Hardest Class at U-M?
As I sit at my desk cramming and dreading the hours to my quantum mechanics mid-term, this question crossed my mind. Obviously this class is small potatoes compared to others at the university, so to make me feel better what are some hard courses you've survived at the U (or other colleges)?
February 8th, 2010 at 5:18 PM ^
I did civil engineering so I didnt really have any super challanging courses. Structures classes were the toughest.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:29 PM ^
aren't too bad, at least the design ones are alright, but hydrology was awful for me. The past 2 years all I've heard is negative reviews and terrible grades.
November 17th, 2010 at 12:54 PM ^
I would say any class that you sat by past alum, and current Miss Michigan Rima Fakih. How could you focus? SHEESH
November 18th, 2010 at 3:09 PM ^
Miss Teen Michigan was in my sorority (ugh I hate admitting that) and she was a brilliant math major.
I'd post her photo but I'm not sure if she would be happy with me.
November 17th, 2010 at 4:39 PM ^
WAR civil engineering majors that referring to themselves as 'engineers'
February 8th, 2010 at 5:19 PM ^
hopefully not calc 2, as I have 40 minutes till I have to take it
February 8th, 2010 at 5:32 PM ^
Calc 2 wasn't too bad for me. Calc 3 on the other hand....
February 8th, 2010 at 5:54 PM ^
seconded - I thought 3 dimensional calc was a beast
February 8th, 2010 at 6:21 PM ^
I thought calc 3 was the easiest, and that both Calc 2 and DiffEq were harder. Maybe I think better in 3-D.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:38 PM ^
I found Calc II to be hardest. III wasn't all that bad...and IV was kinda fun. But that's just me.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:00 AM ^
If it weren't for my Russian professor's accent and strangely dry sense of humor, I would have jumped out the window and plummeted to by blissful demise from Dennison. Calc III made Calc II look like 7th grade algebra.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:08 PM ^
is not that difficult. The only reason why it's so hard is people, who aren't an engineering, physics or math major, suck at math and have to take it as part of their academic requirements.
Calc 3 is difficult but the exams are pretty easy which is more important IMO. If you know how to do the practice exams, you generally will do well in the exams.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:08 PM ^
is not that difficult. The only reason why it's so hard is people, who aren't an engineering, physics or math major, suck at math and have to take it as part of their academic requirements.
Calc 3 is difficult but the exams are pretty easy which is more important IMO. If you know how to do the practice exams, you generally will do well in the exams.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:49 PM ^
I hated DiffEq because there was so much hw. If I remember correctly, we had written hw, online hw, and group hw. Calc 3 wasn't too bad.
Math of Finance (Financial Engineering) was challenging, but do-able. Just had to bang your head against the wall for a little while.
February 8th, 2010 at 7:41 PM ^
Are you refering to Math 423? If so I agree. In fact pretty much all financial math classes are that way. Not as conceptually challenging as theoretical math but mind numbingly dull and nuanced(at least in my opinion)
February 8th, 2010 at 8:43 PM ^
I believe that was the one.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:56 PM ^
Took the Honors Calc 3 course my first semester. Insanely difficult... I recall taking an exam where the mean score (out of 100) was 16. Never took another Math course again!
February 9th, 2010 at 12:56 AM ^
I nominate Math 285 for most unpredictably fucking insanely hard class possible. I don't know if it was just really hard to wrap my head around the applications of the concepts, or the fact that my prof was just too brilliant to understand what we could possibly be struggling with, but this one kicked my ass without apology.
I was a little worried about taking enough Honors classes to get the sophomore honors award, after 285 - but 286, Diff Eq, was much easier (honestly, it seemed easier than the non-Honors Math 216 class my friends were taking) and I soon realized that Honors classes were mostly a joke.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:33 PM ^
T minus 30 minutes until I attempt to fail less than everyone else.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:43 PM ^
calc 2 was the course i hated the most, i had a strong desire to thrust my face into a wall after class everyday
February 8th, 2010 at 6:15 PM ^
Ugh...i took Calc 2 Honors last year when I thought I was good at Calc.
Lets just say I no longer think I know anything about Calc.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:20 PM ^
...is that Calc 2 (Math 116, I think?) is the hardest class at the University, and the 2nd exam is the hardest exam at the University.
Obviously it isn't the hardest subject matter, but FWIW, that was the rumor when I was a young engineering student.
EDIT: Sorry, Kurt... Good luck. Integrate that bitch.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:56 PM ^
...when there are probably a dozen or so Math classes alone that are more difficult.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:26 PM ^
Yeah, for me it was Math 419. Made me decide not to be a math major, or even get a math minor when I was only 1 math course short.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:35 PM ^
Math 295 ruined my life my first semester. It's literally so hard that if you fail it they give you and A- for effort.
