Math Levels 31A-33B

Colleges & Universities University of California - Los Angeles
1

<p>This was posted a few months ago (by ?), ranking how hard the math 30 series classes are. Since many freshman are currently trying to figure out what class to take, I’m re-introducing it. My guess is this presumes someone with Calc AB, starting with 31A. </p>

<p>31A: 3/10
31B: 7/10
32A: 5/10
32B: 8/10
33A: 6/10
33B: 9/10</p>

<p>For a 1st qtr engineering freshman with a 5 on Calc BC, how hard would 31B versus 32A be? </p>

<p>Starting with 31B: Since you’ve got to make it thru 33B, are you glad you started with 31B b/c then you felt like you’d “got it” before moving on? Or do think it wasn’t helpful and just put you behind? Any profs you’d recommend?</p>

<p>Starting with 32A: Are you glad you started with 32A b/c it was really doable and 31B would’ve just delayed finishing the math sequence? Or did you find it hard and wish you’d had a more solid grounding for 32B-33B? Any profs you’d recommend?</p>

2

<p>I think that list is subjective, because for me, 32A>32B>31B in terms of difficulty.</p>

<p>For 31B I strongly recommend Paul Jenkins. He was amazing. For 32A I do not recommend Biskup. For 32B Ralston was pretty good.</p>

3

<p>Yeah, we’ve been hearing about Biskup. Nice to hear a positive reco for someone.</p>

<p>So you started with 31B, then found 32A and 32B hard? How strong do you think your math was going in? Was 31B helpful for later maths?</p>

4

<p>32B wasn’t hard, it was what I expected out of a calculus class. It was medium difficulty.</p>

<p>32A was hard because I HAD BISKUP. My math was decent, probably a bit weak for an engineer, since I got a 4 on the BC AP and 760 on the SAT. 31B didn’t help at all. For some of the 32A “review” questions, I had to look up things on Mathworld to even know how to start.</p>

5

<p>Couldn’t resist to answer this question.</p>

<p>This was flopsy’s ratings:

</p>

<p>Everyone took different professors, so he/she will express different difficulty levels.</p>

<p>Judging from my experience, and judging the content difficulty for the classes I skipped, here are my ratings:</p>

<p>31A: 3/10
(Easy stuff if you’ve learn calculus in HS)</p>

<p>31B: 7.5/10<br>
(Content should be 6/10, add 1.5 for the grade competition)
(Binomial expansion is a tool used in intermediate physics in the future.)</p>

<p>32A: 4/10
(Easy stuff again though important concepts or gradient and partial derivatives, most of it is pure computation with a mix of proofs.)</p>

<p>32B: 8/10
(Depends how hard or how many traps of the triple->double integrals. The 3->2, 2>3, 1>2, etc. integrals come up again later in engineer courses, since we can’t always assume symmetrical surfaces. Most practical surfaces deal with spherical or cylindrical coordinates, not Cartesian.)</p>

<p>33A: 6/10
(Get past the reasoning behind domain, subspace, kernel, image, etc. and the rest is easy, such as eigenvectors, Gram-Schmidt, SVD.) </p>

<p>33B: 6/10
(The first hump is the Wronskian. But that is learnable with 33A knowledge of linear dependency. The middle and beginning (learning strategies to solve simple ODEs) is easy. Eigenvectors and matrices show up again, but with 33A experience, it should be easy. Somehow, some stuff in DE reminds me of 32A concepts as well.)</p>

6

<p>What did you start with, BoelterHall, and are you glad?</p>

7

<p>thanks this is exactly what i was looking for. from the sounds of it it looks like i should start with 32a. do you recommend WARD, ROGAWSKI, or LIU. Chayes is already full. thanks</p>

8

<p>I like chayes :smiley: he’s a funny guy, i took him for 32B with a 30 person class, only about 9 people showed up to class. Was definitely good. But… for bigger classes it may be hell.</p>

9

<p>im really glad this thread was created.
would i be loosing a lot of fundamentals by going straight to 32a? (got a 5 in ap calc BC)</p>

10

<p>You would lose nothing by skipping Math 31A (besides a GPA boost) but UCLA covers infinite series in Math 31B, which not all high school AP Calculus courses teach. Be warned! :rolleyes:</p>

11

<p>i think i vaguely remember infinite series. haha</p>

12

<p>Thanks so much! 31b seems tough… just hope i can handle 32a… since I noticed moldau said that “31B didn’t help at all” - guess that means I should be fine w/o 31b =X.</p>

<p>what the heck though with the professors… ROGAWSKI was the one I thought I wanted… but his class got filled 120/120… I guess his lecture got switched with Chayes? I guess the 120 people who signed up for ROGAWSKI are gonna be kinda disappointed lol… does that switching of professors/lectures happen often?
and I thought Chayes was the hard one =o?!</p>

13

<p>Out of all the math classes, I did the worst in 33A.</p>

<p>EDIT:: I didn’t like Schubert. At all.</p>

14

<p>

32A, yes. </p>

<p>

Winter 07 right? I don’t know why they opened another class when they could try to relocate.</p>

<p>

Spend time to polish your BC skills. They won’t show up directly again, only as tools to solve problems.</p>

<p>

I’m a little alarmed that some high schools don’t reach infinite series. That is an important topic in the BC exam. Other than 31B, I don’t think it is a tool used besides in 32B possibly, 33B, upper division math, and physics.</p>

<p>

For the joy of learning, take 31B. You will learn improper integrals, for one topic not covered in BC (or one that you most likely forgot), and extensive training on infinite series.</p>

<p>But, if you need to get out and want to get ahead, proceed to 32A. Unless you don’t study or your work ethic becomes abyss, you will be fine learning multivariable.</p>

<p>

What didn’t you like him? He was decent. He covered most of the topics sufficiently, and followed the book quite closely. The only problem I had with his class was the exam questions, in which students were able to do random matrix multiplication (through Gram-Schmidt, SVD, linear transformations) and arrive at the right answer, without knowing the right concept behing the question.</p>

<p>For example, my roomate didn’t know what a linear combination and image was the day before the midterm, so just memorized the practice midterm proof, and got it right.</p>

15

<p>HAHAHA</p>

<p>My friend LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES Schubert.</p>

<p>Like, you know, the kind of love I have for certain people.</p>

16

<p>I thought Schubert was an idiot because he’d say certain theorems were “dumb” and he would always talk about how he thought calculus was useless.</p>

<p>He didn’t really seem like a professor to me. Also, I look for certain things in a professor (I guess traits I’m used to from my high school teachers), so I’m pretty picky with my math teachers. :D</p>

<p>@ moldau: maybe i’m your friend =O</p>

17

<p>oh definitely not.</p>

<p>my friend is in love with schubert, quite literally. she wants to **** him. they are on first name basis</p>

18

<p>LOL. schubert… he’s too… nonchalant… about math. i fell asleep alot… i wonder if i know you guys.</p>

19

<p>oh claus! </p>

<p>i have a present for you!
its in my pants!</p>

20

<p>

</p>

<p>Were you that guy who sat in the front, never took notes, and always slept? That gets me annoyed. Don’t take up a seat!</p>

<p>

I guess … but if you really wanted to learn the theorems that he didn’t consider important, you could ask in OH. But the same people hogged him each time. Probably moldau’s friend.</p>