Please give me advice about my situation with precalculus

[rjm546]

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Here is my issue, I was in the military for 4 years and while I was in I took most of my general ed classes. I took both intro and algebra 1 at a college that was on base both were 8 weeks long. The thing with those classes was that I made A's in both but we never finished most of the book, most times only going up to chapter 5 of a 8 chapter book. So now I'm out of the military and am going to take pre-calculus and now I'm scared that my algebra will not be up to par. I took trig and stats over the summer and made A's in both those classes but still feel like I will have a lot of trouble this semester in pre cal. What do you guys think about my situation. Sometimes I think I should just retake college algebra.

 

[Snake Doctor]

Here is my issue, I was in the military for 4 years and while I was in I took most of my general ed classes. I took both intro and algebra 1 at a college that was on base both were 8 weeks long. The thing with those classes was that I made A's in both but we never finished most of the book, most times only going up to chapter 5 of a 8 chapter book. So now I'm out of the military and am going to take pre-calculus and now I'm scared that my algebra will not be up to par. I took trig and stats over the summer and made A's in both those classes but still feel like I will have a lot of trouble this semester in pre cal. What do you guys think about my situation. Sometimes I think I should just retake college algebra.

You can always audit or sit in algebra/algebra II. Just speak with the instructor. In my opinion, pre-calc goes much more in depth than necessary for calc, whether it's single variable or multivaraible calculus. There are some colleges that offer calculus without pre-calc as a prereq. You might want to look into that. You'll be taught how to apply calculus instead of going in depth on proofs and all those other topics designed for math majors and engineers.

 

[JJVmom]

I was in a similar situation. I've decided to go back to school after many years. I took Trig last spring. Before that I had College Algebra in 1992. I took pre-calculus this summer and got an A. It was an 8 wk summer class, so I sat in my class from 10-12:20 Mon-Thurs, got lunch, then went to the math lab in our library for the rest of the afternoon. I had to review/relearn many algebra concepts along the way, but they weren't hard concepts. If I got stuck, there was always a math tutor or another student to help me out. The concepts were not difficult, but it was a ton of busy work.

At first, I was intimated by the students who finished quickly, but in the end, it was I who got the better grade, 🙂, so tune out the rest of the class and just put in the time you need to understand the math.

You should also ask around and find out which are the better professors to take. My prof was very approachable and always answered our questions. She was very organized and taught each concept step-by-step. She also let us check our work on our calculator, which surprised me. Many students downloaded programs into their calculators to alleviate memorizing formulas. It will be hard getting back into chemistry this fall after having this as a summer class.

My point is, if you got A's in stats and trig, you'll be fine in pre-calc. A big section of our pre-calc was trig all over again anyway. Good luck!

 

[PrepharmKID]

Here is my issue, I was in the military for 4 years and while I was in I took most of my general ed classes. I took both intro and algebra 1 at a college that was on base both were 8 weeks long. The thing with those classes was that I made A's in both but we never finished most of the book, most times only going up to chapter 5 of a 8 chapter book. So now I'm out of the military and am going to take pre-calculus and now I'm scared that my algebra will not be up to par. I took trig and stats over the summer and made A's in both those classes but still feel like I will have a lot of trouble this semester in pre cal. What do you guys think about my situation. Sometimes I think I should just retake college algebra.

If you have the time and patience, just go for it. I feel that even if I had walked into my brief calc course with general math knowledge, my professor was so great at teaching, that I could have learned it all anyway. So my advice is just take it and go after class for tutoring, a lot of schools do it for free and you can bet your ass I did.

 

[rjm546]

Thanks a lot for the advice. I know if I try as hard as I can and get help as soon as I need it, without waiting until the last minute then I should be alright.