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What classes Should I take my first SEMESTER?
What classes Should I take my first SEMESTER?
"Save your AC course for a tough semester. AC courses are meant to be the fun and interesting." - Lizzette, Team Emerald, PREP 2018
"ESPM 155AC: Good for AC and upper division humanities " - Edgar, Team Sapphire, PREP 2018
"GEOG 50AC, E25 (don't leave it for later), any design class, and either first or second semester take E157 AC, any math with Alexander Paulin." - Ian, Team Emerald, PREP 2018
"Ethnic Studies 159AC " - Alex, Team Ruby, PREP 2018
"ME Scholars Program or major equivalent 1 unit class." - Andy, Team Emerald, PREP 2018
"Data 8, Math 1A/B , Chem 1A " - Gustavo, Team Ruby, PREP 2018
"Data8, math 1a " - Uriel, Team Ruby, PREP 2018
"Math 1A" - Jacky, Team Ruby, PREP 2018
"BioE10 " - Anonymous, Team Emerald, PREP 2018
"Finish your general education courses " - Ethelbert, Team Emerald, PREP 2018
"CS61A, Math 1A " - Farhiya, Team Sapphire, PREP 2019
"If you want an easy and fun ethics course then take CS 195!" - Alvaro, Team Sapphire, PREP 2019
"CS61A, Math 1A, EE16A, Math 1B, CS 61b, English 135AC " - Melissa, Team Sapphire, PREP 2019
"Math 1A/1B with Paulin, ENGIN 1 or take a fun DeCal class! " - Chernelle, Team Emerald, PREP 2019
"Try to take your R1A as soon as possible if you need to take it. My American Cultures class (AC) is also very easy and a good break from stem classes. I took ETHSTD C73AC. " - Kaitlyn, Team Ruby, PREP 2019
"You need a solid foundation in math, complete the next math course on your curriculum, (1A, 1B, 54, 53) " - Alex, Team Ruby, PREP 2019
"For my fellow CivE's, I highly recommend taking CE70 during the Fall with Prof. Sitar and CE11 in the Spring with Prof. Horvath. In both of these courses you will be introduced to a large variety of sub-disciplines within CE and you might find one that you very much like! Both professors are absolutely amazing and their coursework is interesting and genuinely rewarding to learn. " - Roberto, Team Ruby, PREP 2019
"I took both Korean 1A and 1B in my first year. Both were fun classes that fulfilled lower division humanities requirements. It isn't hard to get an A which helps boost your GPA because the class is 5 units. More units means more weight on your GPA. The class is an hour every day with weekly assignments, but it's not too difficult. " - Daniel, Team Emerald, PREP 2019
"* this technically isn't strictly for 1st semester, but thought I'd put it here *
I'm currently pursuing Berkeley's Certificate in Design, which entails taking courses offered by the Jacobs Institute of Design as well as other departments at Berkeley. This is kind of like the stuff you guys do during the Jacobs sessions, except it's a full-on course and there are many different topics. I took DES INV 21, which is about visual communications & sketching - I really loved this course because I learned a lot about how to hand-sketch, make professional-looking posters, infographics, and other designs, etc. If you're considering the Certificate or looking for some courses that are fewer units, check out DES INV courses.
My 1st schedule was CS61A, math 53, R1B. Very doable, I had time to do things like hackathons, projects, which I enjoyed. " - Ashley, Team Sapphire, PREP 2018
"Data 8, a math class (2 technicals), an easy Humanities/Social Science/English class (like Col Writ 25AC), and E 92.
If you're trying to decide which math class to take, skip whatever material you feel most confident in, which isn't necessarily reflected by a test score. If you're still unsure, try going to both math classes during the first 2 weeks of the semester and see which one you're more comfortable with. For me, I got a 5 on the AP Calculus AB test, but I also felt super confident in my Calculus AB skills, so took Math 1B my first semester and it went very well! I went to both Math 1A and Math 1B lectures for the first week, and I liked what I was learning in 1B.
