why take math 1b?

<p>i'm a mech E major
why are people telling me to take math 1b regardless of my ap calc bc score?
i got a 5 and hearing that the course sucks no matter how well you're prepared for math, i don't think i really want to go through such a hassle
i took calc bc my senior year and i'm continuously reviewing calculus with the calc 1b textbook used at cal (early trascendentals 5th ed, stewart. a friend of mine had it so i borrowed it). it doesn't seem that difficult since i already learned the materials and took two major tests on it not two months ago (calc final and ap calc test)
if i decide to skip 1b, i'll be going on to 53. is it that difficult to be successful in math 53 if i don't take math 1b? most of my friends not going to cal are telling me it's a waste of time to take a course that i can opt out of with my ap score.</p>

<p>No, skipping 1B is fine. I took 53 the year after taking BC and did fine (B+ without too much effort--was caught up in APs around finals time).
Most of the calculus things you'll need are pretty simple: knowing how to integrate is pretty much all you have to know.</p>

<p>i'm ME too, got a 5 on bc, and am taking 53 in the fall. everyone's told me that 1B is killer even if you got a 5...so, safe to say, i'm taking 53.</p>

<p>Took 53 1st semester as ME major. All you really need to know to start of with is basic derivative and integral methods. You'll be fine in 53</p>

<p>yea don't take math 1b bc u compete with premed gpa-centered students. take math 53 and compete with fellow engineers instead</p>

<p>I believe my grade 12 calculus was pretty rigorous (I come from an international system of education independent of the IB and the AP) - I was wondering if someone who has taken 1A and 1B could review my course outline (its sort of long) and tell me if I would directly be able to cope with Math 53 - because then I'd try and talk to a professor about getting out of it....</p>

<p>Also do you get credit if you get it waived?</p>

<p>Heres the link to my syllabus.. it contains the Class 11 & 12 syllabus .. It's a huge file for no reason (3.1mb).. I totally totally apologise for the horrible quality of the PDF - It's basically pages scanned! .. If any of you take the patience to go through this (it'd be considered a huge favour) and judge whether I can jump right in to Math 53</p>

<p><a href="http://www.cbse.nic.in/curric%7E1/xii06/math.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cbse.nic.in/curric~1/xii06/math.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Basically check out pages 9-12.. Thanks a ton!</p>

<p>Bump this up... I come from the same syllabus. Same country as well. Will the coincidences never cease?</p>

<p>FORCA ITALIA!</p>

<p>That syllabus looks like what you'd normally get in 1A/1B, so you should be fine for Math 53/54. To clarify, Math 53 will take what you did with integrals and extend it to higher dimensions--multiple integrals, integrals in spherical and cylindrical coordinates, etc.</p>

<p>Math 54 will take the stuff you learned about vectors and matrices and extend that into linear algebra, and take the simple differential equations you've learned and also expand on that with systems of differential equations and higher order differential equations.</p>

<p>Yeah since my advisor is acting rather stuck-up saying that they cannot waive courses on the basis of high school syllabus without an IB/AP exam which I consider unfair because these exams don't exist at my school (I'm international).. An ex-student from my school was able to waive these courses but my counselor isn't allowing me.. I don't see the point in repeating it, so do you have any idea who else I could possibly contact - would someone from the Math department be able to help me out? I could send him the syllabus along with my grades..</p>

<p>Also would I receive credit for getting it waived? Thanks a ton!</p>

<p>i doubt you could receive any credit (it'd be the equivalent of those who didn't take the AP test showing the HS calculus course syllabus to get credit as such), but who knows...if you can do by contacting the math dept, then go for it...international may be completely different, I really have no idea.</p>