<p>DD’s killer at the beginning of the semester was a consoladated calc class(1 and 2 in one semester). D had taken pre calc BC and gotten a 5 which bought her credit for Calc 1. She had taken AP calc BC in senior year and got 4 on the exam. That bought her credit for calc.2 Advisor at her college said the consol.calc would be too easy and she should move to calc III. DD said no as she is premed and is very aware of the need to keep the best gpa possible. Weeks into the class she was stressing soooo much over the tests, quizes. Her 47 on a test was an A! Prof. talked over everyones heads and moved at lightning speed. A good portion of the class dropped it, leaving all math majors who were lost also. In speaking with someone from the math dept., they advised her to drop back to Calc.1 because of her stress over it. She did and was quite happy that she did. First hard lesson of college; that teachers make all the difference!</p>
<p>My S has found Russian I at UVA very challenging and thinks he will be lucky to get a B- or a C. He had no previous background in the language. Some other students had taken some Russian in hs, but he says the only kid who is doing really well is a native speaker of Bulgarian. S is mulling over whether to forge ahead, since apparently Russian gets easier after the first year, or to bail out now; he has fulfilled his UVA language requirement via the Spanish he took in hs.</p>
<p>On the other hand, multivariable calculus is, he says, much easier than the 2nd semester calculus course he took last year at UVA (as a high school student). 2nd semester calculus is apparently the “weed-out” class for the Engineering School.</p>
<p>For what’s worth here. S took AP Cal BC at sophmore and get a 5. He has no problem with Cal II at college. When he came back on Thanksgiving, he told me that he had two tests with a total of 175 point. His Prof. said that 140 points will be a ‘A’ for the first two tests. He also told me that his 300 people Econ II class will be cut by half next semester though.</p>
<p>CollegeShopping - My S took AP Calc BC as a Junior in HS (was accelerated) - got a 5 on the Ap exam and 100% in the class. Our HS capped out at AP Calc BC so it decided to take it easy senior year and take AP Stats (along with 4 other AP classes).</p>
<p>At his college/major (engineering) they accepted a 5 on the AP Calc BC for Calc I, so he registered for Calc II. The first day of class they started on Chapter 16 and he freaked out. He did not remember enough of the 1st 16 chapters (from over a year ago) to feel comfortable with starting on Chapter 16! He promptly moved into Calc I and did not feel like it was a breeze. There were a lot of things he had never learned in Calc BC in HS, and now he feels like he will be better prepared for Cal II next semester.</p>
<p>Based on that experience he has decided to take Physics I next semester (could have skipped it with AP Physics) - we talked about it and he decided as an engineering major it is important to get the basics learned well before moving on to the advanced classes.</p>
<p>He will use his AP Humanities classes for credit and to lighten up some semesters.</p>
<p>I think all his classes were hard - for the first time in his life! - but none were unmanagable. But we’ll see if that’s true when he gets his final grades. Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>GR3, since AP Cal BC covers some of the same material as calculus 2 at college, it’s not surprising that your son is doing well, since it will be a review for him. It’s often a good idea, both GPA-wise and in terms of mastery of the material, for a student to repeat such classes unless s/he needs the credit for early graduation. However, it’s hard on the kids who are learning the stuff for the first time, since the grading curve is distorted by those who are essentially taking the same class for the second time.</p>
<p>So, so far we have classes in Math, Science and a sprinkle of Foreign Language primarily being the culprits of difficult/bad classes. Interesting…</p>
<p>collegeshopping, my son is a freshman engineering major at Cal this year. He took both AP Calc AB (sophomore) and BC (junior) in high school, received A’s in both and got 5’s on the AP exams. He skipped calculus I and II altogether and started with Linear Algebra and Differential Equations. He did not find it too difficult at all and unless he completely bombs his final, he is on track to receive an A. I think it just depends on the student. I would encourage your daughter to trust her instincts. If she thinks she can do it, she probably can.</p>
<p>Or it just depends on the prof. :)</p>
<p>abasket is right. I have 289 credits, plus another 18 for courses I audited. I’ve had every sort of professor imaginable and some of them were not pretty. In mathematics especially, it just seems to get worse as you go farther up the hill in difficulty.</p>