February 8th, 2010 at 7:14 PM ^
C'mon, Math 295 is the easy part of the honors sequence.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:11 PM ^
i got like 9/15 on every homework assignment and somehow got an A. i hate delta/epsilon proofs. also, i got a 5 on the Calc BC AP test which got me out of the first two semesters of math. little did i know, Math 295 counts as Calc 1, so i forfeited 4 free credits. sonofabitch. 10 years later and i'm still bitter.
March 26th, 2010 at 12:30 PM ^
I took the Math 295-396 series right around the same time (in fact, sounds like we may have been in the same class). I definitely got math 120&121 AP credit, I think you got hosed.
As for hardest class, I'd have to go with Math 512, algebraic structures.
February 8th, 2010 at 7:45 PM ^
While the material isn't nearly as challenging in Calc 2 as other math courses, the reason it is reportedly the toughest class at U of M is because they specifically design the exams to be over the top hard and then adjust the grades accordingly.
So if you are talking simply from a comprehension point of view, no, Calc 2 is not the hardest. If you are talking about getting a good grade or doing well on the exams...I think Calc 2 can make a case for that.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:40 PM ^
i hear this alot too - that calc 2 or orgo are the hardest classes at UM.
They are the hardest courses to the people that take them because so many, including those not so intellectually gifted, take them because they are part of so many core curricula. They are the most failed courses on campus for the same reason.
do people seriously think calc 2 or orgo is harder than something like EECS 470? or 400-level math or some super hard literature course?
February 8th, 2010 at 10:20 PM ^
Orgo isn't the hardest class at U-M. It's just that a lot of "Pre-med" kids who are never gonna end up as Med students take it.
February 8th, 2010 at 7:56 PM ^
This is the only class i've ever failed. and on the 2nd exam I got a 4 of 125.
But during the exam I did draw up two sweet flag football plays that my team used to score 3 TDs later that night....
February 9th, 2010 at 9:33 AM ^
lowest in the classes history (and maybe in the Universitys history) I do believe that it was in the mid 20's.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:19 PM ^
psych 111.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:52 PM ^
I did not take psych at UM, but was that sarcasm? It seems like intro psych should be a fairly easy and fun course.
It is entirely possible that this is an inside joke that I just didn't get, and if so...I sincerely apologize.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:20 PM ^
that he is "Ted Bundy."
February 8th, 2010 at 7:18 PM ^
"Al Bundy" when creating his account. ( Can't rule out schizophrenia )
February 8th, 2010 at 7:44 PM ^
you'll only give credence to his insanity defense.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:30 PM ^
Probably the easiest class on campus. I took it (along with most of the freshman from the 2008 recruiting class) and didn't bother showing up to lecture once after the first exam. It just wasn't necessary.
February 8th, 2010 at 7:08 PM ^
That was a joke, but it's not too funny for me. I took it with Brian Malley and the average GPA for his class was something like a 2.85. *pickaprof.com used to keep track of these things for free, but now you have to pay for it.
February 8th, 2010 at 7:47 PM ^
I didn't mind Malley that much, except that I did do rather poorly in that class.
Yeah, I take that back. Malley sucks and he is to blame for my failures in the easiest class at U of M.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:20 PM ^
EECS 280. Had a crappy teacher and I just couldn't put it together. Almost dropped out of engineering school because of that one class. The worst part is for all countless hours I spent on that stupid class, I've never used any of it again (focused on MEMS in college but now I'm a controls and automation engineer). If one of my friends didn't write my last 2 programs, I would have failed the class. Damn I hated that class.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:28 PM ^
That was my 2nd favorite class (close behind History of The University of Michigan). It sounds like we didn't have the same Professor.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:48 PM ^
I had 2 roommates taking EECS 280 at the same time my sophomore year, and I swear they didn't move from their computers all semester. Watching them do that almost single-handedly drove me into IOE, which was cake by comparison.
I personally scraped bottom with a C- in calc-3. Rebounded with a C in calc 4 though...
February 8th, 2010 at 6:51 PM ^
of course IOE was easy, it is its acronym after all. true story, we had a contest senior year taking IOE 301: told time spent to get an A including times in exams. I lost with 4.5 hours! Dammit.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:38 PM ^
that seems legit, im just curious as to what the fuck ioe 301 is
February 8th, 2010 at 5:52 PM ^
you should've taken EECS 281. That class was 100 times worse than 280 and was my hardest/favorite class that I've taken at Michigan
February 8th, 2010 at 6:32 PM ^
I took both 280 and 281 (I got a CS minor) and I didn't think either was that hard. When I took 280 I had 2 easier classes, and when I took 281 it was my easiest class of the semester. I got a high A in 280 and an A- in 281.
February 8th, 2010 at 8:01 PM ^
Personally, I think 281 depends on the semester. If you took it Fall 2007, you really had to put in a lot of work because the prof took projects that were designed to be done in a group and made everyone do it individually.
Having said that, I took it the following semester and although it was easier, I still put a good amount of time into it lol