18.02

18.02: Multivariable Calculus is a general institute requirement (GIR) and as such it is required by all MIT undergraduate students to pass the course.

For those of you unsure what the differences are between the calc classes are, this is the rundown:

18.01: AP Calc AB+BC equivalent. Required prerequisite for 18.02
18.012: an accelerated version of the class for those that really like math.

18.02: standard class most students take freshman fall or spring. More details below.
18.022: an accelerated version of the class for those that really like math.

18.01a+18.02a: a slower paced version of the class through fall+IAP. Friends with bad Calc BC background took it,  the math majors loved it and the others didn't...

Also consult freshman advising groups for what they offer. I know concourse offers a version of 18.02 (CC.1802) and 18.01a/2a (CC.181A-CC.182A).

For MIT's Multivariable Calc material: 
To understand the concepts: my notes* (click link for pdf, warning: it's large!), watch OpenCourseware or Youtube...

This class was not easy to pass but that doesn't mean it was terrible difficult. I would highly recommend going to lecture and finding a good TA. For the large majority of the semester I went to both the head TA's recitations and my assigned recitations every week. This is not abnormal.

18.02 Structure:
Meet thrice a week (1 hr) for lecture and twice (1 hr) for recitation. Go to one with a good TA- not necessarily the one assigned to you.

Psets once a week with questions from the textbook (similar to high-school calculus questions) and a multitude of free response questions. Four Exams + a Final. Highly recommended to attend lecture or read the lecture notes online (they are good quality). I used an online textbook avaliable through a shared dropbox students passed around but it was not ideal.

I had Dr. John Bush for 18.02 in the fall of 2017**. That was an...interesting experience. He has a reputation to push students to their limits, and there was even an exam were not one of the >500 students in the class got a perfect score (which is saying something). Apparently when other professors teach the subject it is less intense...although we did get to use cheatsheets on the exam

If he is your professor, highly consider learning how to calculate the volume of a groin vault (the volume of intersection of two cylinders with axes at right angles) using triple integrals. He loves that thing, put it on our exams like three times.


Key to Maya's Notes: 
Pink post it notes are examples,
w/o means without,
~ means about/approximately

*Please keep in mind the notes on this website are more for storage/my brother's use so if the handwriting is a bit difficult in some areas review books, videos, or even textbooks are also great studying tools.
** While I did take this class on PNR my notes are NOT less detailed than normal (thanks Dr. Bush).