I am planning to skip precalc I and go to precalc II good or bad?

[xjinaxleex]

Skipping Precalc I and taking precalc II?
I am in college and we have two parts of precalculus here..part I and part II. i guess precalc I covers the introductory, basics of precalc... i was wondering if i will be okay if i skip precalc I and go to precalc II? i never took precalculus but i DID take trigonometry, and calculus I in high school. will i b okay if i go to precalc II w/o taking precalc I? I am fairly good at math but yeah i need feedback thanks

 

[rocomath]

i guess precalc I covers the introductory

You may want to find out exactly what it covers before you think about skipping it.

 

[symbolipoint]

PreCalculus 1 and PreCalculus 2 ? Find out what topics each of these contains. You would or should want all of the College Algebra AND Trigonometry components of the typical one-semester PreCalculus course.

Could you start Calculus 1 after finishing the PreCalculus 1 course? If you can, then you might try doing PreCalculus 2 during the same semester as you have Calculus 1.

 

[mr_coffee]

if you took calculus in high school why would you start out in pre-calc in college?
Calc I in high school should be more than enough to take calc I in college.

I found pre-calc not very helpful for calculus I, basically pre-calc was like algebra III.
Yes algebra is very very important but its the type of thing, if you forget, look it up.

 

[rbj]

i never heard of two semesters of pre-calc. it might be interesting to know what is covered in each.

in my school, they called in College Algebra and Trigonometry and you took them both at the same time so you could take Calc 1 the next semester. (i took neither and started with Calc 1 my first semester.)

 

[dpackard]

I don't understand why you wouldn't just take a Calculus course if you've already taken one in HS

 

[mr_coffee]

A university is a business. Even if they told you YES you should take all of the pre-calc's you probably didn't need too. If your engineering or science your going to be way behind if you didn't start out in calc 1. The longer your in school the more money they make.

When I got to college they recommend I take pre-calc I said f that. I took calc 1 in high school and did great, and got all A's in calc 1-3. If I would have taken pre-calc I would be quite behind because all my courses require calc 1.

 

[mr_coffee]

A university is a business. Even if they told you YES you should take all of the pre-calc's you probably didn't need too. If your engineering or science your going to be way behind if you didn't start out in calc 1. The longer your in school the more money they make.

When I got to college they recommend I take pre-calc I said f that. I took calc 1 in high school and did great, and got all A's in calc 1-3. If I would have taken pre-calc I would be quite behind because all my courses require calc 1.

 

[zhentil]

Why is your university recommending that you take precalculus at all? There is NO university that requires all incoming students to take two semesters of precalculus before calculus (how on Earth would math majors ever graduate?). What some do, however, is require precalculus if your Math ACT score is low. This is just a precaution.

Poor universities. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they want you to take a pre-req, they're money-grubbing. But if they don't, students call it a weed-out class and accuse the university of trying to fail everyone.

 

[symbolipoint]

Why is your university recommending that you take precalculus at all? There is NO university that requires all incoming students to take two semesters of precalculus before calculus (how on Earth would math majors ever graduate?). What some do, however, is require precalculus if your Math ACT score is low. This is just a precaution.

Poor universities. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they want you to take a pre-req, they're money-grubbing. But if they don't, students call it a weed-out class and accuse the university of trying to fail everyone.

Outside of using ACT or SAT, a university has its own assessment system. In case you don't pass above that assessment, obey the recommendation for course placement that the counseling or admission department tells you.

One way to pass above the PreCalulus course requirement for Calculus 1 is to enroll in and succeed in PreCalculus; you need to have the elementary function skills for Calculus 1. If you find PreCalculus to be difficult, then you will also find Calculus 1 to be difficult. If you find PreCalculus to be not so difficult, not easy immediately to know if you would or would not find Calculus 1 to be difficult.

If you characterize PreCalculus as a weed-out class, then you can beat the weed-out effect if you are willing to study it hard, and study it again on your own, in case you found it to be so difficult. If you want to be a Math major, then finding PreCalculus to be a weed-out means that many other Math courses will also be weed-outers. Your staying a Math major depends then on how hard and how long you are willing to keep studying & restudying until you effectively learn.

The effect of PreCalulus may be a weed-out course; but the intent is really to ensure good prerequisite proficiency for Calculus 1.