<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>My intended major is Computer Science with a minor in applied mathematics. Now, I can get credit for my BC score at the university I'm going to. However, my question is: should I use this credit? I know college level calculus courses cover things NOT on the AP curriculum, so would I be at a disadvantage if I took Calculus III and Linear algebra courses as a freshman? </p>
<p>Thanks! </p>
<p>-Arachnotron</p>
<p>I doubt it.</p>
<p>Taking derivatives and doing integrals aren’t really anything you’re going to need to know how to do, for the most part. Some familiarity with basic properties of sequences and series, taking limits, what have you can be useful, but you should have done this in your AP class.</p>
<p>For your Math minor… well, depending on what classes you take, you may or may not want to have had a strong University-level background in introductory Calculus. Are you planning on staying in discrete math, or will you be branching out to continuous-type math? I know this can sometimes be an artificial dichotomy, but courses usually fall into one of two categories:</p>
<p>Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Logic, Enumeration, Set Theory, etc.</p>
<p>Analysis, Numerical Analysis, Complex Analysis, etc.</p>
<p>For the first, you’re probably fine with just the HS calculus. For the second, you may consider refreshing your Calculus skills.</p>
<p>Well, here are the classes that I plan on taking:</p>
<p>MATH 121 Calculus III
MATH 173 Basic Combinatorial Theory
MATH 124 Linear Algebra
MATH 207 Probability Theory
MATH 237 Introduction to Numerical Analysis
MATH 230 Ordinary Differential Equations
MATH 238 Applied Computational Methods
MATH 274 Numerical Linear Algebra
MATH 264 Vector Analysis
MATH 266 Chaos, fractals, and dynamical systems
MATH 243 Theory of Computation</p>
<p>So, should I jump right in to calc III? Or would retaking calc I and II in this case be beneficial?</p>
<p>It depends on the quality of the Calculus series you took for the AP class. If you feel like you got a good enough introduction, you could probably get away with not taking them again. If you feel like it was lacking in theory, you might take them again. There’s a lot that factors into it.</p>
<p>But you’re taking enough continuous-math courses that it could be beneficial.</p>
<p>Okay, AuburnMathTutor, I’ve registered for Calculus I and II for my freshman year.</p>
<p>My first calculus class (AP Calc AB) was a year long course at the beginning of my junior year. It was very thrifty on theory and mainly promoted doing AP-style questions. This year, in my second semester, I took Calculus BC. We’ve been very short on time, so a lot of topics (polar, vectors, etc.) were hastened by simply doing one or two review problems and hoping for the best. (He tells us that he completely omits stuff from the AP curriculum because of time constraints – and the AP curriculum is already watered down!)</p>
<p>I think taking Calculus I and II will be beneficial and I thank you for your input!</p>
<p>Does UVM offer an honors version of I and II? Do you think you have enough background to start in II? See if you can find the syllabi online (or even better, p-sets) and see how you manage them. That may give you a better sense of where to start.</p>
<p>CountingDown, </p>
<p>I’ve looked at some of the p-sets for Calculus I and II and I don’t really feel all that comfortable with topics such as shells (eliminted from AP curriculum, had to reference internet), integral tests (barely touched in my class), surface area of a revolution (not covered in class), etc.</p>
<p>I think I’m just going to take I and II just to be absolutely sure that my mathematical foundations are solid. Of course, to keep things interesting, I’m going to throw in some Linear Algebra and maybe some combinatorics.</p>
<p>And there’s no honors class: there’s “fundamentals of…” and then the regular version. So, I guess in a sense it could be considered honors?</p>
<p>It’s my experience that where there’s not an “honors” version of a calculus course, the regular, plain “Calculus” is usually what the math majors take… so whatever that means.</p>
<p>And hey, you might want to get more opinions than just mine… I don’t want to be the only one responsible if you decide it was a mistake later on. I just know a lot of my buddies, fellow physics majors, took the introductory physics sequence again, though they had AP credit… and I know that was beneficial to everybody. It literally blew high school out of the water.</p>
