, I hope.</p>
<p>thank you. i actually like doing online hw (webassign, masteringphysics) but since you took the class, is it like a normal lecture and only the hw is using mathematica? or do you use it in class also because i noticed its only like 40 kids while the usual lectures are 100+.</p>
<p>I haven’t taken the class. Bonehead has, and I’m hoping he comments here. However, for what it’s worth, taking online classes when you’re paying tuition to live on and attend live instructor-led courses is a distant second in my book.</p>
<p>There is no lecture or discussion and the class is not in a classroom; it’s just a reserved time slot in one of the public computer labs available to students. The learning part consists of reading through some Mathematica files and running their examples. Then you do some problems on the topic right in a Mathematica file and submit the file to be graded. A TA is available during class time to help you if you have trouble understanding something, so your MTWR meetings are really just office hours. You can, if you want, just do the entire course outside of class (plenty of labs have Mathematica and you can get your own copy if you want). Maybe some TAs will require attendance.</p>
<p>I took MATH 241 with Mathematica and finished junior year in EE (lots of vector calc in electromagnetics) with over a 3.9 GPA. So no, you will not fail to learn the material simply because you took this session instead of the regular section. You just need to be able to teach yourself. MATH 241 is especially suited for Mathematica because multi-variable means 2D and 3D, and Mathematica is probably the single best plotter there is. Unless you are some sort of math prodigy, you are not going to be able to visualize or draw multi-variable functions. But I’d say this advantage is probably diluted by the fact that you will have less experience than others at fast hand calculations when you actually apply it in engineering classes. Note that the tests in the class (or at least my class) were paper-and-pencil so the class is not missing that element entirely. But they had Mathematica code and plots on them, so they were still substantially different from regular tests.</p>
<p>My only gripe with the course was that the grading was based on 90 = A, 80 = B, 70 = C, etc. like high school instead of curving, so you really have to try and get every last point. But this might have been my TA’s policy rather than a general policy for Mathematica-based courses.</p>
