<p>"Scoring in the 700 range is impossible/extremely difficult. Only people from MIT, Harvard, etc. score above 700. "</p>
<p>That is completely untrue</p>
<p>"And isn't calc 1 the math course Most Freshman take first semester?"</p>
<p>Yeah, they take it, IF they are ready...If you're going to be an engineer, you absolutely have to have a strong background in math. A 550 math indicates that you do not have the basic foundation laid in algebra and trig to tackle calculus. </p>
<p>If you are poor at basic math, the answer is not diving into something more advanced.</p>
<p>Taking a lower level math course is going to look bad for grad school and it'll make you behind mathematically. Need I remind you that the national average is 500.</p>
<p>"Taking a lower level math course is going to look bad for grad school and it'll make you behind mathematically."</p>
<p>Do you think they would rather you fail a class? You are already behind mathematically and you need to correct this by not rushing ahead into something else.</p>
<p>"Need I remind you that the national average is 500."</p>
<p>No, you do not. The national average is bad. C's are considered "average" but do you think they are good?</p>
<p>But the most, if not all of the national average takes calc 1 first semester. You'd be behind taking anything below calc 1 in college. Colleges like MIT and Harvard don't even have any math below calc 1. Taking lower level math would be easier but that would have been Beyond what my Ego would allow as I can't stand to be in a position where I'm taking orders or where I'm not the biggest fish in the room. </p>
<p>Like college admissions, graduate/med/law schools want you to take the MOST CHALLENGING set of courses possible at your school. I think they value the difficulty of courses more so than your GPA.</p>
<p>And I believe "B" was the national average. And a "B" is considered good.</p>
<p>most people that study engineering and are successful are NOT the national average. if you look at any school you will notice that engineering students tend to have the highest admitting gpa's and tend to have the highest SAT/ACT scores.</p>
<p>medical and law schools do not care nearly about as much of the difficulty of the course than the subject in which you are studying. and not only students that attend harvard and mit get 700+ on the math section. i know plenty of people that scored 700+ on the math portion and don't even attend a private school. i scored above a 600 on the SAT I math when i was in 7th grade... so that is complete nonsense.</p>
<p>
[quote]
But the most, if not all of the national average takes calc 1 first semester.
[/quote]
[quote]
Like college admissions, graduate/med/law schools want you to take the MOST CHALLENGING set of courses possible at your school.
[/quote]
The "national average" student has a snowball's chance in hell of even thinking about applying to graduate/med/law schools, let alone get in. Did you know that 20% of all students applying to engineering grad school score a perfect 800 on the math portion of the GRE? The median score is somewhere in the 700s. This means that the MAJORITY of students at top programs scored a perfect score.</p>
<p>And while we're on the topic of the "national average" student, did you know that 1/3 to 1/2 of all Engineering freshmen actually end up graduating with their intended major, meaning that 1/2 to 2/3 of all students drop out? The "national average" Engineering student, who scored much higher than a 500 on the SAT Math, does not get an Engineering degree!</p>
<p>"most people that study engineering and are successful are NOT the national average. if you look at any school you will notice that engineering students tend to have the highest admitting gpa's and tend to have the highest SAT/ACT scores."</p>
<p>Then how do you explain why engineering GPA is MUCH lower than liberal arts/business GPA's ? And George W. Bush got a 1200 on his SAT's and look where he ended up. Yale and HBS.</p>
<p>I don't think SAT scores are accurate of your math skills because of racial biases and prejudices. How else would you explain 1/2 to 2/3 engineering students dropping out if most of them got Perfect Scores?</p>
<p>"Then how do you explain why engineering GPA is MUCH lower than liberal arts/business GPA's ?"</p>
<p>Let's all read together: "ADMITTING gpa's"....The point was that of all student's admitted to a school in a particular year, the higher gpa's (read:from high school) tend to go into engineering, NOT that engineering students have higher gpa's in college...those would be lower because, as we all know, engineering majors tend to be a lot harder than liberal arts/business majors.</p>
<p>harder based on a curve. for example at ucsd orientation, one of the academic advisors noted that most engineering classes have their curve set at a c while many liberal arts classes are set at a b or b+.</p>
<p>...AND he's xSsJ4s0ng0kUx100x, AND he's Z e r o X ... sorry HikoSeijuro (if that's still your name), but you should really spend your time studying math and preparing yourself for Calc I (you'll take it whether or not you can handle it, we have all learned...and you CAN pass it if you really try). It's a better way to prepare for college than asking so many illogical questions is, becuase you always seem to vouch for your pre-conceived notions rather than actually listening to what others have to say. You have convinced us that you strive to be "the biggest fish in the room," but it seems that you achieve this only by making ridiculous claims that never fail to ensure you the only fish in the room. This is why you have so many pseudonyms, and this is why all of us CC'ers seem so rude to you. It sounds harsh, and I apologize for that, but studying and trying hard not to look the best, but to BE the best, will yield the best results.</p>
<p>...AND he's xSsJ4s0ng0kUx100x, AND he's Z e r o X ... sorry HikoSeijuro (if that's still your name), but you should really spend your time studying math and preparing yourself for Calc I (you'll take it whether or not you can handle it, we have all learned...and you CAN pass it if you really try). It's a better way to prepare for college than asking so many illogical questions is, becuase you always seem to vouch for your pre-conceived notions rather than actually listening to what others have to say. You have convinced us that you strive to be "the biggest fish in the room," but it seems that you achieve this only by making ridiculous claims that never fail to ensure you the only fish in the room. This is why you have so many pseudonyms, and this is why all of us CC'ers seem so rude to you. It sounds harsh, and I apologize for that, but studying and trying hard not to look the best, but to BE the best, will yield the best results.
<p>.anyway.....i got a 620 on my SAT math.........and i took AP calc in high school..i found calc a lot easier compared to some of the math problems on the SATS(HONESTLY).......derivatives,integrals,etc were very easy to grasp IMO..........</p>
<p>Now,SAT basic algebra questions and geometry(thats easy stuff)..........but there were times were i was over-analyzing some of the questions(particularly the "story" math problems-the ones toward the end of the math sections-) ......this definitely played a role in my lackluster scores........some ppl are simply not good test takers.....</p>
<p>Hiko, if you want my advice, i say you should take a calc 1 class and go to the tutoring center VERY FREQUENTLY........mastering basic calc early is VITAL for most majors.....i think a 500 or above in math is good enough</p>
<p>this guy's a loser..why would anyone want to go around making up posts under different user names? Just take a look at some of the threads he's started in the college life forum...</p>
<p>i'm unfamiliar with this character, but anyways he mentioned racial preferences and how the SAT is biased. that wouldn't explain why on the average asians (i'm assumiing you are due to you cc name) typically score a little bit higher than whites on the math portion. </p>
<p>engineering is harder. you can talk about multiple intelligences all you want with me, but at the end of the day a typical engineering student can go into a different field and achieve a solid gpa, and the reverse probably is not going to be true. engineering students have more work, harder work, and have harder tests than other majors (generally speaking). it's as much of a fact as the oxygen i'm breathing and the eggs that hens lay. just look at uiuc, where the engineering SAT interquartile range is nearly 100-150 pts higher than the rest of the school, and when broken down according to both math and verbal, they score significantly higher on BOTH sets.</p>