<p>A good professor is important too, but I believe a talented math student can overcome even a bad professor… It’s more difficult but it can be done! Wouldn’t it be great if the kids didn’t have to deal with bad professors??? A girl can dream…</p>
<p>“None of them.”</p>
<p>My first semester in college, I didn’t have a “bear” class…just a disappointing, borderline insulting experience in Psych 101 where we had to do our lab reports in pencil to show that we knew about the X and Y axis. I know some kids didn’t have good HS prep, but come on…that’s not appropriate at a (then) top-10 LAC.</p>
<p>I guess we will see how she does on the BC exam. She is also taking AP Stats and AP Physics C and is doing really well in those classes also, so maybe she does has a knack for math. But my gut says start at Calc II and leave it be.</p>
<p>Back in the stone ages I found Calc 1 in college challenging, because the pace was intense. I did find Calc 3 easy compared to 1 and 2.</p>
<p>My S was discouraged from taking AP credit for core courses to his major. So he was bored silly through Chem 1.</p>
<p>I don’t know if he’s had his butt kicked, but he’s glad to have completed his English requirement, and doesn’t know if he wants to stick with engineering.</p>
<p>I am more worried about next semester. He will be taking a few less credits, but the Calc will no longer be review for him.</p>
<p>Hmm, guess the Chemistry class wasn’t too killer after all since he got a B+. Overall GPA across his classes 3.55, not bad for a slate that also had Physics, Math and Computer Programming.</p>
<p>When you survive as one of 12 in an original class of 26 and have a decent grade (C or higher) I consider that overcoming a bad prof - BUT, it doesn’t make it a good experience or a confidence builder when you stressed and pulled your hair out for the past 15 weeks.</p>
<p>I think my son’s hardest class – or lowest grade – or biggest worry will be his freshman English class.And he’s a good writer, he’s just had a hard time with this particular teacher. He’ll have a 3.5 or better this semester – which included French 301 where he is the only freshman and the only one who can actually speak the language!</p>
<p>Calc II is probably known as the “most difficult” calculus class. For those that are far removed from calculus, it mainly deals with techniques of integration; integration by parts, trig substitution, polar coordinates, series and sequences. The course is heavily based in trig, so it can be quite challenging if your trig is rusty.</p>
<p>Calc III (multivariable calc) isn’t as bad as Calc II, imo. It deals with vectors, partial derivatives, double integrals, triple integrals, Green’s theorem, Curl, Divergence, Stoke’s theorem. I actually found it easier than the other calc classes for two reasons. 1) By Calc III you’ve probably seen every derivative/integral out there (taught in these classes), so you should be able to make a solid attempt at the question, and 2) It was more “applied” and “visual” than Calc 1 and 2. If you can visualize things, Calc III is much easier.</p>
<p>Tell your kids not to give up if they have a difficult time in a Calc class. I had a HORRENDOUS professor for my Calc 1 class. It really set me behind the 8 ball for my other calc classes. By Calc III the professor was AMAZING, and I learn a lot more.</p>
<p>The key to calc is going above and beyond normal study habits. You probably have to study for 5-6 hours per week (outside of class) doing homework problems (even if no homework is assigned by the professor). You can’t get through college math classes without doing work on your own. I think that is the biggest downfall of the high school to college transitions for students. They think if the professor doesn’t collect homework they don’t have to do it. That is a sure path to failure in college math classes.</p>
<p>By the way, I hear that skipping to Calc 3 (Math 53 for me) is a better idea than retaking Calc 2 or 1 after the BC exam. Particularly if you can integrate 
I actually learned a good bit about Calc 2 on the side while in 53, and I know a lot of people in Calc 2 (and 1) are getting steamed. </p>
<p>But the amusing thing is, in a schedule involving Chem 1A and Math 53, the major “nightmare” class was one of the humanities. GAAAHHH!!! Who on earth came up with *$^# breadth requirements anyway?</p>
<p>I’m the one who sounded the alarm on the 2011 thread. For ds, it was multivariable calculus. He ended up dropping it. From the very beginning, we thought this was a bad placement as his 5 in BC Cal had come junior year, so he was a year removed from any calculus. But the math adviser assured him he’d be fine; he was not. It’s ok. Lesson learned.</p>
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<p>BINGO! My H the math prof has mentioned this to me numerous times. He also made sure our S knew it as well. So, despite being saddled before reading week with losing his notebook for the mv calc class, S set the curve for the class the entire quarter and earned himself the A. It’s also a special math class with the Integrated Science Program.</p>