What's the best way to prepare for the first year at Tech over the summer?

[Hriundeli]

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@davezhan

@Hriundeli –> It’s surprising that your preparation of Math 1a amounted to nothing… Was it because you never got that far, the hw assigned required thinking and the book only presented the basics, or the profs already went beyond everything you prepared over the summer during the first week? I’m just really curious. That’s all.

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<p>Whatever bit I learned over the Summer was almost completely forgotten over Frosh Camp and Rotation, and whatever remained - well, it was all pretty much covered within first two weeks. Besides, since I hadn’t had any exposure to proofs before coming here, the textbook problems that I did over the Summer were done with not enough rigor, so my first Ma1a problem set was…pretty horrible as you might imagine </p>

<p>But I survived, and so will you
You have to understand that here, it is impossible to learn just from your books; you need to learn from your professors and from your peers, as well, in order to get full advantage of what Caltech has to offer.</p>

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@davezhan

Are exams doable? I know there’s a collaboration policy, but it doesn’t seem very ethical or fair to allow students this advantage for take home exams unless there is a part of the honor policy that I missed. Are there ever in class exams since most but not all exams are take home.

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<p>Whether or not exams are doable depends on the person, depends on the class, and depends on the professor that is currently teaching that class. There are tests that average ~95% and there are tests that average ~35%</p>

<p>You are not allowed to collaborate on exams, and professors usually trust us to follow the instructions on the test, such as open or closed book, open or closed notes, whether you are allowed to use calculators or not - that sort of stuff. </p>

<p>I’ve heard that there are indeed in-class exams (not quizes), but I’ve never encountered one.</p>