Is it a bad idea to take physics (mechanics) and calc 2 during the summer? I hear so many professors and students say that it’s a bad idea to take physics during the summer, much less physics and calc. Some students say that it’s hard to get through the entire material during one entire semester (16 weeks) so it’d probably be a horrible idea to try to learn all of that in 8 weeks during the summer.
Im a physics major and I’ve taken advanced physics and AP physics B in high school (though i admit I did terribly in the AP one, I got a C and it was thanks to a very very generous curve. my math skills back then were behind, i scored a 2 on the exam). It’s been about 4-3 years since I’ve taken a physics class(high school AP class). since then ive taken some chemistry sequences and calc and have generally improved analytically (i hope so, at least). im no stranger to failure, of course, i have definitely not forgotten how difficult physics is but hey that’s why i love it.
I definitely remember how much material we had to try to cram in during high school, so I can imagine trying to condense that into a semester…or into an 8 week session just to focus on kinematics and stuff like that…springs, angular momentum, ect. ect.
Is it a bad idea? I can’t really delay this any longer since I have to take electricity and magnetism during the fall and then modern physics/optics during the next spring and after that I’ll hopefully be transferring somewhere. Any advice or success stories of people having taken and done well during the summer? most students i hear tell me they had friends take it but then they had to withdraw during the summer.
Those two courses will be like a full time course load. Basically, you will be taking them twice as fast in an 8 week summer session as in a 15-16 week semester, but you will only have two courses instead of the four courses that would be a full time course load in a semester.
You might want to find out about the professors you would have before making a decision, i.e. ask other students if they’ve had classes with them or read online course evaluations. There’s no denying that those two courses would be a challenge in such a short period. With intro physics/math courses, though, I’ve found that the professor you have can make a VERY big difference in your experience.
@ucbalumnus it’s not my first time taking an 8 week class. last summer i took precal and english at my college and it was great (granted those classes are waaaaaay easier than calc and calc-based physics). i really love fast paced classes and the short time frame, most of the time.
@NightMusic i have found a good math professor w/ great reviews online and from other math professors i know. as for the physics one, our school unfortunately has so many part time physics staff, rarely any solid full time positions. ive asked so many students and even some professors and none of em know who some of the professors teaching during the summer all. professors flat out tell you that if they’re part timers, they won’t know em. can’t find any reviews online either, i checked for reviews at other colleges nearby and no luck.
one of the professors that does have reviews online/is full time, has absolutely horrible reviews so im steering clear. but there are only 2 options so i think ill go with the unknown professor. i did find what i think is his linkedin profile, did lots of physics research, just got his PhD 3 years ago, his location is in the same city/county as my school. no info on if he has ever taught in the county though. cant find other people by the same name in our city so i think it might be him. i don’t want to contact him through linkedin to make sure though since i don’t want to scare him away by coming across too strongly since im a physics major and i want to foster good relationships with whomever i end up having as a physics professor. im a girl too so i dont want to appear creepy, social context and all that…
i did find his name on our spring schedule, apparently he’s teaching a single physical science lab this semester. would it be inappropriate to try to wait outside his class to try to meet him or the students to ask around? i did find it, perhaps odd, but a bit reassuring that he was teaching a physical science lab this semester (very basic/easy class for GED stuff) and that during the summer he had somehow been moved up to teach physics/mechanics (the first out of a trio of calc-based physics courses for engineers and physics majors), so hopefully that does inspire some hope.
I can’t speak much for physics, but with calc 2, I would ask myself if I got a good enough foundation in Calc 1. With my grade in calc one being irrelevant. I had a really tough professor for calc 1 and am waiting to see if I earned a B or a C in the class. But honestly, our professor really pushed us to our limits which I really apppreciate. In precalc and trig I earned easy A’s but they were also easy professors and I didn’t retain nearly as much information in those classes as I did in Calc 1 last semester.I’m pretty confident taking calc 2 during the summer because I have a fairly easy professor, combining that with a really tough/good professor last semester, I think I will be alright. Either way, though, during the summer semester, you can start calc 2, learn what you can, and know how good you’re doing before the deadline to sign up for the second minimester if you feel like you are doing horrible. Depending on the college. That’s what I’m doing. Mine is 6 weeks long and if I fail Calc 2, or withdraw, I have time to take it again immediately after. My college’s grade forgiveness is pretty loose and I haven’t failed a class yet so I took that into consideration. I’m in a serious time crunch and finishing my A.A. this semester. I also need to take calc 2 before I go to FSU.
I also forgot to mention, that my high school math background is pretty much non-existent. I started college with developmental math and have taken my math classes in series every semester since. When I first started college, I didn’t even realize that summer courses were shorter than normal and I stacked on a full course load, lol. I still got all A’s but I worked extra hard for them. I should have graduated high school in 1997 and I’ve worked rigorous construction jobs since then, (roofing, masonry, manufacturing etc.) so I have a fairly high degree of work ethic. After working those kinds of jobs for minimal pay, spending 60-80 hours a week studying and doing homework when I know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel is kind of a relief to me. If you’re willing to put in the amount of time and effort necessary to make it work, I believe anything can be accomplished. A lot of students coming straight from high school don’t understand work ethic and expect to breeze through college, then they fail their first few tough courses or drop out altogether. If you have the work ethic you’ll be just fine in my opinion.
@wally18025 wow congrats for coming back and working on your AA, that’s inspiring! work ethic is so important and sometimes we don’t realize how far it’ll get you until we’ve worked in the real world or had to truly put in a strong effort into something.
well i took calc 1 last semester and our professor was really tough and he would show the proofs and derivations to everything and it was pretty intense. i ended up with a D in the class though and had to retake it this semester. now i feel like i understand everything i didn’t understand last semester a lot better. this professor is a lot more lenient on grading than the other but still very fair [my fall professor would almost never give partial credit, this one does]. his style is more direct to the actual theorems you’ll be using, he doesn’t confuse you with hour long derivations of stuff. he focuses a lot more on just introducing the concept, and going straight into problem-solving. problem solving is very important and has its own merits. and since i took that super proof-rigid professor last semester, i don’t really feel like im missing out on the derivations and proofs that this current professor might leave out. so i feel pretty solid in my calc 1 foundation with that combination of rigid proofs/derivations and problem solving.
our college doesn’t have back-to-back summer sessions unfortunately… some sessions are 5 weeks and some are 8 weeks but they tend to overlap and all the calc 2 sessions are on the same 8 week session.