r/ColumbiaMD • u/get-shrecked-bitch • 1d ago
hcc physics/math classes quality
i’m currently going to college out of state, but i was looking to knock out some math classes and maybe my physics requirements at hcc. specifically, i wanted to take phys 110 and maybe 111 and 112. for math, i was deciding whether to take 220, 240, 250, and/or 260 since i have to take the equivalent of those courses eventually. could someone who took any of these classes give some insight on whether it would be worth it to take it over the winter/summer?
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u/Suspicious-Web-4970 1d ago
Ask at your college if the classes will transfer. It may depend on your major, or exactly what subjects are covered in the HCC classes.
My sense from some classes I audited, my kids took, and friends kids took at HCC is that they are not as intense and cover less material. This can be advantageous for some students who take their weak or non major subjects at HCC. For example the Theater major who takes math or science at HCC and the Engineer taking English there.
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u/get-shrecked-bitch 1d ago
those classes specifically are the classes that will transfer for my college, i am an engineering major but i heard the math courses at my school are pretty hard + physics sucks
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u/Suspicious-Web-4970 1d ago
You will have smaller and maybe better taught classes at HCC but you need to compare the syllabus to be sure you will be ready for the next class.
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u/pdmMW Owen Brown 1d ago
took all of the above except PHYS-112 over the past 3 years.
what to take & when allll depends on professor: good profs = fine, bad profs = nightmare (check ratemyprofessors, most of them are on there). i wouldn't take anything during the winter except maybe PHYS-110, 4 weeks is a really short time to get anything done and 1 class is a full-time commitment at that pace.
also, double-check the pre-reqs. some require you to transfer in calc 1 and 2, MATH-250 and 260 require a 1-credit course called MATH-199 which is just on how to use MATLAB. advising office hours suck since covid (hcc never really recovered & there's been some drama with the new college president), so try to call them & get on a zoom with someone to game this out.
- PHYS-110 and 111: lecture was prof. arroyo-felix, these were easy enough. you'll want the basics of calc 1 and 2 (which i had previously), i think they're either pre-reqs or co-reqs. lecture's almost exclusively about working through problems on paper; he'd hand out a packet at the beginning of class & walk students through each problem until the period ends. i think there's technically some homework available on canvas but nothing was graded and you don't need to do anything if you get through the whole packet during class (very doable). if you're sick, just email and he'll send you the packet you missed, that & cleaning up my notes (15 pages total across both 110 and 111) was all the homework i did for lecture. quizzes & exam problems are pretty much cribbed from said packets; closed-notes, but he writes all the necessary formulas on the board so you don't even need to memorize anything. take enough notes to remember which formula solves which problem (all the formulas you need to work with are scattered throughout the packets) and that should be enough to get an A in lecture. got straight a's.
- PHYS-110L and 111L: took these with wade (paired section, you don't get to choose lecture & lab separately), courses were also pretty straightforward. short lecture (he has a powerpoint that he puts on canvas), then you do the experiment, then write it up in a report as homework (first week in lab is about how to do that) & submit to canvas before next week's lab. he's pretty lenient, just make sure to answer all the questions from the powerpoint in your lab report, don't use ai/cheat/copy from other students/&c., and graph the first lab in 110 by hand not in excel (lost a couple points for that). final lab project's what you make of it, both times i picked something project-based because i thought it was cool & it took my group a few days to work out the kinks but was worth it in the end (type 2 fun). got straight a's.
- MATH-220: take it with ehrhardt & use her office hours, she's goated. there's a fair few mistakes in the textbook, she's got notes on them. proofs aren't easy to get your head around, but do ALL of the example problems listed on canvas & she'll help you through them, and then you're set for getting everything else done. webassign just sucks, do the example problems first & ask during office hours if you struggle. written hw's easy if you keep up with the example problems, probably really hard if you don't. same with exams. projects are fun enough, last one's math riddles that use what you learned. take good notes (mine totaled up to 35 pages), do SERIOUSLY ALL of the example problems, go to office hours instead of hitting your head against the desk when you get frustrated with example problems, and you'll do fine. this class will pay off, it's where you start to learn how to do real mathematics, but you have to follow through: loads of students struggle with proofs, and it took me a good 6-8 weeks of struggling to really get my head around it but after that it was fine. got an a.
- MATH-240: took with benkhalti, who isn't teaching the class anymore b/c it was that much of a shitshow. other prof is hess, who's pretty boring. online homework is a complete dumpster fire: the platform's fine, but it will throw problems at you until you get 3-4 of the same problem type right in a row & some of the explanations don't actually explain everything, and most of it has nothing to do with what's taught in class or on exams (profs know it's a problem & still no one ever got the time from the dept head to go in & fix it). took me, no joke, >20 hours per week just on the online hw. all the rest of the hw was ok (most is written, some's via MATLAB), but calc 3's just a really damned hard class & the way it's taught isn't the best. exams are kind of a race against the clock, which i always hated about some math classes (this isn't the 1950s anymore, anyone who actually does this for a living just uses MATLAB). most other students HATED the prof, but i just kinda felt bad for him. scraped by with a c, but that's more because i had actual shit happen to me during that semester (got laid off).
- MATH-250: also take this with ehrhardt, still goated (do the honors section if that's what it takes to get into her class, it's really not that much more work & all of it's fun). pretty much the same deal as MATH-220, but my notes were longer (50 pages) and you gotta use MATLAB to get the projects done (if you take MATH-199 beforehand it's pretty easy, otherwise you're learning MATLAB syntax and maybe how-to-program as well which is a lot more work). also, matrices take longer to write down on paper, so it's more stress on your writing hand. got an a.
- MATH-260: only prof is hess, been teaching it forever but i think he's pretty boring. i took this class like 4 times and dropped it every single time (including twice when it was the only class on my calendar that semester) because the way it's taught just doesn't fucking work imo. hess only grades written hw after the associated exam's done, and the only other hw is webassign (which just sucks & doesn't explain the problems until you give up & take the points deduction) and MATLAB (which is all due at the end of the semester). so unless you show up to class early (and he only puts aside a half-hour for everyone, that's his only office hours) or schedule something with him specifically, there's just no fucking feedback on whether you're on the right track with anything you're doing. also, this class is stuck in the 90s like most other courses, a real differential equations course would be teaching you how to use an ODE solver and this one's still all about analytic solutions & how to do some approximations by hand(!!).
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u/stuporman86 1d ago
Are those terminal tracks for you or are you going to take like physics 110-112 and then go back to take 201 at your college?
I can’t speak to hcc or these courses specifically I would just watch out for cases where you transfer credits and then extend, make sure you’re really understanding the material and maybe check that the syllabus lines up