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I am skipping Math 1A/1B, and taking 54 in the Fall semester. It seems as though the course emphasizes linear algebra, and that the text on differential equations is not used as often. I was wondering what the best way to prepare for the course is.

By Kryptic (Kryptic) on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 11:23 pm: Edit

Not sure if I can help out much, but I'm also taking the class this fall and I'm a bit apprehensive about it. It's been about four years since I've finished calculus, and looking through the text books makes me think that it's a fairly intensive class and touches on just about every subject learned from trig -> calc 1b. Needless to say, when you don't use math fairly actively, you don't really retain the minutia of it. =) I'm spending the next two weeks reading every page of my old calc and pre-calc books, personally. It's "a" strategy, not sure if it's the "best" strategy.

By Ucaaron (Ucaaron) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 03:31 am: Edit

It sounds like a clever strategy. The stuff that I've been focusing on has to do with series, first and second order differential equations, review of the more "advanced" integration techniques, complex numbers, sigma notation, and trig identities.

By Esun (Esun) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 01:27 pm: Edit

If I were you, I'd focus on first and second order differential equations, series, and review matrices (minors and cofactors, determinants, etc.). I took a differential equations course using the same book as Math 54 (older edition, though, I think 6th) and it really wasn't that bad (you don't need advanced integration techniques usually).

The hardest part, however, was series solutions to differential equations. The linear algebra involved was relatively minor, so I wouldn't focus too much on that. There was some trigonometry, some complex numbers, but nothing major. I found it to be a lot of memorizing how to solve various types of differential equations (including systems of differential equations, hence the need for some linear algebra), that's about it.

By Kryptic (Kryptic) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 04:27 pm: Edit

Does anyone know what type of calculators, if any, are allowed on tests for this class? I use a TI-92+, which has a lot of advanced calculus and linalg/diffeq features and a QWERTY keyboard. Some teachers require calculators like this, others expect their students to do everything by hand. I'm guessing Berkeley falls more into the latter category?

By Esun (Esun) on Friday, August 20, 2004 - 05:48 pm: Edit

It should be teacher-dependent. I just bought a TI-89 Titanium (previously used the TI-89), which also has all of those nice features in a non-QWERTY package. Honestly, for differential equations it won't help that much (you'll have to do most of the work yourself, although it'll simplify some steps). Now if we could use Maple on tests, that'd be awesome, because it can solve differential equations from start to finish.

By Calkidd (Calkidd) on Friday, August 20, 2004 - 08:45 pm: Edit

The diffeq stuff in math 54 is actually pretty minimal. When I took the course, all we did were three equations for modelling heat flows in solid bars (they're in the diffeq book that the class uses); nothing as fundamental as using transforms, etc, which you'd learn in upper div math, EE, or mechE courses.