<p>I know it’s kind of ironic, but according to thecourseforum, over 88% have an A- or better in MATH 231H, whereas in the main sequence it appears that only a third of the class on average gets an A-. Is it because 231H is full of math geniuses, or is the whole class experience and the professor simply better there?</p>
<p>That has been my experience with the honors sequence for chemistry – it’s IMO easier to get an A in the 80 series because everyone in it is just so passionate, the TAs you work with are brilliant and the class size is smaller. And oh yeah, the curve is more generous.</p>
<p>I was thinking whether to take Calc III this spring or wait till fall of my third year to do 231H. (Atrocious to do it so late! I know! But my GPA’s at stake!)</p>
<p>Some of my friends took 231H and one was the genius like you said and he loved it, while another said everything was over his head. I would wonder how many people sign up and then switch out after the first day. So you’re not getting the real picture maybe? I would think the people who even attempt the H version are good at math to begin with as well. I think if you’re interested you should sit in on the class and make your decision from that. A lot of profs in the math dept are not so great, so regardless of the class you might want to wait to take it if you can if the prof is bad or you don’t mesh (I did that a lot and it worked out well for me). So you could sit in on a regular section in the spring and if it fits then do that, or you could wait for the H version in the fall and see if that fits. Calc 3 isn’t required for anything upper level anyways so it doesn’t matter when you take it as far as I remember… You do need Calc 3 or Diff Eq/equivalent to declare a major, though…</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the honors class but I took the normal 231 this fall and it was really easy to get an A. Our TA was pretty helpful and knew what he was talking about and the prof was decent too but he’s not teaching it again in the spring i don’t think.
I’m guessing that the honors class is full of math geniuses though and the normal class has more people who are just taking it because they need it or think they do…like a few of my friends in physics programs.</p>
<p>I took 231H first year. It was hard. I got an A but I worked really hard. Worth it though.</p>