APMA 3140

This class is not so conceptually difficult as it is tedious. Each problem often takes a full page worth of work and it is *very* easy to make a silly mistake along the way. The grading is quite harsh and prescribed practice is sparse, so ensure you are really keeping up with the content, not just completing the assignments. The tests can be pretty hard but the review packets are really helpful and are pretty much just test questions with different numbers plugged in. The little numerical things you get to do along the way that characterize every APMA class are fairly easy and fun, spare for having to work with Bessel functions in Python :(. This is one of those classes where you don't really understand the power of everything you've learned along the way until the end when it all comes together.

Despite this class being conceptually difficult to understand, the problems that you actually solve on exams and homeworks are actually very formulaic and easy to understand. Professor Fernando does a great job explaining how to solve everything in class and she is very easy to approach with questions. She often goes around the room and makes sure that everyone understands what they are doing and tries to help the best that she can. Despite being one of the highest level math classes I have taken, this class was considerably easier than Calculus and ODE. As long as you go to class, pay attention, and do the CW's, everything else will be easy to figure out and solve.