Worried about mathematics major?

Blobof
Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:03:14 +0000

ANDS!:

No college program would allow you to take those classes without first being introduced to proofs; generally the topics covered in Algebra are briefly touched on in such a proof based class (with most of the prepatory groundwork for analysis having come from Calculus).



Well, I do come from a different system, but there was no formal proof-based course necessary for basic algebra and analysis. There were geometric proofs in the cegep linear algebra course (introduction to vectors, matrices and complex numbers) before university, but length segments on polygons are way less abstract than the epsilon-deltas of analysis and the groups and rings of algebra. My calculus courses were more theory based than the standard Stewart though. McGill does have a sink-or-swim attitude however, compared to many American universities.



Realistically, Algebra should be the only difficult class to transition to, since its unlikely that you will have seen much of the material ahead of time (unless you take Linear Algebra and Number Theory first - which you totally should; LA in particular is a pre-req for algebra at my campus). Analysis is far easier than Algebra, and if you’ve done calculus and learned how to approach a proof - you’ve got all the tools you need.



I don’t know why so many people find algebra tougher than analysis. To me it was the other way around (even though I had 3 courses of calculus before taking analysis). I fared way better in algebra, but in the end I had to take more analysis. It’s a shame, algebra was much more fun.