<ol>
<li><p>Is the math placement exam taken at CalSO? Or do you just take it online and figure out which class to take?</p></li>
<li><p>What classes do you guys recommend to fulfill the R&C requirement?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you in advance!</p>
<p>The math exam is actually a self-assessment kind of thing - you take it online at any time (like now if you want) and based on how you did, it gives some suggestions for picking the first math class. </p>
<p>An advisor at CalSO might ask you if you took the assessment, but once you let them know you have, that is pretty much it for your math picks for Fall registration. </p>
<p>[Mathematics</a> Diagnostic Testing - UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics](<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_placement.html]Mathematics”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_placement.html)</p>
<p>the process of deciding, based in part on the assessment above [Choosing</a> the First Math Course at UC Berkeley - UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics](<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_1stcourse.html]Choosing”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_1stcourse.html)</p>
<p>For R&C, the university requires departments to host R&C courses, but for those departments whose area of interest isn’t writing or arguing in english, the classes tend to be more relaxed, the content upon which you are reading and/or writing is something interesting from their own area, and they are not obsessively picky about your writing submissions. English, Rhetoric and Comparative Lit have the reputation of driving more hours of work and of grading your submissions much more harshly, as you might have a grad student running your section whose life revolves around the heights of expression in english, who is offended when words are misused or esoteric grammatical rules are violated. </p>
<p>Foreign language departments have the best reputation, with German and then Scandanavian seemingly the most preferred judging by how rapidly they fill during phase I. However, the others, whether Russian or Italian or French or some other, seem to be okay as well, according to feedback from those who took them. As well, look to arts, ethnic studies or similar departments whose R&C courses are likely to be fair. I should warn that one or two of the arts courses are actually english writing kinds of courses - read the descriptions to discover. For example, the Film R&C has this description "Rhetorical approach to reading and writing argumentative discourse with a film focus. Close reading of selected texts; written themes developed from class discussion and analysis of rhetorical strategies. " </p>
<p>The department you take for R&C A does not need to match the department for your R&C B - no connection between them at all. Also, if it is not obvious, even the foreign language department courses for R&C involve reading in English, not in the foreign language. You might read Dante, in English, for the Italian R&C or Tolstoy, in English for Russian R&C, but no reading or talking in foreign languages.</p>
<p>If you have AP credit for math, take a look at the following for Math department recommendations:</p>
<p>[Advanced</a> Placement (AP) Examinations - UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics](<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_AP.html]Advanced”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_AP.html)</p>