How to get into Honors Analysis at UChicago?

[zyj]

At my high school, I've already taken AP Calculus BC both Physics C exams, and I got fives in all of them. My school doesn't really have any other hard courses, so I figure I could spend my senior year doing a lot of self-studying. Would Spivak's Calculus and Velleman's How to Prove It be enough to study out of if my goal is to try to get into the Honors Analysis sequence, or are there different and/or better books out there?

 

[dustbin]

Do you have options to cross-enroll at a university or community college?

 

[Jorriss]

Are you talking upper division honors analysis or honors calculus which is proof based? I assume the latter since you are in high school and for that, the prereq is usually a 5 on the AP exam.

If you mean upper division honors analysis, then spivak calculus + a book on proofs would be good.

 

[WannabeNewton]

The entrance to honors analysis I - III sequence at UChicago, if you're an incoming freshman, requires you to take a placement test on O - Week which is mostly comprised of calc II. I'm sure you already know this but Honors Analysis at UChicago is easily the hardest class (forget hardest MATH class haha) in the country for an undergraduate if not tied with Harvard's 55. So if you're going to enter it as a freshman make sure you prepare well. The track is usually entered by sophomores.

 

[zyj]

Are there copies of previous placement tests floating around? I'm just curious what level of content is on there.

 

[WannabeNewton]

http://www.math.uchicago.edu/undergraduate/placement.pdf that is all I could find, it has a list of the topics at the very end. It is pretty much what you would encounter in a typical BC course. Have you already been accepted and just waiting for O - Week?

 

[zyj]

No, I still have another year of high school to go.

 

[WannabeNewton]

No, I still have another year of high school to go.

Then you should worry about getting into UChicago first imo. The calculus placement exam is what determines if you are recommended for honors analysis or not and its mostly Calc BC stuff and you have taken that. The most you can do now for the test is review your Calc BC material and, for the honors analysis class itself, self - study spivak apostol etc. so that you will actually be ready for it because, as most people know, along with Harvard's 55 it is a legendary class with regards to its difficulty. You can always take honors calculus freshman year by the way and enter the honors analysis track later.

 

[zyj]

Alright, thanks for the advice.

 

[jgens]

Assuming you get accepted at UChicago, I would not stress over the placement exam. The computational parts of the exam are pretty trivial if you have a decent grasp of calculus and the proof-based parts of the exam are pretty simple too. If you read something like Spivak's calculus and work the problems in that book, then you will be more than prepared for the placement exam.

 

[deluks917]

Read Spivak's Calculus. Do the problems. This is good advice even if you do not get in UChicago but are seriously interested in math. It is strong prep to take the course.

 

[zyj]

Alright. I was already planning on studying Spivak anyways even if I don't get accepted, since I figure I'd just do an Honors Calculus/Analysis sequence elsewhere.

 

[WannabeNewton]

Alright. I was already planning on studying Spivak anyways even if I don't get accepted, since I figure I'd just do an Honors Calculus/Analysis sequence elsewhere.

Make sure the uni has it because not all unis offer an honors math track. If you want something that is still quite tough check out UMichigan's honors math track.

 

[zyj]

Make sure the uni has it because not all unis offer an honors math track. If you want something that is still quite tough check out UMichigan's honors math track.

Do you have any other recommendations for challenging honors tracks? I've sort of put together a short-list, and all of them have honors options one way or another, but it's still sort of preliminary.