/sci/ - Science & Math

>>10095447
Calculus and Physics aren't weed out classes

https://4chan-science.wikia.com/wiki/Mathematics#Calculus
https://4chan-science.wikia.com/wiki/Physics_Textbook_Recommendations#High_School

>>10095472
I was outright told by two advisors (double major) that physics and calculus at my school are weed out classes, and that the majority of students fail and retake the classes to get a D.
If that's not enough, my calculus professor gives the wrong instructions in class -- the exams are graded by the powers that be. They have consistently given my section awful scores, whereas other sections have averages of C. An example is that I failed questions involving limits, despite getting the right answers, because my prof just told us to take derivatives of limits instead of going through the whole process of solving a limit

>>10095491
>I was outright told by two advisors (double major) that physics and calculus at my school are weed out classes, and that the majority of students fail and retake the classes to get a D.

Your school must be filled with braindead cs majors.

>If that's not enough, my calculus professor gives the wrong instructions in class

Wut?

>An example is that I failed questions involving limits, despite getting the right answers, because my prof just told us to take derivatives of limits instead of going through the whole process of solving a limit

Didn't the question state to do it from first principles?

>>10095579
It's a top 50 school, but it's massive. with 60,000+ kids, a lot of people who aren't gifted or already taught in STEM get pushed to take STEM majors by their parents. The university specifically wants kids who are guaranteed to do extremely well in those majors in order to maintain their high rankings. So, they make the introductory courses incredibly difficult and confusing for even those who are experienced with it. The classes in physics and math after the introductory courses are said to be much easier.
In regards to that question, my professor went over a practice midterm with the exact same question, referring to it as a "slam dunk" because he taught us to solve it in seconds. The questions were set up in the form of limits, however, and when I followed his advice for the exam, I had nearly all of the points taken off (only a small amount of points rewarded for the correct answer).
Some of the questions I have in physics and calculus stump both the professors and tutors. I actually had a tutor struggle for 2 hours with a single homework question (out of 100 questions). My physics TA looked over our midterm as we took it and realized that one of the questions was outright impossible, having to step outside and make calls to people before coming back to tell us that question wasn't going to be counted.
My primary concern at this point is to transfer to a school where I can genuinely learn and earn a degree without having to put up with stuff like this, so its especially crucial to me that I do well in spite of the odds.

>>10095766
Double space your paragraphs.

>>10095766
>So, they make the introductory courses incredibly difficult and confusing for even those who are experienced with it.

Are you doing proofs in calculus? Are there Lagrangians in physics? If not, it's the same shit you see everywhere.

>The questions were set up in the form of limits, however, and when I followed his advice for the exam, I had nearly all of the points taken off (only a small amount of points rewarded for the correct answer).

What was the question asking for? Compute the answer or show off that you know some concept besides L'Hôpital's rule. Who cares if it was the same limit if it was asking for it to be done by a different method.

A concrete example would be if a question asks for you to find the root of a function by Newton's method and you go and use bisection (or solve it exactly), of course you're going to lose all credit.

>My physics TA looked over our midterm as we took it and realized that one of the questions was outright impossible, having to step outside and make calls to people before coming back to tell us that question wasn't going to be counted.

Shit happens everywhere. Sometimes they forget to give enough information to solve it or try to modify an old question and nudge it into unsolvable territory.

>>10096064
Yeah. . .but you'll just be accused of reddit spacing if you do that.

>>10096386
That's how it was in the beginning of 4chan.

>>10095766
Do you have any examples of these physics and calc problems that are really difficult? A screenshot would suffice

Just listen to the teacher and learn it in 1 hour of class instead of spending 4 hours reading the book to try to figure it out yourself.

>>10096064
>reddit spacing
>>10096083
Calc asks for proofs with some exam questions. The question asked for the value of a limit
>>10097133
I haven’t finished my homework yet, so I’ll post pictures if I come across anything like that.
>>10097219
That’s what I always did. I got through high school with a 4 GPA without studying at all solely by paying attention in class. In college, questions suddenly appear on the exam that haven’t been covered in class but are in the textbooks

>>10097967
>>reddit spacing

Not a real thing

>>10097967
>In college, questions suddenly appear on the exam that haven’t been covered in class but are in the textbooks

If you're solving problems by doing them the same exact way as were done in identical example problems with different numbers, you're learning math wrong.

>>10095472
Different guy but at my school I've had someone in the department tell me that the reason most majors require their students to take basic calc and physics is to make sure they don't end up with any brainlets which could end up doing well in their courses.

>>10098091
Extreme value theorem, for instance, was never covered in class. And yet, it was on the test.
We had a midterm in the first 2 weeks of class over the first 10 chapters of the textbook. We had only gone over 6 of them in class by that point

>>10096083
>Newton's method and you go and use bisection

calculus was so fucking boring, ugh, who gives a shit about newtons method or bisection?

i remember one of my professors subtracting two points out of five from my answer because i didnt include "+ C" ... that really sums up the typical bullshit you see in calculus

>>10098225
>calculus was so fucking boring, ugh, who gives a shit about newtons method or bisection?

Literally anyone who computes anything on a computer.

>>10095472
but that's wrong tho
intro math classes are complete bullshit. I put in less effort in my grad level math classes than I did in Calc 3

>>10098225
newtons method was the only part of calc I that grabbed me

>>10098362
i read this and became retarded

>>10098225
brainlet detected
bisection or newton's method are the most useful thing out of calculus

>>10098479
>intro math classes are complete bullshit. I put in less effort in my grad level math classes than I did in Calc 3
>Calc 3
>the easiest course in the calculus sequence

>>>/g/tfo

>>10098552
it's because I took up to Calc 2 in highschool, so Calc 3 was the only weed out class I took in uni

>>10098562
>never took ODEs, PDEs, Complex Variables, Differential Geometry, Functional Analysis, Algebraic Geometry
>claims to be a math grad

stop pretending code monkey

>>10098578
believe what you want to believe. But the fact of the matter is, none of those classes had the same amount of bullshit that the intro calc classes had.
All I had to do to get As and Bs was pay attention in lecture, and do the homeworks, which was way less than I had to do for Calc 3

>>10098592
you're not convincing anyone

>>10095447
Check out this panorama

>>10098782

>>10095766
are you at ASU with professor adams for physics?

>>10098800
I’m actually at Ohio State University, but I imagine its similar at other state schools