MATH 1310 is not as difficult as many of the past reviews claim it to be, at least for Spring 2025. For context, I took AP Calculus AB but didn't score high enough to test out. I already had some background knowledge going into 1310, but many of my friends who had never taken calculus struggled greatly. If you fall into the same boat, I recommend taking the easier sequence (1190/1210).
The course syllabus gets tweaked almost every semester. For Spring 2025, your course grade was determined by your percentage in pre-class assignments, homework via the ALEKS software, four midterm knowledge checkpoints (midterm exams), and the final exam. The knowledge checkpoints test on specific learning targets, 6 core targets and around 21 non-core, and are graded out of 4 points, with 5 being the highest point value achievable. To get an A in the course, you have to have achieved at least 4 points on all 6 core and at least 20 non-core targets. What's nice about growth-based learning is that you can retake learning targets after the first checkpoint up to the final exam to get a higher score, although some graders can be strict with grade deductions.
This semester was the first that the ALEKS homework software was implemented. If ALEKS continues to be assigned in 1310, I absolutely recommend taking advantage of it throughout the semester. Many of the checkpoint questions reflect the ALEKS homework problems, allowing you to solve the problems at the level the graders are looking for, which means having to do fewer retakes. I will admit that ALEKS can be annoying when you answer incorrectly on and off, in which case office hours will give much more clarity with how to solve the problem. Because the ALEKS homework is designed to be done THROUGHOUT the semester, please do it THROUGHOUT the semester and not the day of the final exam; the amount of stress I witnessed hours before the final because of incomplete ALEKS homework could have been avoided if students did them as each learning target was introduced.
If you do the work and actively seek help from the learning assistants and instructors, you can secure an A in 1310. I managed to pull out an A+ because I put in the work, and I know you can too.

This class was extremely difficult. I finished with an A in the class but the amount of hours I put into studying was not worth it. If you have the option to take A Survey of Calculus I (1220), please take it. I had a graduate student as my instructor and he was an extremely kind person, but horrible at explaining the concepts. Most of the times he would dive into extremely theoretical proofs when teaching which would leave us even more confused. The lectures are not worth attending and your time is better spent doing the practice for each learning target in Canvas. The grading system is horrible, there are things called "core targets", and you must get a 4/4 on all of them to have the chance for an A. If you get a 3/4 on even one of them, you go down a whole letter grade. Don't even get me started on the final. You basically have to get a 100% on the final to get an A. I took Calculus AB in high school and it was a breeze, but this class was so much harder for no reason.

This course is godawful.

I had a 96 in this class and got an A- due to the "growth-based" grading scale. You can technically get a 96 in this class and still get a D. Arguably, the work isn't even that hard, they just grade it so bizarrely and harshly, and you will probably end up tanking your GPA (esp. because 1310 is 4 credits rather than 1210, which is 3) if you can't take advantage of the slightly easier final. Be prepared to submit a LOT of regrade requests and get a LOT of them denied. My instructor was a really nice guy who hated how the class was graded but couldn't do anything about it.

My school didn't do APs but I was good at math in highschool and this course KICKED MY ASS. Mostly because of the BS grading scale - prior to the final I had a C- with an 87%.

I don't know that 1210 is graded any differently, but just be warned to stay clear of any "growth-based grading" math class. There is no curve, what's in the syllabus is final.

I took Calc AB in high school and did end up getting an A in this course, however, it was the most in depth math class I have every taken. The grading scale is based off near-perfection, and although the course is said to be "growth based," the retakes are often completely different problems/types of problems then the original exam problems. Additionally, you need to earn almost all 4s on all learning targets by the end of the semester to get an A in the class. The final exam questions count as NEW questions (learning targets) which you can not retake, so you basically need to get 100% (all 4s) to have a shot/cushion at getting an A in the class, regardless of whether you're going into the final with all 4s or not. Further, there are "core targets" and you MUST have 4/4 on all 5 of them by the end of the semester, otherwise you will automatically be bumped down essentially a letter grade: if someone has 4 4/4 and 1 core target less than a 4, the highest grade you can earn in the course is a B+, regardless of whether or not all your other learning targets are prefect 4/4s.

An interesting change early on in the semester, was that the course coordinator did not allow instructors to see the exams before giving them. This was certainly interesting to us because the course coordinator teaches her own section of this class and can ultimately teach directly to the exams (that she creates) while other instructors can not. This is strange because the instructors are PhD students, and their reviews or student outcomes in their classes could potentially impact their success in their programs...???

