<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, they are… but not at the junior level.</p>
<p>Another question: the ChemEngr curriculum in the catalog says "Entering students will normally be given placement tests in chemistry, mathematics and English. Test results will be used to select the appropriate starting courses, which may be at a higher or lower level. "</p>
<p>DS already did the math assessment, but we hadn’t heard anything about chemistry or English placement tests. When do you take those?</p>
<p>“You won’t hear that from me. Yes, it is a “weed-out” class and it is difficult, but there’s a reason for that. Your upper level engineering classes will be much more challenging and time consuming, and you won’t get out of “weed-out” classes here at TAMU engineering often times until you are a senior (For example, my junior level Aerospace Dynamics class I took this last spring failed 33% of the class).”</p>
<p>I’m not denying that the upper-level classes are going to be just as bad or even worse. All I’m saying is that for people who have never been exposed to E&M, or have just started to begin working with physics (AKA freshman), I thought Phys 208 was WAAAAY too hard (and apparently it was even worse for others because somehow I made an A). Literally half the class dropped it or made D’s/F’s. That class consumed my life. </p>
<p>Obviously the upper level classes are going to be tougher, but I just hope I’m better trained for the difficulty by the time I get there rather than just being thrown into the deep end. For the incoming fishes, Phys 208 is going to be their biggest problem freshman year, no doubt.</p>
<p>On the topic of English or Chemistry placement tests, I never had to take one of those, nor have I heard of anyone else having to take one. Maybe they do it for the Chemical Engineering majors? But I don’t know because I’m not a Chem E. major. For math they do it because they don’t want people who barely skimmed by with a 4 on the Calculus AP test to enter into Math 152 and get their butt kicked. For English, I’d just recommend skipping as many of those classes as you can: If you have English AP credit, TAKE IT.</p>