[gammerx]

Originally Posted by SolidxSnake

UMA doesn't take Physics B credit either... or rather, it doesn't apply to required classes (Physics B covers Phys 131 and 132, which are general physics I/II without calc, and we are required to take 151/152, the calculus-involved equivalents). I just told my professors that I don't want to spend time covering stuff I mostly knew when I could be taking more valuable courses (things to complete my math minor). They exempted me because I had enough credits (I still got the applicable 8 credits for Phys131/132, but just not the prerequisite requirements from Phys151/152).

As far as material you might miss... I'd be willing to bet you're not going to learn anything in depth that you'll need later in ANY class. If you need it later, you'll learn it. Early exposure is nice, but by the time you're using anything particularly useful that is somewhat minor, you'll have forgotten about it from before. For instance, last semester I took Circuits II (AC Analysis). Much of the course revolved around complex numbers, Euler's identity, polar coordinates, logarithms and trig identities. Much of this stuff I had seen before in several classes, but in most of these classes, we covered the material quickly, or in a "purer" form. When I got to the material in Circuits, we covered it quite briefly, but were forced to learn it and become efficient in working with the material because we were applying it. Not to mention, we learned MUCH faster and more efficient ways to apply the concepts to real circuits (which you don't learn when you learn those topics in a pure-math class). This sort of thing is quite common with engineering, at least in my classes, as well as the classes of my peers in different disciplines (ECE, mechanical, chemical, etc).

In particular... I feel I can almost guarantee there will be nothing you missed from Calc II that you'll wish you have learned earlier. The only thing Calc II covers at UMA that my BC class didn't cover is trig substitutions (which we may have covered in BC calc, but either at a much easier difficulty, or I forgot it entirely). We covered sequences/series in my BC calc course, and I've since forgotten almost all of it, along with most of my day-to-day CalcII knowledge (all of the different anti-derivatives, etc). As long as you remember the concepts (which you will), you haven't "missed" anything.

I mention the sequences/series because I've been using them quite a bit in my recent math courses (and a little bit in Circuits when we talked about Fourier analysis/series). I sure as hell didn't remember any of it besides what they were, but that's all I needed to know, since anything else I missed I learned when I started working with them.

My major point is that you will learn better when you need to, not in preparation of something you may or may not see later. More generally, I'm convinced that a college education in this sort of thing almost anything is pretty much worthless outside of meeting a company's/manager's hiring criteria. Everything you'll need to know, you'll learn on the job. You'll forget most everything else outside of what you do on a day-to-day basis, at least, you'll forget it enough to require a refresh to know how to use it effectively again.

Of course, this is all pointed towards relatively specific stuff. If you can't remember Ohm's law, you're gonna have a tough time

But you still had to take physics 151 and 152? Physics I will definitely skip depending on my C: M and E/M scores. I can't skip calc II unless I do what you did and try to have them exempt me from it, but I can definitely skip calc I. Funny that you mention trig substitutions, when we were doing derivatives and integrals of trig functions, I actually figured out trig substitutions on my own before we learned it in class. Also your classes might be different, I have no idea what calc I and II will contain at Bing, so it all depends.

Completely agree with the rest though, Most of the stuff I will need to know is the circuitry and computer design etc. classes, not the physics I, II and calc etc. Prob learn most on the job, but I don't necessarily always want to just work a job under a company; I do want to do some of my own research/tinkering/inventing :]

[SolidxSnake]

Originally Posted by gammerx

But you still had to take physics 151 and 152? Physics I will definitely skip depending on my C: M and E/M scores. I can't skip calc II unless I do what you did and try to have them exempt me from it, but I can definitely skip calc I. Funny that you mention trig substitutions, when we were doing derivatives and integrals of trig functions, I actually figured out trig substitutions on my own before we learned it in class. Also your classes might be different, I have no idea what calc I and II will contain at Bing, so it all depends.

Completely agree with the rest though, Most of the stuff I will need to know is the circuitry and computer design etc. classes, not the physics I, II and calc etc. Prob learn most on the job, but I don't necessarily always want to just work a job under a company; I do want to do some of my own research/tinkering/inventing :]

I had to take 151 and 152, those were exempted by a 4 or 5 on the Physics C exam (which I didn't take). So I didn't have an exemption for 151, I just argued to skip it and eventually made my case

Calc I/II seem to be universal from most of the schools I've seen, differential calc is CalcI and integral calc/sequences and series/polar and parametric functions is CalcII. But as you said, the courses definitely do differ school-to-school.

As far as the "job" concept, I definitely think it still applies. If you're doing research on something and find out you don't know what you need to, you'll learn it then, and you'll learn it much better IMO, since you'll be fully invested and interested in it, instead of being told to learn it to pass a test, and be graded on your performance on the topic once/twice/thrice (your grades tend to be heavily-weighted by exam scores and/or projects, if applicable, but again that varies). Extensively using concepts and ideas relevant to your interests is a very fast and very solid way to learn things, from my experience.