Also, be careful which English course you choose. Berkeley has the #1 English program in the country, which is a fancy way of saying that some classes can get pretty tough. Same thing for most humanities courses. I like to use Berkeley Time to see the grade distributions of the class and Rate my Professors to see what other people thought of the professor.
Lastly, E 92 is an easy 1 unit class. 1 hour a week, and just sign in and you pass. You also get to listen to different engineers from industry talk about what they do each week, which is pretty interesting. Decals are also pretty fun! " -Tyler, Team Ruby, PREP 2018
What classes Should I not take my first SEMESTER?
What classes Should I not take my first SEMESTER?
"E7 or Physics unless you’re confident in yourself simply because it’s easier with others around you " - Connor, Team Ruby, PREP 2018
"Don't take Physics 7A your first semester, take it in your second when you have a feeling of how Cal works. " - Alex, Team Ruby, PREP 2019
"CS61A and another rigorous technical. " - Lizzette, Team Emerald, PREP 2018
"Don’t take EE16A your first semester unless you have a strong basis in Math " - Melissa, Team Sapphire, PREP 2019
"Chem 1A if you can skip it. Depends on how difficult your classes are. I would say 2-3 hard/medium ones and maybe one easy, if you feel like it." - Edgar, Team Sapphire, PREP 2018
"Chem 1A with Stacy, Physics 7A with DeWeese. " - Ian, Team Emerald, PREP 2018
"Physics 7A, E7. If you can, test out of Chem 1A " -Tyler, Team Ruby, PREP 2018
"Combination of physics and chemistry is horrible " - Ethelbert, Team Emerald, PREP 2018
"Physics 7A " - Jacky and Gustavo, Team Ruby, PREP 2018
"Physics " - Uriel, Team Ruby, PREP 2018
"Honestly, I would not recommend CE92 or CE98. Prof. Variano is a great guy, but the other students and I never did much in those courses. They very much lectures about various topics in CE, but I found the coursework that I diin CE70 and CE11 to be more in depth, technical explorations of CE. Moreover, CE70 and CE11 fulfill requirements for our major while CE98 and CE92 do not. Unless you're in need of units, I do not recommend CE98 or CE92. " - Roberto, Team Ruby, PREP 2019
"Note to BioE's: I would stray from taking Chem 3A first semester if you already pass out of chem 1A, as the fast-pace of this course, as well as lack of fellow first-year peers taking the course may make it difficult to keep up.
Nevertheless, I believe anyone can be successful in that class with the proper steps taken. " - Natalie, Team Diamond, PREP 2018
"If you are in an engineering major that doesn't really need chemistry (i.e. MechE or CivE) and can test out of Chem1A and Chem 1AL with a 3 or higher on the AP test, do it. The class is weeder which means it's unnecessarily difficult so your GPA will definitely go down, but if you have to take it, don't worry. Many people don't do well in that class.
Physics 7A and E7 also. " - Daniel, Team Emerald, PREP 2019
"Don't take too many units your 1st semester (12-14u is good, as suggested by ESS advisors), especially if you're EECS and are coming in with a lot of AP credits. You won't be "behind" at all, make sure you take the time to really acclimate to Berkeley's rigor of coursework. If you feel that 12 units is a breeze, you can do other things like projects, hackathons, join a club/organization (e.g. SWE, HES), volunteer, etc. Those give you experience you can't really get from classes. 1u = 3 hrs work per week.
Do take only 2 technical classes your 1st semester. "Technical" refers to a STEM course that you use to fulfill major requirements (not counting R1B/HSS etc.), e.g. math 1B, CS61A, phys 7A, etc. Everyone I know who took 3+ techs their 1st semester did not have a good time.
If you're not a morning person and/or you commute, don't take 8 or 9 ams, unless the only other option is some horrible professor who teaches poorly or gives all Fs or something. " - Ashley, Team Sapphire, PREP 2018
How Many Units should I take?
How Many Units should I take?
PREP 2018:
PREP 2018:
How many classes?
How many classes?
PREP 2018:
PREP 2018:
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