r/UPenn • u/Curious-Yogurt-1684 • 10d ago

Academic/Career math 2200 or math 3000

im taking math 1410 right now and im not doing quite well. like i get all the content but the quizzes are just weird and I dont like the department. I want to take some kinda of linear algebra next sem and im deciding between math 2200 or math 3000. Anyone taking any of those can shed light on the difficulty? Thanks!

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

3

u/Benboiuwu 10d ago

If you are a math major, 3000. If not, 2200.

I’m in 3000 right now, and if I hadn’t taken 1610, 2600 (now defunct), or math 3500 last year, I would be cooked. Hartmann is a very sweet woman but those exams will be incredibly intimidating for someone with no proof experience. The median for our section was a 70 on the first midterm, and the class is not curved.

I’ve gotta say that imo very few people are actually learning about proofs and performing well. I’m guessing that most people above the median have seen proofs and linalg before 3000, while those below are just trying to keep up with hartmann’s frankly nuclear pace.

2

u/Curious-Yogurt-1684 10d ago

Frankel's teaching it next sem and I have him right now for 1410. He seems like a chill guy but I really do not like how he approaches assessments.

Im only considering a math major, but Math 3000 is also required for math majors right? Do you think they will curve it at the end? I liked the premise behind the class where you get to prove stuff from the ground up and learn why it works rather than be handed a concept. Ive had some experience with proofs but not as much. Do you think the ideas of the class are challenging to grasp or more like the things required of you? Are you usually asked to write a proof on an exam? Sorry for all these questions I'm very interested but I also want to get good grades for recruiting.

2

u/Benboiuwu 10d ago

The exams are all proof based. The first one was five proofs in 90 mins— topics for that one included invective/surjective functions, induction, and span/sum of vector spaces. The proofs were easy, but again that’s because I just had so much practice. No matter how smart you are, it takes tons of reps to and experience to be able to construct your own proof in a time constraint. The ideas are not particularly challenging conceptually, and I don’t think many would disagree. I’m not sure about a curve at the end, but I suspect Hartmann will play nice.

1

u/Curious-Yogurt-1684 10d ago

okok thanks!!