HiWei

There aren't special ways to study for any class. If you keep up with the homework - in conjuction with reading the material - and go to office hours when you don't understand any part of the coursework, you should do fine. It is also vital to attend the review sessions before midterms and the final.

This, surprisingly, works for every class.

vasudevank

Thanks HiWei. I will keep that in mind.

thelovepizza

thanks for the tips HiWei and SBR. I also think pushing back on Math 103 isn't necessarily the best idea (BME and pre-med here), since it opens up a lot of course offerings for junior and senior years, which is critical for everything SBR mentioned.

azngod1992

Hey guys, I can get transfer credit for Calculus III that I took a year ago at my local-4 year college. However, I have forgotten/missed most of the more advanced material (i.e pretty much anything that has to do vector calculus) since I missed those lectures due to sickness. I made an A in the class after intense cramming; however, I feel that my foundations are not very solid. I think I can (re)teach myself that stuff with MIT calculus 3 lectures + my old calculus book + solution manual and alot of free time, but I'm wondering if it's actually worth it to retake calculus 3 at Duke.

If I understand it correctly, 107 and 108 do not require intense amounts of vector calculus; however, I'm more worried about the higher level BME classes and whether autodidactical training would be held at a disadvantage vs. the more structured and training of an actual 103 class.

SBR

As a BME senior with just 3 more courses of BME to go for the major, I can say that you don't need much vector calculus (or at all really). I don't remember a thing from that class at all.

However, I can say that you will need stuff from 107/108 over and over again, particularly how to solve simple diff eqs using methods taught in 107. Make sure you learn it well.

And yes, you are right, 107/108 doesn't require much beyond calc BC stuff.

HiWei

As an engineer, Math 103 would probably be the last pure mathematical course you would take at Duke (unless you major/minor in math as well). With that said, there are not a high level of applicable materials to core engineering (especially BME) courses. Understanding Math 107 and 108, like SBR stated, is far more critical. I would recommend you take the next highest math course you are comfortable with and 107 would not be a poor choice in your situation.

However, to play Devil's advocate, taking Math 103 does have its advantages. While it is not as useful to the engineering major as 107 and 108, the way that they are taught are very similar and would give you a great impression of how math is taught at Duke with regard to format and lectures. Since you missed quite a bit of your previous math course at a college, it may be a good idea to learn the style it is taught with a subject you are familiar with than with new material. Also few incoming freshmen take 107 and 108 their first year, so you would probably end up taking it with half sophomores and half juniors. Learning to work with others on problem sets is one of the fundamental lessons of being an engineer, and it may be difficult to jaunt over to West all the time for study sessions because I can guarantee you they will not visit you on East.

Again I'm not advising you to take 103 again, but I'm justing giving you both sides of the possible argument.

Lastly, autodidactical isn't really a world you see very often. Are you sure you're an engineer?

SBR

Eh, sometimes the teachers aren't that great either and you'd probably need to re-teach yourself half the stuff in the lectures from the book anyway. Actually, that pretty much describes about 75% of the classes I took at Duke. Of course, me constantly falling asleep in class didn't help any.

azngod1992

Thanks for the information SBR and HiWei. Just to clarify, I'm not taking 107 this semester, but I am just wondering whether to take the credits or not.

I also plan on majoring in philosophy or some other liberal art major .

HiWei

Good choice. I'm personally BME/Econ, which is probably the most common Pratt/Trinity combination. BME/Pubpol is also fairly popular, but I haven't heard of BME/Philosophy.

Good luck.

jodoglevy

Don't wait till one day before the exams to study for Math 103. Take notes on everything during class, and make sure you've mastered everything covered in the notes AND the homework. A lot of times homework will go more in depth into a topic then the teacher will in class, and a question related to a hard homework problem is likely to turn up on a test.

Some more info on Math 103: Details on MATH 103 at Duke University - GradeABase.com