This was a pretty easy class. You will find that the STUFF you have to learn and the METHODS for learning how to solve these problems, are completely stupid nowadays. Ultimately, the class teaches you methods for solving problems (such as finding the roots for an equation, or the max and min) which were developed by civil engineers and mathemeticians during the days of the Romans and Greeks (or thereabouts) and require you to do about 50 simple calculations and about 30 minutes to do... when these days we can solve the problem in a microsecond using a computer or calculator, and come up with a much for accurate and precise answer. So, I have no idea why they are even teaching this course at LSU, but it's still really easy. The professor was okay also. The second half of the class you will learn Matlab, but even that was pretty simple and straightforward.
Oh, and you definitely DON'T have to buy the book (which costs like $180!). I didn't and I still made a B. Just go to class and take notes. The class notes and powerpoint slides which he posts on Moodle are sufficient. The only time the book was even used were for 2 homework assignments (we had to solve a problem listed at the end of the given chapter), and all I did for that was go to Chimes, open the class book and snap a picture of the problem with my cell phone. Bam, $180 saved.
