A new 'ask a recent graduate your bucknell questions' thread

ericatbucknell
Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:56:06 +0000

purple-

if she earns credit for calc 2 based on an ap score of 4 or 5, she will indeed be placed in calc 3.

on her chances of success in the course, its hard to say. generally speaking, calc 3 is a pretty easy math class for those who UNDERSTAND the concepts from calc 1 and 2. conversely, calc 3 is usually incredibly difficult for those who dont. [and lots of seemingly successful students dont. simply, it comes down to being able to piece together an integral due to conceptual understanding versus having memorized (via repetition) the integrals used to solve various types of problems that show up on almost all high school calculus tests, aps included.] calc 3 just moves too quickly, with expressions and equations often too long to memorize, for the latter approach to result in consistent success.

anyway, provided there is room available (and there will be, as inevitably some calc 2 students will be dropping down to calc 1) your d should have no problems dropping down to calc 2 before september 9, the last day to drop/add a course. her foundation seminar professor (who is also her general adviser) will be there to help with any concerns or issues.



in terms of language requirements for a mathematics major, there are none. however, she will need four credits in the humanities to graduate, so if she is considering graduate study in math, a couple classes in french or german would be helpful. developing a reading proficiency in german while bogged down with everything else that graduate study entails isnt exactly fun.