Algebra refresher

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irishRN2doc

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Hey there!

I am getting ready to start pre reqs in summer or fall. I last took Algebra in 2004 and did pretty well. I don't want to pay to take algebra again to refresh my skills. Anyone have any recommendations for a good way to beef up on this subject? Anyone been in this position?

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Holy mother of aww yeah! Much appreciated. I should be able to pair this with a book of algebra problems and be ready for chem and physics math.
 
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Holy mother of aww yeah! Much appreciated. I should be able to pair this with a book of algebra problems and be ready for chem and physics math.

Good luck! Refreshing your math skills will definitely help you immensely in both classes. For physics make sure you also review basic trig.
 
I dont have a suggestion on what to use but I would suggest finding practice with lots of scientific notation. Also, get down the sin/cos of the common angles out of the way asap 30,45,60,90 etc.

These were my weaknesses.
 
Math skillz needed for med school pre-recs:

Three words(?): SOH CAH TOA.

(Maybe understand the quadratic equation... really don't think you need anything else? Exponential notation. That is it, I mean, unless you are taking calc. based physics, but why would anyone do that 🙂)

To do well in chem and physics you need much more than you describe here. You need a strong understanding of basic algebraic equations (what variables mean, how they get used, how to solve for variables when given multiple equations). You need to understand exponents and logarithms. Critically, you need to understand data tables and graphs. You need to understand y = mx + b as it relates to linear equations and the basics of what non-linear graphs look like and mean and how you can interpret them. You also need to have a good facility with arithmetic. Yes, most of the time in class you can use a calculator but you can't on the MCAT when speed matters.

If you went to good schools as a kid it's easy to underestimate these topics and assume every high school grad has a good grasp of algebra. This just isn't true. The math I used in the prereqs I mostly learned by 8th grade, because I was fortunate enough to be in accelerated math classes and grow up in an area with excellent schools. But in my post-bacc prereq classes I saw otherwise well-educated people struggle over and over and over in physics and chem. They couldn't even really get to understanding the chem and physics concepts because the minute equations went up on the board they were lost. They couldn't calculate a slope if given two data points. They couldn't solve for accelaration when given Force and mass because they just didn't understand what F = ma means in a mathetmatic sense. Many of them failed out of the classes.

The OP is doing exactly the right thing by preparing ahead of time and making sure that rusty math skills won't hold her back.
 
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OMG... it just kills me that you go 100% hysterical about my joke but then manage to fluff your own academic ego by claiming you "mostly learned by 8th grade" the level of math required in med school pre-recs.

I understand it probably wasn't helpful to make light of the thread but come on...

My undergrad was in FINE ART, I hadn't taken a single math course in over ten years when I started my post bacc. The level of math required for those courses was definitely minimal. If I ended up with a 3.9 sGPA and a MCAT 12PS 13BS then it really can't be that hard.

Soooooo, since I'm not allowed to make jokes on SDN, my completely candid advice to OP is to not worry too much about all the peacocks on this forum try to make it seem like you have to be some Math god in order to succeed at pre-recs. Don't panic, watch a few videos / work problems and you will be able to master the material.

I am not trying to be pretentious or fluff my own ego. I was lucky and know enough to recognize my own luck (and it was luck, far more than skill). I agree; you don't have to be a math god to do this. Basic algebra is just that: basic. But the fact is that math education in a lot of places is really bad. If you are taught well when you're young you have it for life. If you aren't, you don't. Good for you that you're one of the lucky ones. But I know people with humanities degrees from the Ivy League schools who really, really struggled when they hit the basic sciences prereqs. I personally observed this struggle in a post-bacc program with a fairly high fail rate on the basic prereqs. It's frustrating and discouraging to many people and not their own fault.

In my original response I provided a useful link to the OP, then pointed out that they should also review basic trig. I certainly did not post any scare stories or try and discourage them. I only posted my longer response to counter the impression you gave that any reasonably educated person should be able to breeze through the prereqs when there are so many people who are highly educated and have been failed by the math education in this country. That breezy 'oh, it's easy, no worries!' attitude makes a lot of people feel inadequate and stupid in physics and chem when really they just need a little math tutoring.
 
To do well in chem and physics you need much more than you describe here. You need a strong understanding of basic algebraic equations (what variables mean, how they get used, how to solve for variables when given multiple equations). You need to understand exponents and logarithms. Critically, you need to understand data tables and graphs. You need to understand y = mx + b as it relates to linear equations and the basics of what non-linear graphs look like and mean and how you can interpret them. You also need to have a good facility with arithmetic. Yes, most of the time in class you can use a calculator but you can't on the MCAT when speed matters.

If you went to good schools as a kid it's easy to underestimate these topics and assume every high school grad has a good grasp of algebra. This just isn't true. The math I used in the prereqs I mostly learned by 8th grade, because I was fortunate enough to be in accelerated math classes and grow up in an area with excellent schools. But in my post-bacc prereq classes I saw otherwise well-educated people struggle over and over and over in physics and chem. They couldn't even really get to understanding the chem and physics concepts because the minute equations went up on the board they were lost. They couldn't calculate a slope if given two data points. They couldn't solve for accelaration when given Force and mass because they just didn't understand what F = ma means in a mathetmatic sense. Many of them failed out of the classes.

The OP is doing exactly the right thing by preparing ahead of time and making sure that rusty math skills won't hold her back.
Relax. Don't scare the OP. All that's needed is basic algebra that can be learned on the fly while taking classes IMO unless you have literally never taken any math classes previously (which is not the case for the OP).
 
Relax. Don't scare the OP. All that's needed is basic algebra that can be learned on the fly while taking classes IMO unless you have literally never taken any math classes previously (which is not the case for the OP).

I...am not at all trying to scare the OP. Did you actually see my first two posts in this thread? My first post was a link without even any commentary. I am not using scare tactics. I listed a simple descriptive list of math concepts covered in basic algebra in response to a flippant post that you don't have to worry about math for the prereqs, which is not true.

The idea that you can just pick up the math as you go is not good advice for everyone. That's why many physics classes post a pre-test with the math needed and recommend not taking the class if you can't comfortably do the pretest. There were definitely people in my physics classes who ignored that advice and did poorer for it. Sometimes to the point of failing out of the class. All I'm saying is how much math prep is a good idea depends on your math background and depending on where you are from that varies wildly. If you were comfortable with math in high school, then you'll almost certainly be fine in the prereqs. But there is a very large group of people who hit the prereqs and then have to relearn algebra at the same time and that slows you down and wastes time when you should be concentrating on the actual chem and physics concepts. And when the MCAT comes around, how fast you are with the math definitely impacts your score in the PS section.

I'm actually kind of amazed I'm getting so much flak about this here considering when it comes to the MCAT people on these boards flog a study system that really looks like extreme overkill to me and I've been jumped on in THOSE threads for suggesting anything less than 3 months full time studying can be ok. But suggesting that you want to be comfortable with basic algebra before taking chem and physics is using 'scare tactics'? Whatever.
 
Definitely appreciate all the advice. I will review the topics you mentioned and just re-familiarize myself with the content.
 
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