Virginia Tech study guides, course by course
Virginia Tech's gateway courses are built around common structures: the big math courses run common-time midterms and finals across all sections, with computer-based gateway exams at the Math Emporium, while engineering students move through a standardized first-year sequence before declaring a major. Because major declaration is competitive for engineering and CS, the intro-course GPA carries real stakes — and the courses themselves reward steady weekly problem work over exam-week heroics.
Virginia Tech courses use a subject abbreviation plus a four-digit number — MATH 1225, CS 2114, ENGE 1215 — where the first digit tracks year level. Some lectures pair with separately numbered labs (CHEM 1035 with the 1045 lab), and the math gateways add computer-based proficiency exams through the university's Math Emporium.
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MATH 1225 — Calculus of a Single Variable I
MATH 1225 is Virginia Tech's Calculus I — limits, derivatives, applications of differentiation, and the start of integration — the gateway for engineering, science, and CS students. Grading runs through four common-time midterms outside class hours, a common final, online homework, and computer-based gateway exams at the Math Emporium.
MATH 1226 — Calculus of a Single Variable II
MATH 1226 continues Virginia Tech's calculus sequence — integration techniques, applications of integrals, sequences and series, and parametric and polar topics — under the same common-exam structure as 1225, with Emporium gateway exams on integration skills.
MATH 2114 — Introduction to Linear Algebra
MATH 2114 is Virginia Tech's first linear algebra course — systems of equations, matrix algebra, vector spaces, linear transformations, eigenvalues — required across engineering, CS, and the mathematical sciences, with sections that lean on common assessments and online homework.
MATH 2204 — Introduction to Multivariable Calculus
MATH 2204 extends Virginia Tech's calculus sequence to several variables — partial derivatives, gradients, optimization, multiple integrals, and an introduction to vector calculus — required for most engineering and physical science majors after MATH 1226.
MATH 2214 — Introduction to Differential Equations
MATH 2214 is Virginia Tech's ordinary differential equations course — first-order equations, linear second-order equations, systems, and Laplace transforms — a core requirement across engineering that puts the full calculus sequence to work on the equations engineering models are made of.
Computer Science
CS 1114 — Introduction to Software Design
CS 1114 is Virginia Tech's first course for CS majors, teaching programming from an object-oriented perspective in Java — classes and objects from the start, software testing as a graded habit, and program design rather than just syntax. Performance here matters for the competitive CS major path.
CS 1064 — Introduction to Programming in Python
CS 1064 is Virginia Tech's Python programming course for non-CS majors — variables, control flow, functions, lists and dictionaries, and file handling — popular as a Pathways elective and as practical preparation for data work across majors.
CS 2114 — Software Design and Data Structures
CS 2114 is the second course in Virginia Tech's CS sequence — object-oriented design in depth plus the core data structures (lists, stacks, queues, trees, hash tables) in Java, with substantial projects graded by an autograder that scores your test coverage and style alongside correctness.
CS 2505 — Introduction to Computer Organization I
CS 2505 takes Virginia Tech CS students below Java — C programming, pointers and memory, data representation, and how programs actually use the machine — with assignments developed and tested on the department's Linux (rlogin) systems.
CS 2506 — Introduction to Computer Organization II
CS 2506 continues Virginia Tech's systems sequence from 2505 down to the architecture — assembly language, the processor datapath, pipelining, caching, and virtual memory — the course where CS students learn what the hardware actually does with their code.
CS 3114 — Data Structures and Algorithms
CS 3114 is Virginia Tech's heavyweight data structures and algorithms course — advanced trees, hashing, graphs, sorting, and algorithm analysis — built around a small number of large, individually-written Java projects with a reputation as the most time-consuming coursework in the major.
Chemistry
CHEM 1035 — General Chemistry (with CHEM 1045 lab)
CHEM 1035 is Virginia Tech's first general chemistry course — stoichiometry, atomic structure, bonding, thermochemistry, and the properties of matter — taken by engineering and science students, typically alongside the separate 1-credit CHEM 1045 lab. ALEKS placement gates enrollment for incoming students.
CHEM 1036 — General Chemistry II (with CHEM 1046 lab)
CHEM 1036 completes Virginia Tech's general chemistry sequence — kinetics, equilibrium, acids and bases, thermodynamics, and electrochemistry — typically taken with the separate CHEM 1046 lab by science majors and pre-health students continuing past 1035.
Physics
PHYS 2305 — Foundations of Physics I
PHYS 2305 is Virginia Tech's calculus-based mechanics course with lab — kinematics, Newton's laws, energy, momentum, and rotation — required across engineering and the physical sciences, usually taken alongside or after MATH 1225.
PHYS 2306 — Foundations of Physics II
PHYS 2306 continues Virginia Tech's calculus-based sequence into electricity and magnetism — fields, potential, circuits, magnetism, induction, and waves — with lab, required across engineering and the physical sciences after 2305.
Biological Sciences
Economics
ECON 2005 — Principles of Economics (Microeconomics)
ECON 2005 is Virginia Tech's introductory microeconomics — supply and demand, elasticity, consumer and producer behavior, and market structures — taught in large lectures and required for business-track students and many other majors as the first half of the principles pair.
ECON 2006 — Principles of Economics (Macroeconomics)
ECON 2006 is the macroeconomics half of Virginia Tech's principles pair — GDP, inflation, unemployment, aggregate demand and supply, and fiscal and monetary policy — delivered in large lectures with exams carrying most of the grade, typically after ECON 2005.
Engineering Education
English
Psychology
Accounting and Information Systems
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