Calculus II

[thebluefrog]

I'm transferring to a new school for the fall term to purse a BS in mathematics. Last year was my first year back in school after a decade-long absence, so I knocked off some Calc I rust. To make a long story short, the sections of Calc II offered in the fall may be filled up by the time I'm allowed to register, but they are offering it in the

Comments

[maynard_lover]

I would suggest holding off until the fall. I took Calc. III this past summer and I made a C. I am confident though I would have made an A had I held out and took it in the fall instead. Calc. II is relatively rigorous and I can't imagine learning everything we learned in my class in the span of a month--it'd be too much information too quickly in my opinion.

Also, a lot of times you get adjunct professors over the summer, and they end up being bad news (as in my case).

Calc. III was also the only class I was taking over the summer AND I didn't have a job. That's how hard it still was taking a math over the summer. I guess it's all dependent on how you like it though. I couldn't take it too seriously because I was not used to having a summer class and since it was my only class, I think I treated it as a joke.

Good luck whatever you decide. :)

[thebluefrog]

Due to it's sequential nature in relation to calc I, a lot of sessions of calc II are offered in the spring, with only a couple being offered in the fall. As a result, the 60 available seats in the fall are almost all claimed, and I have 2 weeks before they'll let me register. It'd put a serious crimp in my plans to have to wait until the spring, since it's a prerequisite for so many courses I need.

I'll put in for an override for one of the fall sections and hope for the best!

[iamsuperjew]

I generally really like math classes over the summer. They do go really fast, but it's every day so you don't have a chance to forget anything. But calc II is pretty rough, I don't know if I would have been able to do it over the summer. I doubt that was any help. Sorry.

[thebluefrog]

The Calc II class that is offered in the fall and spring meets every day, one hour a day. 4 hours a day is pretty daunting. If the fall session fills up, I'll request an override to see if they'll let me in anyway.

[amyura]

I concur with the two previous posters. I've been teaching calculus for four years now and there are a few topics in Calc II that have just clicked (though I did get an A when I took it in college). It's one of those courses where some of the topics just need time to sink in, and lots of practice.

[thebluefrog]

Thanks for the advice. How far do you typically go in Calc II? I've seen varying reports. Up to sequences? Beyond that?

[amyura]

It really, REALLY depends on the college and their overall program. One good telling point is how many courses they "do" calculus in. I went to McGill, and they had Calc I, II and III and then a fourth course called Advanced Calculus, all before ODE (or maybe you took ODE concurrently with Ad-Cal, I forget)...and Calc II did up to sequences and series, integration by parts and all the applications of integration. Calc III was standard multivariable. At my sister's school, University of San Francisco, the calculus sequence was divided up into only three courses, so Calc II actually incorporated the beginnings of multivariable. But I tutored a girl last summer taking Calc II at a local college, and her final exam only went up to definite and indefinite integrals with U-substitution, including exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions....most of which I had covered in AP Calculus in high school.

[thebluefrog]

Wow, that is a lot of variation. I'm transferring to UNC-W, which has the calc curriculum divided up into 4, maybe 5, sections. Calculus with Analytic Geometry (2 courses), Multivariate Calculus, Differential Equations, and Vector Calculus. I've emailed one of the professors to get an idea of what to expect.

[paper_crystals]

See, for me Calc 2 was a very difficult class but easier than Calc 1 (which was cake). Calc 3 was the hardest one for me. Calc 3 was harder than Discrete math. But you never know how easy a class is until you take it. Thus I concur with the the other posters that you should wait until the fall.

[thebluefrog]

Thanks!

[aerb]

It really depends upon how comfortable you feel with the Calc I material. If you're having trouble remembering, you should probably rather spend the summer brushing up on the material. If you do remember it, I would actually recommend taking the Calc II as soon as possible so that you don't forget again.

Also, if you feel comfortable with math in general (which makes sense to me since you want a BS in math), then I really don't see why you should put off taking the class as it might delay your major (it is a very important prereq class, as you mentioned). As such, I'm going to disagree with other posters and say that you should take it over the summer. But, it really is up to your schedule and situation, which I'm not familiar with. In any case, good luck.