"You're expected to take it," he says. "I don'tknow if it's such a great expectation."

Etingof defends the necessity of Math 55, whichhe says helps structure the knowledge that manystudents come to Harvard with. According toEtingof, about 20 to 25 students enter with somuch mathematical background that they do not needto take the courses offered at the intermediate orlower levels.

"Before this course was created, we found thatstudents had a lot of knowledge, but that it wasnot systemized," he says. "So, they would jumpinto grad courses immediately, but without a firmbackground."

"We created course in calculus and linearalgebra, basic [concepts] in math, that wouldaddress these concepts in such a nontrivial anddeep way the people would still be interested intaking it," he says.

Nichols-Barrer, however, questions the need fora class like Math 55. He says a controversycurrently surrounds the choice students can makebetween Math 55 and 100-level courses, such as the122/123 track (first-year algebra), which meets atthe same time as Math 55.

"People don't need another calculus coursecoming straight out of high school," he says.

Williams agrees.

"If a person has had enough background so thathe or she can reasonably take Math 55, then he orshe can take upper-level math classes, or evengraduate classes," he says." There is no reasonfor there to be a freshman math class that coverswhat 55 does."

Math 55 is now an open enrollment course,although Etingof sets three prerequisites for hisstudents: "a great love of math, a great deal ofexperience with math and a great deal of time."

Etingof attributes much of the difficulty ofthe course to the homework.

"I give more homework than any otherundergraduate course," he says." I do give a lotof homework, but it's interesting, not technicaland routine."

"The lecture moves fast I don't follow anyparticular book; I rely on people being prepared,"Etingof adds.

Nichols-Barrer acknowledges that how wellstudents do in the class depends largely on theirbackground in mathematics.

"It totally depends on background," he says."It's ironic that the people who get the most outof it have had the most experience.

Students in Math 55 acquire that experience ina variety of ways.