crazyray

(to khon)

to tell the truth, no one actually knows the benchmark. regardless of what the website says, it's not like you see your grades after you take the ASE. they go into this secure database (or vulnerable excel file) that only the department credit distributor person has access to

however, as i've taken a couple of ASEs (8.01, 8.02, 18.06, 7.012/3/4), i don't really think that the minimum passing grade is higher than a C. it just depends on whoever's grading the test at the time and what kind of mood that person is in (imo)

for my ASEs, i thought i did fine on 8.01/7.01x and horribly on 8.02, and there was a question on the 18.06 ASE where i swore i didn't recognize any of the symbols (and this after a week of doing psets all day), but i ended up passing 8.02/18.06 and failing 8.01/7.01x, so unless you totally got everything down, anything can happen.

and btw, i ended up taking 8.012 and will try the 7.01x ASE again this fall (my last shot -_-)

and if you want to try to test out of 18.03, start the psets NOW, whether or not you think you can get transfer credit straight up. or else you might end up like me and try to do the problems at night during pre-orientation, get little to no sleep, and then end up not finishing in time and taking the course anyhow

for those of you willing to give up your last fun-filled summer for studying, good luck ^_- (and may God have mercy on your soul)

molliebatmit

It's entirely possible that passing is a C, but the average score on it is a D or F. I mean, they want to grade the ASEs based on the standard of people who normally complete the class, not just the people who are taking the ASE.

khon

thanks for the tips, ray. I am trying to take 18.02, 18.03, 18.06, 5.111, 7.012, and 8.02. (I have credit for 18.01 and 8.01 from APs.) Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts will likely block me from taking all of those (might have to dump 5.111 in particular).

But I agree about 18.03...the psets are very, very long. I think it amounts to all the work you would have to do if you actually took the class, more or less. (Especially since I'm learning this for the first time, so I have to watch all the OCW lectures and do recitations.)

Anyway, your experience suggests it is a good idea to cast a wide net, do the best you can on the exams, and see what happens...

Re: Mollie--yup, and anyway, even if it's not actually a C that is needed, it's not like it affects my course of action.

crazyray

let me tell you, khon, the more you try to take on, the more likely it is that you'll have trouble passing. 5.111 is pretty ridiculous, and the 7.012 last year was at least 18 pages long (as i remember it)

and if you haven't taken 18.03 before, i strongly recommend you taking it here, as it's a really important class

i remember wanting to pass out of as many classes as i could too, but by the time i got to campus, i just ended up deciding to enjoy my time instead of trying to kill myself just to get a little bit ahead

you're only young and un-sleep-deprived once =)

khon

fair enough. But...I don't have anything better to do, and I'm curious to see what I'm capable of. Maybe I'll fail them all--if that happens, I can deal with it. Anyway, thanks for the thoughts; time will probably prove you right, but I want to try this...

iostream

i'm also doing the exact same thing khon is doing (passing out of 18.01 and 8.01 from ap credits, taking all the rest of the exams). always better to try and fail then to give up before you've even given it a shot.

molliebatmit

Just give yourself a little wiggle room -- odds are that you're going to get to campus and want to run around making new friends and eating free food, so it's good to do all your studying before you get to MIT. It's also good to be flexible -- if you're out climbing on top of buildings or something until 3 AM, don't beat yourself up if you don't want to take a test at 9.

differential

What is the standard of the MIT ASE's? Are they just like the OCW final exams put up? The PSET's are generally tedious and require a lot of ingenuity, but the exams in general were very straight forward. But it worries me because I hear about all the MIT students *****ing about how hard the exams are, so I don't want to be taken by surprise by very hard exams in August. I am taking the 18.02 and 8.02 ASE's. I'm studying from both the Princeton Review and Haliday/Resnick/Walker for 8.02, and Larson/Hostetler/Edwards for Multivariable . Any advice?

crazyray

i can't say much more than what has already been said

you're best off studying for the ASEs using MIT materials. how you'll get those, i dunno. it's up to you. i usually find ocw to be a bit lacking in that area. maybe you can find some bibles at your temp dorm's library for some last second studying?

always make sure that you know, and more importantly, understand all the concepts. there's a difference between knowing the material enough to do a type of problem, and understanding the material enough to figure out any problem. that's sort of what mit's all about. you can go through example after example, but it won't help you too much if you don't completely understand how you got there

and ASE's are kind of like the online finals, except obviously they cover a bit more material than most (in my limited experience with them)

good luck!

differential

How can we get a list of topics covered on the ASE? For example, the 8.02 topics as stated from the First Year 2011 site is a lot different from the 8.02 topics on OCW. I'm looking towards 18.02. My multivariable course in HS had a few topics not covered on OCW for 18.02, and the OCW site had some material I hadn't covered in multi (though I covered it in Linear Algebra). While I'm comfortable with all the basics, I don't want to be surprised with some obscure terminology!

alreadyhome

how difficult is the 18.01 exam relative to the bc calc exam and what's a good way to prep for it? also, are ti-89s allowed?

molliebatmit

I doubt calculators are allowed at all on the 18.01 ASE -- I know I certainly wasn't allowed to use a calculator on tests in the class itself.

differential, the list of topics on the First Year site is probably a better guide to what's on the ASE than OCW. OCW is a record of actual classes taught at MIT, which naturally would include a more broad range of subjects than a test written specifically for advanced standing.

twochickens

"it's not like you see your grades after you take the ASE"

So you don't get your grade after you take any ASE? That's kind of sad :[
I read that your advisor might use your performance on the chem ASE to recommend which of the intro chems to take if you fail the ASE...so does your advisor see all your grades?
And can you ask how you did at all? Or do you only ever find out P/F?

crazyray

you only see P/F, or A/B/C/D/F if you take it in another semester

i doubt your advisor would use the chem ASE scores to determine which chem class you should sign up for. the chem ASE is pretty much all 5.112 material (from what i've heard), so even if you fail horribly, that's just because you haven't learned the material yet. it doesn't show that you can't handle the coursework

quite a lot of ppl interested in course 5 or 10 take 5.112 in the fall (when it's p/f) because it's a great course where you learn a lot more than in 5.111. and i guess it's good prep for those going on to take 5.12

twochickens

Ok, thanks crazyray.
If you take an ASE during IAP then do you get A/B/C on your transcript or do you still get a P?