College Algebra in the summer, anyone?

ThatPoshGirl · Jul 8, 2008

Congrats on your As (both of you or all of you, as the case may be)! Summer As are well earned for sure.

I'm new to this thread but I took a 5-week precalculus course this summer and got an A. I'm very excited about it. I've already been hired to tutor college algebra during the fall and might see if I can bump it up to precalculus I.

What did your college algebra class cover? The one I took over the fall was dimensional analysis, financial math, exponential growth and decay, combinitorics, probablility, right angle trig, expected value, logs and some other stuff that escapes me right now.

Precalc was a lot more striaght forward, mostly various kinds of functions with some circle equations, exponential growth and decay, and asymptotes thrown in for fun. I learned how to love my ti-84.

I love math more than is reasonable. I only took precalc for fun, it wasn't required. I hope to get up to calc III eventually, but I don't know if I can fit those classes into my schedule. I'm going to be double majoring in nursing and philosophy when I transfer and that will probably take all my time. But a girl can dream.

Exponential growth and decay is my favorite thing ever btw. Although molarity has found a soft spot in my heart recently.

FutureNS · Jul 21, 2008

i recently completed math 903 (beginner's algebra) and math c (intermediate algebra). i took math c in a winter session three week course, that was very very hard. the only math i have left is math 10 elementary statistics and then no more maths. feel free to ask math questions, i remember most of it.

i too have to take beginners algerbra. they said i could try to test out because it will take me 1 year just to get all the math out of the way. do you think i should try and test out of beginners algebra and test into college math or should i start where i tested into??? i just hate to have to be in math a whole year but i don't want to get into college math and fail out.

compassionate1 · Jul 22, 2008

I too just completed Pre-Algerbra last week. I am not too great with math either. I also have to take a year of math to get credit for one class I need. It stinks, but I feel like at least I am going to school and am on the right path. p.s. my final grade was a B, so if you put your mind to it you will figure it out.

ThatPoshGirl · Jul 23, 2008

I highly, highly, highly recommend a book called Practical Algebra: A Self-Teaching Guide and a software product called "Algebra: Solved!"

When I originally took my college's placement exam I tested into Algebra I, but was one question away from having to go into pre-algebra and needed PreCalc to take the science classes I need. I used the above mentioned book and software and after only a week I scored well into precalc. I took precalc over the summer, a five-week course and I got a solid A. I was really concerned that because I hadn't actually taken an algebra class (I only took pre-algebra in high school) that I would be behind, but had no problems.

lilag02 · Jul 23, 2008

Man, I wish I'd known about that book a couple of months ago. I took a placement test about 5 years ago, but didn't end up going to school until now, and they used those scores to place me into the mid-level developmental math (we have 3 at my school). A couple of weeks ago, when I was speaking with an advisor, she noticed my scores actually put me in the third level, so she overrode the system and got me in. Mind you, this was a week before the class begin (less review time), and while my test score was only five years old, I hadn't taken a math class in 10 years. I was okay with moving up, since math is typically my strong subject, I was just nervous about not having the opportunity to go over everything. Now I wish I'd had that book and just re-tested out of it all. Oh well, the class is going well so far. I have A's on everything, and I'm hoping to keep it up.

Good luck to everyone else!

Laura