If you need to take THIS SPECIFIC CLASS (and there is no way you can take an alternative like survey 1210) as a pre-req for your major, I would recommend doing the following: pay VERY close attention during class, ask a lot of questions and identify learning gaps as they come, NOT just right before exams, and study at least a week leading up to each exam by doing lots of different types of practice problems, since you never really can predict which type of example problem will be on the exams. Your instructors are ultimately here to help you and really do care about you, and they are knowledgable. DEVELOP STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEM!!!!!! It will really help you. If you have to take this class, you will succeed and you will be ok, but be prepared to do a substantial amount of studying and extra work outside of class.

Genuinely don't take this class; just take a survey of calc, 1210. It's not worth it; this class is 4 credits and will just tank your GPA if you literally haven't taken a harder than Calc class before. I took AP CALC BC and got an A; however, I wasn't able to take the exam due to personal reasons, and although the content of the class is the way they want you to answer each question for exams, it makes it near impossible to get all points, and with the harsh grading scale, it's not worth it. And please listen: if you have never taken Calc before, DO NOT take this course.

Genuinely don't take this class; just take a survey of calc, 1210. It's not worth it; this class is 4 credits and will just tank your GPA if you literally haven't taken a harder than Calc class before. I took AP CALC BC and got an A; however, I wasn't able to take the exam due to personal reasons, and although the content of the class is the way they want you to answer each question for exams, it makes it near impossible to get all points, and with the harsh grading scale, it's not worth it. And please listen: if you have never taken Calc before, DO NOT take this course.

Not sure why I'm not able to add instructor (Caelan Wang), but here goes:

This class is not for the weak. Would not recommend taking for an enjoyable math credit if you were a math person in high school. Not only is the class structure of talking at you called "interactive" and "engaging" by the professors, the outside help that sought for it made me less confident about my knowledge of the material. I personally would not recommend this if you have absolutely no experience in calculus like me, unless you are willing to do 90% of the teaching on your own. If you're struggling in this class, I would highly recommend using ChatGPT, Khan Academy, and P2L sessions to pick up the slack that the professors leave. Good luck!

I had credit for calc 1 from high school, and I can say that this class is 100% harder than high school calculus 1. The material isn't anything impossible, but it is all very in depth and you need a really good understanding of the material to do well. And because the class is taught by a grad student, I found my lectures to be nearly worthless. I basically taught myself everything I had to know from youtube and chat GPT. My grad student teaching the classes was a smart and nice guy, but he has no idea how to teach a class. Sometimes he would make mistakes on the board and we would have to correct him, sometimes he would write out long unnecessary proofs that would just confuse us even more.

The best way to do well is to have background knowledge from an actual teacher. If you don't, beware that you will probably need to teach yourself a lot on your own. Do the homeworks and really understand them, don't just get the answer without knowing why it is right. Getting an A is hard but not impossible.

#tCFFF24

ONLY TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU *NEED* TO ... I took this class as a first year thinking that it was the same as MATH 1210, as they are both seemingly equal prerequisites for many popular majors such as Economics, Commerce, and Biology.

However, this is far from the case. This class is much more theoretical and trig-intensive in its approach to calculus, and it demands a much more nuanced knowledge of the subject than MATH 1210. TAKE MATH 1210 INSTEAD.

Every other problem on the exams is a multi-step application of topics in the course, while MATH 1210 problems are typically a slight variation of what is given in class. The graduate students that teach these classes are largely apathetic in lecture, so office hours are crucial. If possible, meet with Daniel James frequently. He is the course coordinator and is the best at clearly and patiently explaining the topics and helping students formulate an approach to studying that is best for their learning style. Most of the work in this class was associated with pre-class homeworks and WebAssign, but I spent the bulk of my time that was dedicated to this class by studying for exams.

This course is a far cry from high school math. I went into this class having taken math through linear algebra in high school and MATH 1310 severely humbled me. It is largely the same concepts as high school classes, but the way in which it is 'taught' (flipped classroom style) and the level of understanding they demand for students to show on exams is above and beyond what you will have seen in high school. TAKE MATH 1210.

I took this class with a background knowledge of taking AP Calc AB in high school. However, this is completely different. First off, I would have done so much better if Professor Daniel James was my actual professor. If you end up having Pedro, though he is a nice guy, he does not teach well at all. He is a graduate student and does not really know how to prepare his students for the assessments. Also the difference in standard and growth based is so unfair and I did not have a good experience with this class at all. I recommend taking the lower level calc class if you need it for a prerequisite. I never want to take a calc class ever again.

Again, Daniel James is great and his office hours were super helpful. But if you get one of the graduate student, you are stuck.