I am going to be a freshman very soon enough. I am wondering whether I should take M408C or M408N. I have never taken calculus in high school. I am a strong student in math. I don’t know what’s the expectations are prior to signing up for M408C. I really appreciate if anyone can advise me on this topic.
UT calculus sequence: https://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/ate/problems/calculus.html
M 408C https://www.ma.utexas.edu/academics/courses/syllabi/M408C.php
M 408N https://www.ma.utexas.edu/academics/courses/syllabi/M408N.php
M 408N is strictly CNS students. M 408C is mostly engineers, math majors, CNS students, and a few others. What is your major? M 408N goes a little slower than M 408C as it does not cover integrals but M 408C does. Basically, M 408C covers 3 semesters worth of Calculus in 2 semesters (M 408C + M 408D) so it is sped up. M 408N has two calculus courses that follow it (M 408S and M 408M) and it covers 3 semesters worth of Calculus in 3 semesters. I did M 408C since I was an engineer and great at math and wanted to get it done fast (the alternative for me was M 408K since I was not CNS).
M 408C will have slightly better students which is important to think about when competing for the curve after each exam (if any). Neither of these math courses will assume that you have previously taken calculus but a large percentage students in my M 408C course have taken calculus previously (I don’t know about the other).
There’s also math tutoring centers in Jester for free math tutoring by the way.
Another thing that is important to know is how many semesters of calculus you need. Most students (but not all) that do M 408C are people whose degree plan requires calculus 3 profficiency so that they can just take 2 calculus courses by doing M 408C + M 408D instead of doing M 408N + M 408S + M 408M. Both sequences cover the same material-it’s just that one sequence is slower. A majority of the students whose degree plan requires calculus 2 profficiency will take M 408N + M 408S so that they make sure they stop at calculus 2 instead of overshooting and finishing at calculus 3 with the M 408C + M 408D route.
Thank you for your informative post. I am a CS major. From what you’ve said, I think M 408C would be better in my case.
thanks once again!