OT - MSU's Calc II Final

Isn't Calc II one of the most failed classes at UM?  I remember taking the applied honors version (Math 156?), which was still a b*tch, but not nearly as bad as what everyone else took.

For comparative purposes, here's one UM Calc II final:

http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/courses/116/Exams/k2010winter/Final_Exam/copy/FinalExamW10Sol.pdf

I didn't take any math classes at M.  I stopped at Algebra II in high school.

Mgomathmoron

My freshman year at Michigan when I took Calc 2, one of the questions had to do with density of squirrels on the diag with the density being highest over my the chem building or something. Based on the equation, it was like 1600 squirrels per square foot in that corner of the diag.

Also, I got a 64 on that exam which was still an A- because the average was a 48.

I mean.  There isn't a whole lot to say on this subject.  Michigan is a better school than Michigan State.  

If anyone does care, I do have some anecdotal evidence.  I know someone who went to MSU and then transferred to UM.  He said he had to work about four times as many hours to maintain the same grades he was receiving at MSU.  

Wow that is a joke.  I remeber my Second Midterm's average was a 34 out of 100.

Just took my Calc II exam a few hours ago.  Let me tell you, it was loads of fun.  I have no doubt in my mind that I could have taken that MSU test in high school and done just fine.

Which may be different.  Also note that you can't use a calculator and doesn't give any prior info.

Pretty much all schools teach the same stuff as far as Math classes, so really there isn't much of a difference.  Their exam is probably a little easier, but in the end it's all application of the same stuff.

That is also one prof's practice final, different prof's probably have easier/harder exams.

Lastly, I hate these "Haha, look how pathetic school xx is, they have it so easy, we have it so hard" crap.  Just take pride in that you know Michigan has a great school.  I never understood worrying about or trying real hard to point stuff like this out.  Just makes you look like a douche.

What's crazy is that as someone who got an A in honors calc 2 9 years ago at Michigan, I don't know if I could answer any of those questions. Mostly because I haven't done an integral or derivative in 7 years and forget all the special rules.

But I do know that those questions would be just the simplification part of a much longer problem on the final I took 9 years ago.

I remember when I knew what those symbols meant. Calc II was my last math class and I'd like to keep that buried thank you very much. 

The MSU one is easier by far but while the Michigan one is difficult, all the problems seem doable and I haven't taken Calc for about a year and half.  

Edit: Actually there are some problems on the Michigan one with which I wouldn't know what to do.

Despite having a Michigan B.S. in Chemical Engineering, an MBA, and a CFA there's apparently a LOT I've forgotten about Calculus in the last 20 years.  When I was in school 115 was cake and 116 wasn't too hard if I recall.  NOW?  Bridges would be collapsing everywhere.  Use it or lose it, I guess...

Love how they call it a can of pop even on an official final exam. People would look at me as if I was speaking Swahili if I said that here.

Oh man, brings back good memories of carcurus at Michigan. Anyone else remember the Asian guy who worked in the department with a mole on his face with an obscene amount of hair growing from it? He proctored my gateway tests, and I tried as hard as I could to avoid staring...

Moo U's exam looks leaps and bounds easier, but even as an engineering Ph.D. student, I wouldn't want to do some of those problems on there. OUT OF PRACTICE.

The midterm of my Calc II UM class had an average score of 53/100.  I got a few points above that.  I would get a 85% at MSU judging by the difference in exams.  Shocking really, just proves that the majority of American universities aren't actually challenging their students.  No one is naturally good at Calc, it is all in the work you put into it (or are forced to put into it).  Now I understand how my friends who went to other (I won't name them) schools described how they worked slightly harder than they did in high school.

Here is MIT's Calc 1 final.  This course combines calc 1 and 2 into a single semester so you can imagine the pace difference.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-...

Those exams bring back some painful memories. I placed out of calc I, and didn't end up taking calc II or III until I was a senior... One or two aderol enhanced study sessions were required to relearn a lot of the material. I remember hating Taylor series', all current students have my sympathy. 

Calc II was the most difficult class I ever passed. Elec. Circuits Analysis was the hardest class I have ever taken.

I got an A in both Calc II and Calc III at U-M but I would be screwed right now on either of those exams. The MSU one looks easier and would probably take less time for me to figure out, but I sure have forgotten a lot since I took those classes in 2001-2002. Scheisse. 

Michigan's motto:  if you aren't crying after taking the exam, they haven't been pushing you hard enough.

In fairness to MSU, the comparisons of the tests are fairly meaningless. A test that results in scores in the appropriate range (which I'm assuming the State one does) is going to always look much, much easier than one that results in dismal scores that must be curved way up. That doesn't automatically reflect poorly  on the students taking the easier test any more than dismal test scores at Michigan reflect poorly on those students. (That doesn't totally invalidate the observation that it's an easy test, however, just that the comparison doesn't mean much.)

So glad I passed out of Calc II at Michigan. I remember breezing through Calc III and IV. Meanwhile, half of my friends were tearing their eyes out while earning an "A" with a whopping 42% on the Calc II final.

While I understand the point the OP is getting at, the MSU test at hand is from 2001 while the UM example is from 2011. Now I realize that it is supposedly a practic test for this year as stated by the OP, but we have no idea of the source. First, it could be no way correlated to this year's test, and secondly, if this years practice test, the practice test may be nothing like the real one.  MSU's academics has gone up drastically since 2001.

Sweet, employers love this kind of shit.

The nice thing about being older, and having once taken this and more complex math courses as an engineering student, is that you can't solve a single problem on either test and not give a crap.