<p>How difficult is Theoretical Linear Algebra and Calculus if I have an understanding of Multivariable Calculus??</p>
<p>Do you mean 2230/2240 sequence? I’m not sure there’s a simple answer to that. For some, those courses are next to impossible. Others love them. My son particularly enjoyed 2230 but found 2240 quite a bit more difficult. Many, many students who excelled in math in high school drop 2230. Still more stop after 2230 and don’t take 2240. 2240 was a much smaller class than 2230. Many of the kids in those classes have already taken some amount of multi, linear, and/or diff eq., though it is not required. Do you have a specific question? I can ask my son? He’s a math major and also works in the math support center.</p>
<p>Well tell him I’m studying multivariable calculus over the summer and I’m wondering if that would be a good course to take because I haven’t taken Linear Algebra yet. I’m not sure if I should jump into differential equations.</p>
<p>I’ll forward your message notification to him (he won’t get up for hours). He hadn’t had linear prior to the course, though he had take both multi and diff eq two years prior (our high school offers them as semester courses and he took them junior year after BC calc). I’m betting most students haven’t taken diff eq ahead of that class. He had also attended HCSSiM for two summers and had taken a few other college math classes his senior summer/year. 2240 was certainly the most challenging math class he had ever taken (so far). Some kids also found 2230 quite demanding. He really loved that one.</p>
<p>Ah, he does warn that 2230 in the fall will be taught by the extremely demanding/difficult teacher who taught 2240 this past spring. It won’t be easy. It won’t be fun. It may involve many, many students dropping the class. You’ve been warned.</p>
<p>Ahh, thanks for the warning.</p>
<p>I really didn’t like that class, so I didn’t continue with 2240. I had already taken Multivariable Calc, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations, but I found the class to be pretty demanding. The homeworks were overly long and I realized that I didn’t enjoy theoretical mathematics at all, but by then it was too late to drop. It wasn’t even the raw difficulty of the course that made me decide not to continue, but just the sheer workload and the fact that I found taking a course with such a heavily theoretical focus to be boring and not useful to me. I advise you to think carefully about whether you envision taking a lot of theoretical math classes. It is very different from high school math, high school competition math like AMC/AIME, and typical lower level math classes. Don’t take it just because you assume taking a highly theoretical class will automatically help you become better at applied math, physics, CS, engineering, or whatever you’re majoring in. Of course, if you do plan to be a math major with a theoretical focus, you should take it.</p>