<p>I'm tied up in a personal dilemma involving my major and what I want to do with my life. I am currently enrolled in Physics 7A and am not feeling challenged one bit in the class, in fact I've become so bored of the class I rarely go to lecture anymore. I was looking at the catalog and noticed that most upper division physics classes, the interesting ones, have absolutely no pre-requisites and was wondering, how dangerous would it be for me to go ahead and jump into physics 110A or 137A next semester completely ignoring 7B-C? Would it be G.P.A. suicide? I know the physics major is supposed to be one of the most difficult majors, but so far everything I've heard about the difficulty of Berkeley has not really applied to me. I will talk to lots of people about this before I go ahead and do it but for now I want CC's opinion on the matter.</p>
<p>How much background have you had in physics? To me, physics 7a is one of the hardest classes I've taken and I've mostly taken math and science classes. This is partially because I only took regular physics and not ap physics in high school. Skipping 7b and 7c is a huge chunk. Have you already gone through the material that 7b and 7c cover? Just because 7a is easy for you, how do you know that you will also be bored with 7b and 7c? Are you even allowed to skip 7b-7c if you're a physics major? These are the questions that I would ask if I were in your position. Personally, I would not dream of skipping 7b and 7c because 7a was already intense for me.</p>
<p>By the way, I haven't taken 7b yet so I can't comment on how hard it is.</p>
<p>Instead of skipping over the 7 series entirely, I would recommend going to the honors 7 series (the H7 series) in future semesters. Yes, I am aware that H7A was cancelled this semester. But H7B and H7C were offered. </p>
<p>Now, if even this sequence proves to be too easy for you (and I doubt it will be), only then would I seriously consider skipping the sequence entirely.</p>
<p>Hm I took 7b last semester (skipped out of 7a) and my friends and I all thought it was a joke. We skipped all the lectures, left all the labs and discussions an hour early, and never did the homework (it wasn't collected). We just crammed the night before the midterms and final. 7b only covers E&M and most of the stuff should have been covered in AP Physics C. Yeah, try the honors series for more difficulty because the regular 7b is pretty boring.</p>
<p>physics 7 series is difficult, it is infamous for being one of the hardest series in all of Berkeley. It takes a lot of work to earn a B. Though, it is a good idea to take if you are a physics/engineering major because it will prepare you for the rest of the physics classes you will need to take.</p>
<p>clapyourfeet i dont know what you are talking about, the catalog says: "Upper Division Courses. Courses 7A-7B-7C (regular or honors) and differential and integral calculus are prerequisite to all upper division courses except Physics 132." -Berkeley Catalog, <a href="http://catalog.berkeley.edu/pdf/05_courses.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://catalog.berkeley.edu/pdf/05_courses.pdf</a> page 299. I think you should take the rest of it, if it is so easy then just take an extra class or two and fulfill your GE credits sooner.</p>
<p>Well I heard the "H" classes had ridiculous curves where the mean even an A- sometimes but the material might be more challenging so you can try that out.</p>