Quote:
Originally Posted by HelloHockeyFans
First Year Engineering is not difficult. You'll be alright if you choose to take the math course. In fact, take as many courses as you possibly can handle in the early part of your engineering degree... because later on, things'll get rough!
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Get real. If you go in with this attitude, you might get by for the first two semesters, but the 3rd and 4th will kick your ass.
Fish, I am not up to speed with what the IB program is teaching these days. I graduated high school in 2000 and I remember there being some pretty big changes to the cirriculum with the introduction of "Pure" math (I used to tutor and found it to be a bit of a shock as to how different the course material was).
That said, I am not really qualified to say whether or not you should skip it. 217 in the first semester you can probably get away with taking the credit for, but there are a few things that are a bit different from 30/31 as I remember them.
My advice would be to save the $500 on 217 and get a copy of Elsabrouty's bible for later on.. the notes come in handy in later courses for sure. Get him as your prof anytime you can. I see a few people referring to him as Dr. Elsabrouty, but I am pretty sure he doesn't have his Ph.D. (long story). He is an absolute genius instructor, one of the best in the University. Dr. Bos isn't a bad choice either.
Focus on getting the basics of Statics down. It isn't as difficult as it seems, but is very critical that you do not get hung up on it. Free Body Diagrams rule.
The time you free up to enjoy yourself a bit and to work on your other courses will be much more valuable in the long run than the "GPA Boost" that others are professing here.
You'll find the workload that works for you. Some people thrive in the 6+ course/semester environment, others need 3 to get good grades. I was somewhere in the middle. If I was too busy, I couldn't get it done. If I was too relaxed, I was lazy and didn't care. Think about taking a course or two in the spring summer sessions if you need to spread things out more.
If you are going to get credit for anything, try to get it for PHYS259 - the course is a useless weeder and will cause you much undue stress.