This course is pretty much an extension of math 265/249. I would say the difficulty is higher than that of calc 1; however, still doable if you put in lots of effort and time. Because calc 2 is required for many different science programs, the profs are generally mindful that math is not everybody’s niche, and so the course is designed to be manageable for everyone.

The course content is split up into three sections: integration techniques, sequences and series, and multivariable calculus. If you took calc in high school, you probably covered most of the integration techniques in the first unit. Sequences and series was definitely harder because there are a lot of different theorems, divergence tests, etc, that you have to know when to apply. That being said, it is definitely still doable if you do lots of practice. The last section is multivariable calculus, which first touches a bit on partial derivatives, and then does integration with multiple variables. I found this unit the most interesting of the three, although it took a lot to wrap my brain around all the 3-dimensional graphs that many questions heavily rely on.

Formally, my professor was Mark Bauer, but I attended the two lecture sections in about a 50/50 split, so I’m also going to touch on having Jerrod Smith. Firstly, they are both INCREDIBLE professors, so you really can’t go wrong with either one. This semester it was a shared D2L shell between the two sections, so notes for both classes were posted, plus additional resources and overall everything was very organized. That being said, there were some minor differences in their notes and teaching style. Jerrod uses fill-in-the-blank notes, with structured definitions, examples, pictures, etc. I particularly enjoyed attending his lectures at the beginning of new topics, because I felt it gave me lots of structured notes to look back on when I needed to for reference. Mark usually starts with c...read more

Practice is key! Take the opportunity to actually try the practice questions when they let you try them on your own.

As far as some proofs go, half are very easy to understand and apply to problems while the other half are ridiculously challenging. Quizzes were easy. Each assignment had at least two proof questions that nobody seemed to be able to get 100% correct. Mark’s a great lecturer as well as a good human being. However, be sure to attend lectures - the notes he posts won’t be enough to help you understand what’s going on. This course requires a $100+ textbook that is impossible to find online. It doesn’t contain any solutions and most of the assignment questions will come directly from it.