<p>Another anecdote: one of the pretty bright guys I know is taking a few upper-level math courses now (he’s a sophomore) and he skipped Cal I and II with AP credit. He’s struggling to get Bs in these courses… and when he asks questions about the material, they’re not the hard questions, they’re the (relatively) easy ones.</p>
<p>Your anecdotes confirm my suspicions. While I’m “good” at math from all the signs that one usually has in HS (SAT, SAT II, grades, etc.), I’m not confident enough that a dinky public HS could possibly offer as rigorous an education in any discipline as people at a major universities.</p>
<p>First of all, you have to determine if you are someone who is good at math. I don’t mean “Did you get an 800 on SAT Math?” . I mean, are you good at math? Do you pick things up pretty fast, or do you have to take hours upon hours to finally grasp something? I’d recommend to go to Calc III if you towards the former. In any case, the best option(no matter what you take) is the following:</p>
<p>Self-study. Find some motivation. Currently, I’m taking a class that barely covers BC Calculus (GCE A-Level Mathematics). Yet I managed to placed at MAO States (Yay xD) for subjects like Multivariable and Calc Apps. </p>
<p>What I’m saying is, if you study and prepare yourself, you’ll do fine and you won’t be out of “shape” once you get into class. I’m not saying learn the entire syllabus before class starts, but glance at it, get familiar with it, maybe even try covering the first few topics by yourself. Nothing extreme, just enough so you have a general idea of what it is that you are doing. If you are skipping classes, glance at those syllabi and see what topics you don’t know.</p>
<p>Surfaces of revolutions isn’t anything more than formula.</p>
<p>Well in math classes, it’s usually fairly instantaneous. Never have I “struggled” to pick up a HS math topic that I had been introduced to. But then again, it’s HS math. So I’d say that I’m pretty good at math (although I did only get 790 SAT math XD). </p>
<p>Hmm, it’s not too late to change which courses I’ll take. Perhaps I’ll look into buying the required text over the summer for the Calc I and II courses at UVM then doing the assigned problem sets (and not just the tests they have posted online). I enjoy math, so this wouldn’t be too big of a problem for me.</p>
<p>Well, to be honest, I haven’t taken college math, so take my word with a grain salt (I do, however, tutor kids taking Calc I-II). I’m just saying if you can pick it up quickly, it’s not like you’ll be in much trouble. Granted, I would still glance at the syllabi (if possible, maybe ask the teachers?) see if there’s a big gap between what you know and what you are skipping. If there isn’t a big one, just self-study the difference. </p>
<p>Take those tests, see how you do. If you really like math, you should do fine. If you want to test out your math skillz, I’d recommend taking some Mu Alpha Theta tests. They might just break your self-esteem, though. xD. Some of them, anyways.</p>
<p>Okay, I’ve downloaded and printed out the midterm and final for each and I’m going to go do them now.</p>
<p>At least at my school Calc III is easier than Calc II. The reason is that it diverges more from Calc II compared to Calc II which is strongly related to Calc I. But if you’re a mathtype, Calc in general should be fine. </p>
<p>I actually made a mistake regarding this. I had the option to skip Calc II but being afraid that I had forgotten the material, I took Calc II my second semester freshman year after clearing off some required courses first semester. Ended up skipping class a lot not because I am lazy but I had learned most of it already. In retrospect, I wish I’d made the decision to review a bit, take the waiver test for Calc II and go right into III.</p>
<p>(And I got an A- in that Calc II for screwing up a quiz that had something I hadn’t learned/studied for and missing class lol…won’t do that again.)</p>
<p>I bought a good textbook for Calculus I and II, I’ve downloaded a bunch of old final exams from different universities for Calc I and II, and I’m going to keep my knowledge fresh over the vacation. I have changed my freshman courseload to include Calculus III :)</p>