Honors Calculus versus Honors Analysis

UChicagoGrad
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:19:54 +0000

Taken from another post of mine:

One thing that is very poorly elaborated upon before O-week is how much different Honors Calculus 16100 is from the AP Calculus classes you’ve taken in high school, which leaves some very solid math students, who’ve gotten 5s on both calc AP tests, thinking that they’re bound for Honors Analysis in their first quarter.

So, to clarify: Honors Calc is absolutely NOT a step down, or even on the same plane (ha ha) as Calc AB/BC.

As one who went through the 160s sequence having gotten 5s in both AP calc tests, I found Honors Calc 161-2-3 to be ferociously difficult at points. It exposes you to aspects of math that you might be completely unfamiliar (or only marginally familiar) with. The class is 98% proofs and features some very tricky problem sets and exams. And the proofs are certainly different from the kinds of proofs you’ve been exposed to previously.

The standard text book for the Calc 160s sequence is Calculus (3rd edition) by Michael Spivak (it’s a step up from Apistol). Any folks who fancy themselves potential math majors would do well to, at the very least, find a copy of this book and flip through it in the next 6 months. That said, the vast majority of math majors start by taking Calc 161. And, to give you an idea of how far you can go starting with that, I have a friend whose path through UChicago math was Calc 161-2-3, Analysis 203-4-5, and then whatever followed, and she’s now on a full ride at Cornell getting her PhD in mathematics.

That said, somewhere between 10 and 15 first year students place into Honors Analysis (MATH 20700) each year, which is pretty phenomenal, considering that I’m certain that there are more than 15 math geniuses per entering class. In fact, the majority of math majors never end up taking Honors Analysis in any year. It’s not an insult to anyone’s intelligence - it’s just that advanced/selective of a class (there’s only one section).

Also, I know “it’s just that advanced of a class” might sound enticing, but Honors Analysis is really not worth even wanting to take in your first year unless you honestly consider yourself to be in the top 1% of UChicago’s entering class in math. Unless you’re in that 1%, there’s a good chance that 207 would be a bit over your head, you’d get frustrated, end up being asked to drop down, or fail and then have to drop down.

That said, I assure you, if you’re meant to take Honors Analysis your first year, you’ll place into it.

Just so I’m not all gloom and doom however, if you want to have a good shot at placing out of 160s (expanding upon kitkatkatie’s advice), you’ll find the 160s textbook - the aforementioned Spivak’s Calculus, a portion of which is on googlebooks - learn it all, and do all the problem sets at the end of each chapter. You have to be comfortable with all that material as well, because the math placement test is timed, and they don’t just ask you to recite proofs on the free response section…

If you do all that and don’t place out of 160s, you’ll have given yourself a running head start - and the 160s sequence tends to be taught by the best and the brightest.