<p>i took it fall 07, i speak a dialect (nothing similar to mandarin) somewhat fluently and found the class to be challenging and a lot of work. it was flat grades - get a 90%+ and you get an A. a lot of students in the class had taken chinese school (i had taken none) so they were a bit ahead. you really have to stay on top of things and dedicate yourself to the class if you want a good grade. i felt like i learned a LOT though and was definitely worth my time. i can pick out a lot more mandarin now when i’m watching dramas and such.</p>
<p>btw, i took it with math 1a, chem 1a, and a breadth course (p/np) so i had 13 units of real class + 3 unit p/np</p>
<p>how hard is it to get an A? I thought that the people in the class aren’t supposed to enter knowing how to read and write? My three solid classes (chem1a, math 16a, german r5a) will be for letter grades), and the chess decal is p/np. Is this shhedule of 18units doable/realistic?</p>
<p>German r5a and math 16a should be def doable. Chem 1a, depends on your chem background.
Chinese 1ay requires effort. if you put in the effort and memorize those characters then you’re good to go.</p>
<p>Yes you aren’t supposed to but many people get in anyway (cheat on placement exam, etc.) I really had to stay on top of things to get an A in that course and barely managed it. I would say that is manageable if you have a solid foundation in chem/math, I found chem & math to be very easy so I devoted nearly all my time to Chinese. I also took German R5A a different semester and that class is the easiest out of the 3 … short readings and papers that are graded on a really easy scale. I did all the readings, bs’ed the papers and got 95+ on every paper. (I took R5B course before the R5A, R5B was more difficult… worked hard on the papers and couldn’t get above a A- on the papers)</p>
<p>You learn about 400 characters, all in traditional. You have weekly vocab quizzes, nightly homework assignments, monthly exams (written & oral), a final written & oral exam.</p>
<p>I don’t know too much about the difficulty of Chinese 1AY. Is your dialect closely related to Mandarin? Do you have any Chinese school experience? If both of those are true, Chinese 1AY might not be too hard for you.</p>
<p>hey I have a quick question,
regarding my schedule
math16a, chem1a, chinese1ay, german studies r5a, chess decal for a total of 18 units, I
might not get into german studies (waitlist #5) If I don’t take r&c 1st sem, but still have 15 units, will that be fine? thanks. and do you think I’ll get into chem, waitlist#23?</p>