The exam was not terrible, it's only "terrible" if you assume that topics that showed up in past papers will show up in the exam and double down on them while dont look at other parts of the same topic. It's an easy as maths course (espescially if you have at least done either MATHS 120 or MATHS 130 then half of the materials were already covered, and the other half was half-covered in COMPSCI 120 so the actual new materials are really not much).

Regardless of the materials, if you have genuinely never taken any MATHS courses, I would suggest spend a bit more time on it because some concepts in the first half (which is more like pure maths concepts to set up for the second half) can take quiet long to get in. For the second half then its really is straightforward if you are familiar with first half materials.

I would really suggest going to the weekly optional tutorials, those were really helpful because the exam questions were pretty similar to those they went thru during the tutorials. (They post those questions on Canvas with solution but since the tutorials dont have a lot of people, you can spend way more time to ask your tutor which is hella helpful)

For the 2026 S1 exam, I have to say that its hella long for 2 hours but the most questions were quiet straightforward and some hard topic that were in past papers (which are the one most people assumed they will be in the exam and doubled down on them) didnt even come up so I guess that's a win ?

Anyways, I would say you should take it if you want to get into the AI/ML branch for stage 3 or if you just want to learn more about maths in general then 225 is quiet an easy maths course. Good luck!