Linear Algebra: Yes, No?

[Insomnium]

Anyone here have experience with college courses in linear algebra? I'm thinking of taking it next semester but wanted to know just how hard it is since the advisers won't say much. So is it generally not too difficult or will i be having suicidal thoughts after the first couple of classes? Thanks for any help! By the way I already have had Calc if that helps at all.

 

[minendo]

Both of my roommates said it was easy.

 

[Anubis]

if you have ataken math up to calc 3 and possibily Descrete math. you will be fine. its like Calc 3.5

 

[gopunk]

easy as pie, but some people in my class just had the hardest time with it. dunno, hope you're not one of those people

 

[Random Variable]

Originally posted by: TheEvil1
if you have ataken math up to calc 3 and possibily Descrete math. you will be fine. its like Calc 3.5

You don't need three semesters of calculus to take a linear algebra class. One semester of calclus would in most cases be sufficient.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: Vespasian

Originally posted by: TheEvil1
if you have ataken math up to calc 3 and possibily Descrete math. you will be fine. its like Calc 3.5

You don't need three semesters of calculus to take a linear algebra class. One semester of calclus would in most cases be sufficient.

i don't recall using any calculus in my linear algebra class actually

 

[Insomnium]

Sweet, I'm gonna go check out the textbook tomorrow and consider it a bit more indepth. thx for the help.

 

[UCDznutz]

i took linear algebra at my college last semester. it was pretty easy and its not hard at all. You'd benefit greatly if you've had calculus too. i took both linear algebra and differential equations last semester, and DE was definately the harder of the two.

The only thing about Linear Algebra that troubled me was the proofs. I'd work for like 10 minutes on a problem for a quiz or something, get it wrong, and see the prof do it with like 3 steps. That would frustrate me like crazy!

 

[silverpig]

I found DE to be much easier. Of course I took the honours LA though. I was at a loss in that class because our prof was extremely rigourous and everything had to be perfect. He wouldn't show us the shortcuts or the practical way things worked; it was all from definition. My notes consisted of: theory: proof; thoery: proof; theory, lemma, lemma, proof, corrolary, proof.

I however re-took the class and found it to be simple the second time. Just make sure you follow along and don't miss a class. If you do, you'll be lost during the next one, and then the one after that as well, and then it just builds from there.

You may have to use your calc in LA though as the derivative is a linear operator....

 

[bUnMaNGo]

I also found DiffEqs to be a lot easier... I took one linear algebra class, and one DiffEqs/Linear Algebra class, and the latter was much easier (up until the linear algebra part). One thing I HATED about Linear Algebra was calculating the inverse of a matrix- you know how you just multiply it with an inverse matrix, and voila? Well, it wasn't that easy for me. You know how you go back and check the answers on an exam, right? Well to check your answer for an inverse matrix, you just multiply the matrix you got with the inverse matrix again and you should end up with the original matrix, right? Well I tried doing this like 980732498324 times on my final, and I got a different answer EVERY SINGLE TIME. I think I'm just stupid though, can't multiply correctly :| oh well. I liked discrete math and algorithms much better. Even inductive proofs. BUT NO LINEAR ALGEBRA. I couldn't stand computer graphics either with all the linear algebra you use with those transforms and stuff. GRR!

 

[quirky]

ppl who say linear algebra is ez doesnt know jack about linear algebra. the easy stuff are easy but the hard stuff are DAM hard.

its like saying geometry is easy. geometry the course may be easy, but theres a whole lot more to geometry than what courses teach you. ie can u solve differential equation using geometry?

 

[res1bhmg]

It's easy peesy.

 

[Evadman]

Linear algebra is easy as pie. I mean it, easy. Sleap through it.

 

[eakers]

i found it really fun and easy!

but im a math student.

(this is at the second year university level)

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: quirky
ppl who say linear algebra is ez doesnt know jack about linear algebra. the easy stuff are easy but the hard stuff are DAM hard.

its like saying geometry is easy. geometry the course may be easy, but theres a whole lot more to geometry than what courses teach you. ie can u solve differential equation using geometry?

i think those people (myself included) assumed he was referring to the intro course.

 

[quirky]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: quirky
ppl who say linear algebra is ez doesnt know jack about linear algebra. the easy stuff are easy but the hard stuff are DAM hard.

its like saying geometry is easy. geometry the course may be easy, but theres a whole lot more to geometry than what courses teach you. ie can u solve differential equation using geometry?

i think those people (myself included) assumed he was referring to the intro course.

yea but its still kinda annoying when ppl say things like "oh calculus is soo easy" after taking an easy calc professor.

 

[JayHu]

Took linear algebra 1 & 2, they weren't that hard. I mean they were difficult, and it's not as if I got really high marks, but I also didn't go to class. So it's fairly easy to learn from the textbook, eigenvectors and eigenspaces are usually easier to learn from the book than from the prof.
maybe that's just me though.
(this is at University of Waterloo)

 

[BigJohnKC]

It really depends on your prof. My Linear Algebra class was the hardest class I have ever taken. It wasn't the material that was hard, though, the prof that taught was, in fact, the devil, and made it hard on her students because she likes to torture people for all eternity, etc. Every assignment was the four to six hardest proofs in that section that she could find, her notes were a meandering mess of random thoughts, and the tests were over the application of Linear to real life. No one learned anything from her, you had to read the book and do other practice problems to understand the subject.

I later took a 3D computer graphics course, same material, and aced it. So it's all the prof, the teaching methodology that will determine it's difficulty. Good luck.