<p>tips, tricks, professors/classes to avoid? Im a mechanical engineering student btw. anyone know any insider information that can help me survive Cal engineering?(hard work aside... thats a given).</p>
<p>Also interested.</p>
<ol>
<li>Take E10 in fall. E10 is a survey course with several modules. Usually only 3 modules (MechE, CivE, IEOR) are offered, but MSE is offered as a 4th option in fall. It is probably the first and the last time to explore other branches of engineering. It is a very nice course to take as a first-time college student.</li>
<li>Take E7 in spring. E7 is a programming course and you learn Matlab (similar to Java, C++, etc.). In fall, E7 is taught by the MechE department and in spring it is taught by the CivE department. The difference is, MechE department tends to focus on hard-core programming while the CivE focuses on application of programming to solve problems. Do not feel pressured that you have to take it in the fall simply b/c you're a MechE, that has nothing to do it. This course requires a lot of time and academic maturity, and it is extremely beneficial to take Math 54 before or while taking this course since there are some ordinary differential equations at the end of the course.</li>
<li>If you got a 5 on the AP Chem exam, skip out of Chem 1A and don't bother to take any chem course in Berkeley. If you have to take it, take it in the spring unless you are ready to compete with some hard-core pre-med students.</li>
<li>No matter how well you did on your AP Physics C exam, Physics 7A is worth taking.</li>
<li>Lastly, just try to take 12~13 units in your first semester and start as easy as possible. You really need as much time as possible to get adjusted to Cal and college life, and acing the first semester, of course.</li>
</ol>
<p>That was very useful UpMagic!! So I should not take Chem 1A this fall but rather in the fall. What will be a suggested schedule from you this first semester then?</p>
<p>E10, Physics 7A, your choice of Math + an engineering seminar. or you can replace physics or math with a humanities requirement if you want.</p>
<p>I would also suggest skipping out of as many math classes as possible or take them at community college. The math here is extremely difficult. Also a word of advise: You want to take as few lower division technical classes as possible since they are usually general and have much harsher curves. As for a seminar, I can suggest bioe 24 since it is a very easy class (graded based on attendance) and the speakers are sometimes interesting.</p>
<p>E10 no longer needs to be taken for transfer students.
Anyone know how difficult ME C85 is?</p>
<p>I called the advising department and they said as far as planning your classes you don't need to have it planned out exactly. They will go over everything with you at CalSo.</p>
<p>Take MEC85 before ME40 if you have to choose between them. Chose a smart group for E10. E7 in fall is brutal. You you think that you are a good student, take more units. Then drop if it gets too much. I took too little my first semester.</p>
<p>@UpMagic, even if we got 5's on both AP Physics C exams, you think 7A should be retaken?</p>
<p>I plan on taking 7B this summer, but also intend to take a lot of upper division physics courses (minor), so would not taking 7A at Berkeley be more harmful than having to relearn material over again.</p>
<p>@Ramblinman I would say that if you got a 5 on the AP physics exam then you will probably be okay skipping 7A. 7A is just mechanics, and there is no calculus involved. It will not have any effect on 7B since they are completely different. 7B is pretty damn hard though, I'd suggest taking Calc 3 so that you can actually understand what is going on. </p>
<p>As for wanting to take the upper division physics, I am not sure how skipping 7A will turn out. I'd say that 7A is much more in depth in the study of mechanics, since AP physics covers all topics.</p>
<p>What are you talking about wizrd? Physics 7A has a lot of calculus.</p>
<p>@Ramblinman: i also got 5's on both AP Physics C exams and I thought it was well worth it. It is the same topic, but the difficulty of the problems can get Berkeley hard.</p>
<p>@UpMagic: My impression is that that varies very heavily with the professor. I gambled on Yildiz to avoid having to get up early for Zettl, and the problems were honestly easier than the ones I had in APC. I'm led to believe that Yildiz is the exception rather than the norm, but I don't know that it's necessarily worth it if you already understand the material.</p>
<p>I disagree with the whole take 12units your first semester thing. It definitely depends on the relative toughness of each class you take. For example, my first semester junior year I took 19 units but I found it much easier than the 14unit load I took the following spring semester (and my gpa reflects as much). </p>
<p>Anyways here are some tips from a senior ME.</p>
<p>1) E10 is pretty easy don't sweat it.</p>
<p>2) Take E7 in the Fall with ME professors, it is much easier. Try to take it with Packard, he is awesome and will give you a good challenge. I would say E7 is one of the more useful classes in berkeley, I find I always need to use MATLAB for most of my classes/job/lab.</p>
<p>3) Take Physics 7a if you feel uncomfortable with what you learned in high school physics. You will mostly be doing the same things again though in ME 104 (Engineering Dynamics) so I wouldn't sweat it too much if you do skip.</p>
<p>4) Physics 7b is semi useful, but skip if you can. You'll learn all the useful stuff in EE100 (circuits) / ME40 (thermo).</p>
<p>5) Chem 1a- take if you think you want to go into combustion later on. It's pretty easy anyways.</p>
<p>6) E28- Prof Lieu is an ass, but is a much better teacher than mcmaims so take it with him. You will learn solidworks in this class which is another very useful program to know.</p>
<p>7) Try get your humanites reqs out of the way your first two years (especially the writing one). You will wish you had more time starting your junior year classes.</p>
<p>8) ME 85 - take with Zhodi if you can, hes a great teacher with a helpful grading system.</p>
<p>9) ME 40 - everyone who teaches this class is horrible and will probably turn you away from thermo/combustion/etc.</p>
<p>Any advice for an EECS and MSE joint major going for a math minor?</p>
<p>Also, any advice for an EECS and Engineering Math/Science double with a physics minor. Or an EECS and math/physics double minor?</p>
<p>I'm looking forward to 7B. I did take Calc 3, but that was in 11th, so it has been quite a while. That is when I took AP Physics C though, so I did do triple integrals for flux, in both classes.</p>
<p>I'm hoping it is challenging enough to require a lot of time studying, because I want to be extremely prepared for next semester (Only taking 13 units: CS 61A, 47B, PHYS 7C, ENGL R1B). </p>
<p>I've always loved/been good at extremely complex mechanics problems, but will definitely look at the lectures for Berkeley and MIT, to maybe brush up on some fluid mechanics.</p>
<p>Does anyone recommend a specific semester/professor to take CS70 / Math 55?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>@Themust and Ramblinman:</p>
<p>If you're good at the kinds of things you'll encounter in the majors, you'll probably be fine skill-wise and just have to budget your time effectively because of the immense quantities of work you'll have for the EECS curriculum. Bear in mind, however, that you can still get steamrollered by the workload even if you're good with the material and at budgeting your time.</p>
<p>One thing I can say from observing a lot of EECS majors last semester is that you should make sure you actually sleep during finals week. "Caffeine + Cram" does not - from what I've observed - work for the classes you'll be taking.</p>
<p>Thanks for the finals week tips. I definitely follow the create a 50-100 page study guide the week leading up to finals and then getting up really early the day of (going to sleep early, so I won't be cramming the morning just refreshing).</p>
<p>As an incoming transfer I still have to take E7 and ME C85, which I plan to take in the Fall. Does anyone have any input on the professors teaching this upcoming semester?</p>
<p>E7- FRENKLACH or PAPADOPOULOS
ME C85 - Keaveny or DER KIUREGHIAN </p>
<p>It's hard to find much info on the professors/classes online.</p>
<p>Advice for CEE? or BioE?</p>