5 on AP calc, college wants all students to take precalc

[ucbalumnus]

@scmom2017

The question was from me in advising my daughter on the wisdom of going against this her very first term for a class she should do well in when there is no true benefit to skipping it other than not having to do the work.

Repeating a class she already knows well is a waste of a schedule space that could be used (now or later) for an interesting free elective (either a more advanced course in her major, or any course of interest outside of her major).

If she is at Louisiana Tech, here are the catalog course descriptions for math courses:

http://catalog.latech.edu/content.php?filter%5B27%5D=MATH&filter%5B29%5D=&filter%5Bcourse_type%5D=-1&filter%5Bkeyword%5D=&filter%5B32%5D=1&filter%5Bcpage%5D=1&cur_cat_oid=3&expand=&navoid=123&search_database=Filter#acalog_template_course_filter

However, the syllabi seem to show some variation from the catalog description:

http://www2.latech.edu/~bbarron/math240005syllabus.pdf
http://www2.latech.edu/~bbarron/math241001syllabus.pdf
http://www2.latech.edu/~bbarron/math242_syllabus.pdf

The catalog lists Math 240 as precalculus. The syllabus lists Math 240 as mostly precalculus with a beginning introduction to calculus. Math 241 and 242 continue from there. Note that a calculus book by Stewart is one of those used (a variant of such is sometimes used in AP calculus courses these days).

The old final exams do not appear to be easily findable in a web search, but she can try asking the department for some sample exams in those courses to check her knowledge with.