What does Math 54 expect you to know? Am I okay taking it as an incoming freshman?

I’m an incoming Civil Engineering freshman and I was told to take Math 54 before Math 53. However, I just read online that Math 54 requires some knowledge of stuff that I did not learn in Calculus BC. Is this true? If so, will I be okay in Math 54?

I was debating taking Math 1B since I got a 4 on Calc BC and I read on Berkeley’s website that it’s recommended that you don’t skip 1B if you didn’t get a 5. However, I also read online that 1B is a brutal class and to skip it if you can. 1B was full when I was signing up so I just signed up for Math 54 anyway. Now the only other open math class is 1A, which I feel like I might be wasting my time if I take. Should I just stick with Math 54 and try to review certain topics before class starts? Any input would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

I think you should be ok assuming your Algebra II was solid. From what people have said there’s not a great deal of background in calculus that is needed and in fact it’s the other way around - the Linear Algebra is nice to have for MV calculus (Math 53).

My kid (5 on BC back in 11th grade) wrestled with the same thing all summer with (re)taking either Math 1B or going to EE16A (which is a lot of Linear Algebra) and finally decided that there was too much of a weeded risk with 1B so went straight to EE16A.

Having said that you should go thru the published tests for 1B and see if you can score 75%+ on most of them. It’s funny you mentioned about some stuff in BC not being covered - IIRC in my kid’s BC class the teacher more or less stopped teaching after the AP exam, so close to a month of BC material was null and void.

I didn’t know getting a 4 in BC gets you out of Math 1B, and it does.

If you want, you can simply not take any math class for this semester and start in your second semester.
As long as you have the BC Calc info retained, then I think Math 54 is do-able. There are so many online resources that explain much better than lectures so there are ways to figure things out.

If anything, taking Math 54 and E7 together has some great synergy effect.

For CoE a 4 in BC gets you out of both Math 1A and 1B. For L&S you need a 5 in BC to get out of both.

UCB Math 1B has some introductory differential equations material that Math 54 assumes that students know.
https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/lowerdivcourses/math1B
https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/lowerdivcourses/math54

If you did not have that material before and go directly to Math 54, you need to study it on your own before Math 54 gets to differential equations. This is stated in the “please note” at https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/high-school-exam-credits .

@ProfessorPlum168 alright, thank you so much!

@ucbalumnus I’ll look over that, thank you!

@UpMagic I considered that but I’d need to find something else to take instead. I’ll certainly use online resources and I’ll review Calc BC material as well as look into what Math 1B goes over. Thank you for your suggestions!