What's the hardest college course you've ever taken?

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Spamela

Diamond Member
Oct 30, 2000
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i took 2 graduate level computer science classes one quarter while working full-time.

either one by itself would've been a bear.
 
Jul 12, 2001
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Physiological Foundations for Biomedical Engineers at Johns Hopkins....

that was ridiculus...the for things like the HW...they would be about 4 or 5 questions...at least 10 of us would get together to do it and we would work for 12+ hours straight and still only have like 3 of them done...

that class was ridiculusly hard

cell bio was 1 month of that class...biochem 1 month...then we got to the hard stuff
 

Sephy

Platinum Member
Dec 21, 1999
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Cell Biology and Genetics right now. I'm sure they only get harder from here...
 

brxndxn

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2001
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Quote
Originally posted by: FoBoT
i tried taking calculus 3 times

withdrew the first two times, failed the 3rd time, then quit trying

my math skillz are lame



everyone has a weakness

Me too.. Taking calc 3 for fourth term this summer.. passed it first time with a D, withdrew second time, failed third time (car wreck).. now, if I don't get an A in this course, I'm going to pull out my brain and give it to someone else.
 

oboeguy

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 1999
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Originally posted by: Mday
never really had a course i would consider hard... i've had classes where i just didnt study...

i've taken real analysis, undergrad introduction to topology, a complete undergrad abstract algebra sequence... nothing really hard there...

Riiiiight, abstract algebra and real analysis weren't hard. Sure, topology at an undergrad level is relatively easy, but whoever you are, the other two are not easy (I knew some truly brilliant folks and college and they had to work in those classes).

 

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
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Artificial Intelligence in Comp. Sci. :Q Although I ended up aceing the final due to pretty much a month of rehashing and studying, the sheer diversity of topics in a programming language completely new to me was killer. One minute problem solving with constraints, the next natural language understanding, then assumptive reasoning...

It didn't help that the professor of the course pronounced words like "back-chaining" as "purchini".
 

ryzmah

Senior member
Feb 17, 2003
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Originally posted by: oboeguy
Originally posted by: Mday
never really had a course i would consider hard... i've had classes where i just didnt study...

i've taken real analysis, undergrad introduction to topology, a complete undergrad abstract algebra sequence... nothing really hard there...

Riiiiight, abstract algebra and real analysis weren't hard. Sure, topology at an undergrad level is relatively easy, but whoever you are, the other two are not easy (I knew some truly brilliant folks and college and they had to work in those classes).

I found those easy as well - some people just have the knack for proof writing, and if they do they don't really struggle. I had some difficulty in graduate level abstract algebra, but that was because I had to spend all my time studying category theory.
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
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Advanced Introduction to Physics ('advanced' meaning they use Calc II, and I suck at calculus!)
 

DT4K

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2002
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My last 2 years of high school, I slacked off big time and skipped classes all the time. I still managed to keep at least a B average. When I first started college, I also skipped a lot of classes and managed to keep A's and B's.

Calculus was the first class I took that I would consider hard. The first two times I took it, I skipped a lot and realized a couple weeks in that I was lost, so dropped the class. The third time, I went to every class and did the homework and suddenly I just "got it". After that, it seemed pretty easy.

I actually really enjoyed Organic Chem and found it to be pretty easy. It did require a good amount of studying and memorization though.

Physical Chemistry was much harder, extremely boring, and was the reason I switched majors.

Discrete Structures for Computer Science was the hardest math class I have ever taken. It's all so theoretical and is so vastly different than any other math class I had taken. No caculators required because there are basically no numbers involved. It's more just logic theory.

Oracle DBA was hard only because there were so many details to remember.
 

Zombie

Platinum Member
Dec 8, 1999
2,359
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bahahahaha, if you think Discrete Math was hard just wait till you get to Turing Machine(Deterministic and Non-Deterministic)


oh god that was just pure hell. Calc is simple, look for patern apply formula....repeat
 

DT4K

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2002
6,944
3
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Originally posted by: Zombie
bahahahaha, if you think Discrete Math was hard just wait till you get to Turing Machine(Deterministic and Non-Deterministic)


oh god that was just pure hell. Calc is simple, look for patern apply formula....repeat

Yeah, we did Turing Machines.
But I'm done. Got my CS degree 2 years ago so no more school for me. Except of course studying for MCAD/MCSD, etc.
And I agree, calc was simple once I "got it".

 

eakers

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
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analytical chem (we called it anal chem).. it wasn't that hard but just soooo much work.
[i dropped it half way through and switched majors after a tiny nervous breakdown]
 

gopunk

Lifer
Jul 7, 2001
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Originally posted by: Zombie
bahahahaha, if you think Discrete Math was hard just wait till you get to Turing Machine(Deterministic and Non-Deterministic)


oh god that was just pure hell. Calc is simple, look for patern apply formula....repeat

psh. i'll take discrete math over calc any day. discrete math rules!
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,345
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I was a wuss in college. I never took anything above "college algebra", and never got involved in the engineering courses or any of the chemistry or physics classes.

 

cchen

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
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General Chemistry is probably the hardest class I ever took..... probably because no one teaches anything and then we were tested on random stuff.
 

onelin

Senior member
Dec 11, 2001
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hardest I've taken: Compiler Construction. (same as Compiler Design, I'm sure)

as for Discrete, I didn't find it very difficult, although if you got into the proofs, induction, etc, I could see why if you're not into math. At my college that's a separate class, Math Thought, which was significantly more challenging.