Well they offer college algebra at my high school which is the same as MTH 135 at our state university, which is like a second or third tier algebra course at the college.
From personal experience, it wasn't much worse than algebra II. It's just mostly graphs, and once you get the hang of it it isn't too bad. I'm making a better grade in it than I was in algebra II, but that might just be because of a change in work ethic.
The main difference for me is the fact that homework is optional and worth no credit. You only get points for quizzes and tests, and the final is worth 30% of your total grade. I'm not sure if that's how it is at all universities or how they do it, but that's my personal experience with it. So it takes a decent degree of discipline over Alg II and your typical high school courses, or your grade will be shot with no extra credit or means of raising it.
Also, I'm taking trig at the same time and several topics overlap. Transformations of graphs, logarithms, quadratic, square root, circular, and exponential functions, interval notation, factoring, sequences and binomial expansion, maybe a couple more topics even.
You've probably had a decent bit of exposure to most of the topics covered in college algebra. It's just more extensive and covers a few extra types of graphs (rational, polynomial, logarithmic, linear programming).
I'm taking the final for it tommorow, so I'll tell you how that goes
Well they offer college algebra at my high school which is the same as MTH 135 at our state university, which is like a second or third tier algebra course at the college.
From personal experience, it wasn't much worse than algebra II. It's just mostly graphs, and once you get the hang of it it isn't too bad. I'm making a better grade in it than I was in algebra II, but that might just be because of a change in work ethic.
The main difference for me is the fact that homework is optional and worth no credit. You only get points for quizzes and tests, and the final is worth 30% of your total grade. I'm not sure if that's how it is at all universities or how they do it, but that's my personal experience with it. So it takes a decent degree of discipline over Alg II and your typical high school courses, or your grade will be shot with no extra credit or means of raising it.
Also, I'm taking trig at the same time and several topics overlap. Transformations of graphs, logarithms, quadratic, square root, circular, and exponential functions, interval notation, factoring, sequences and binomial expansion, maybe a couple more topics even.
You've probably had a decent bit of exposure to most of the topics covered in college algebra. It's just more extensive and covers a few extra types of graphs (rational, polynomial, logarithmic, linear programming).
I'm taking the final for it tommorow, so I'll tell you how that goes
I have taken Algebra I, II and Trigonometry in high school. Do I still need to take College Algebra and College Trigonometry in college again ? What is the difference between college algebra and high school algebra I and II ?
Thanks for any comments in advance.
Sorry for the late response.
It actually works really rather well. You don't have a transitional period between classes (like you take alg 1 freshman year, then alg 2 sopho you usually forget a lot and need to brush up).
Trig at my school is called Trig/Math Analysis. Only a few chapters of it were actual trigonometry. A lot of it was algebra, sequences, some functions and logs. And all of that was also covered in the college algebra (to a more difficult degree). So basically I learned something in college algebra, then went and did an easier version of it a block later in trig (except for the unit circle/trig identities, and a couple other easy subjects).
Trig is basically pre-calc (according to my teacher). And calculus is a mix of algebra and trig, so it makes sense that a lot of pre-calc involves algebra.
At first when I saw that they put the two together I kinda freaked out, but I'm pretty glad it worked out the way it did. I'd recommend it.
Oh, and the final went pretty well. A few of the questions seemed a little sketchy but I think I did good.
Thanks for your advice.
How do you usually study for college algebra though ? Just by doing home work ?
) more quickly.
Pretty much. It's the best way to study (maybe the only way) in math classes.
I found it clicked pretty well for me so I didn't do too much homework in the class and still ran a 95%.
First quarter of trig was pretty much all algebra stuff. The trig didn't start until second quarter. Taking both at the same time definitely attributed to me picking back up my algebra skills (hadn't taken alg 2 in over a year, and I didn't even know half the stuff when I was taking the class
I find that the upper-level courses like Trig and College Algebra have better teachers too. Maybe it's just luck of the draw, but it seems that way to me.
ok i think i might try that. Thanks! I have had most of the trig stuff you mentioned, so maybe it will be at least partly review. unless they tell you, how would you know that a high school course is equivalent to a college course?Sorry for the late response.
It actually works really rather well. You don't have a transitional period between classes (like you take alg 1 freshman year, then alg 2 sopho you usually forget a lot and need to brush up).
Trig at my school is called Trig/Math Analysis. Only a few chapters of it were actual trigonometry. A lot of it was algebra, sequences, some functions and logs. And all of that was also covered in the college algebra (to a more difficult degree). So basically I learned something in college algebra, then went and did an easier version of it a block later in trig (except for the unit circle/trig identities, and a couple other easy subjects).
Trig is basically pre-calc (according to my teacher). And calculus is a mix of algebra and trig, so it makes sense that a lot of pre-calc involves algebra.
At first when I saw that they put the two together I kinda freaked out, but I'm pretty glad it worked out the way it did. I'd recommend it.
Oh, and the final went pretty well. A few of the questions seemed a little sketchy but I think I did good.
Good luck with that...it will still be stellar people who took cal applying there. Cover all your bases.
I took Algebra II in my freshman year, and that teacher told me that his students at the local university do just about the same things we do.
As for me, I have taken THREE years of Calculus, and I am sick and tired of it!!! I am PRAYING that I can take just Statisitics in college and be done with (pure) mathmatics FOREVER!
