An Even Field?

Those who took the classes offered this semester included first-years who can no longer fill the requirement with a test alone, sophomores who failed the test last year and others who used the Core classes to fill concentration requirements.

Because students came to the courses with varying levels of math skills, the pacing of some courses was a challenge, professors and students say.

"Deductive Logic," for instance, threw together a mix of students who were fulfilling a Core requirement and those seriously interested in the course. The class was once offered by the philosophy department and is still required for philosophy concentrators. Both students and teaching staff noticed the situation.

"My experience was that a lot of the students were sophisticated math students, but lots of students were not prepared for the level of work required [but] found it quite fun and challenging and satisfying," Head TF Anthony B. Corsentino says. "The feedback was that it was more difficult then they expected a Core course to be."

Though QR 24 dealt with some complicated material that may have been beyond the mathematical background of some of its students, Huckman says the teaching staff was able to adjust to the varying abilities.

"[It makes] it a challenge to teach in some cases because of a broad range of student abilities," he says. "At the same time, a lot of times students who aren't applied math majors seems to do very well with understanding concepts. I was pleasantly surprised to see a more uniform ability."

Damian J. Moskovitz '01, who is not a philosophy concentrator but took the course because he found it interesting, said that some students found the math-intensive class difficult.