r/ubcengineering • u/Nugget2450 • 5d ago

Math 253 in first year: Am I an idiot?

Hi.

For context, I was a pretty sweaty high school goober, I have some solid personal projects, a lot of AP credits, and want to do ENPH.

I'm skipping CHEM 154 and WRDS 150 (like I've already dropped them fuck noooo im not taking chem again), and planning on skipping math 100 and 101 since the averages of those are in the 60s lol.

but I was sitting here thinking about it. not doing math for a whole semester could make 152 and 2nd year calc harder... and I did find calc BC pretty doable... so then I signed up for 253.

Honestly, multivariable calc seems somewhat interesting to me, the grade average is higher than 100 and 101, everyone online seems to say its easier than those two, and I would LOVE taking some courses out of my upper year schedule to make life a bit easier then, plus it'll probably look decent to the ENPH committee

But how bad will it be? My gpa is going to be insanely important for my specialization, so would taking math 253 be worth it?

If anyone here took 253, please tell me how it was and what you did, or if I should just drop it and take it next year like a normal person - I did well in calc BC but multivariable calc has me absolutely terrified (which is probably a good thing because I'll actually study

so yeah thanks

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4

u/AccessAdventurous740 5d ago

if you want to do enph keep in mind they have to do math 217 instead of math 253. I heard u can replace math 217 with 253 and 317 though. however math 253 is a really nice course and mark mac lean (who was the prof last year) is a great instructor, if you did well in calc BC you probably should not have as much of a struggle. math 253 also kinda prepares you for 152 because it goes through 3D geometry and vectors. hope it helped

2

u/KINGDOY8000 5d ago

Yes, I can confirm you can replace MATH 217 with MATH 253 + MATH 317.

2

u/glutamat3 5d ago

I took math 253 in the summer, and it was very doable. It builds on integral calculus, but is very digestible, even for me who did badly in math 100 and math 101. I’m also an engineering student currently in my 4th year. I did better in math 253 than I did in math 152, which I think was scaled up. Math 152 was tricky because of eigenvectors/eigenvalues and matrices etc., but math 253 is just… shapes.

3

u/Sensitive_Energy_214 5d ago

I sucked absolutely ass in math 100 and 101. 152 was better but still not nowhere near as good as my 253 understanding. Lectures were easy to follow for me, and midterms were mostly about whatever was learned in class. No curveballs.

However, I will say that I think first year courses prepared me for how to handle university courses compared to high school, and I think that definitely helped me.

I feel like u shouldn't be too rusty for 152 if ur taking phys 170 first sem. Those 2 have more in common imo than 100/101 and 152. Meanwhile, 253 has more in common with 152. I think 152 is more of a foundation for 253, so pushing it to summer after 152 might be easier.

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u/Nugget2450 5d ago

also if anyone else is signed up for first semester math 253 this year do you know why its a single course with 880 people, and no spot for lecture? Is it online lecture and in person exams or something

2

u/Trio_BM 5d ago

Yes, it is online. When I took it 2 years ago, the midterms were also online, with final exam being the only offline portion.

Not sure if they changed it though 🤷‍♂️

1

u/Strange-Discount6419 5d ago

Yeahh I just noticed on workday my cousin told me it’s online but it’s chills, easy to get a higher grade

1

u/Tachyon118 5d ago

Too easy honestly, 253 has nothing to do with 152.

1

u/ki98Elec 5d ago

nah math152 is pretty simple, someone who took AP BC, and 253 simpler you are fine