A question about courses

<p>Hi everyone. I lack foundation in mathematics and have not taken high school precalculus (I stopped at Algebra 2 in junior year). I pretty much am terrible at math, but I plan on being tutored by a friend over the summer to make up for the discrepancy between my ability and what would be expected of me. I was just wondering because Swarthmore's course listing for the mathematics department states that to take Stat 001/011, I would need to have taken precalc. Could I bypass this or would I have to take Math 003 instead? Honestly, as much as me and math go together like water and oil, I actually prefer (and want) to take Stat 001/011. In addition, if I were to take Stat 001, could I take Stat 011 the following semester? Or should I just take only Stat 011 and Math 003? Since I want to eventually be a Psychology/Sociology major, will I need to have taken Stat 001/011? If I said something off, that's because I don't fully understand yet how distributional requirements are appropriated. And sorry if my wording is confusing, I'm running on low sleep. :/</p>

<p>Any response is appreciated!</p>

<p>First off, I’m going to assume that you were accepted early. If not–don’t about this now!</p>

<p>So: you should definitely take Swarthmore’s pre-calc placement exam. That will be a big help in getting appropriate advising. During orientation, go talk to a math professor–that’s really the best source of info, though you should trust your gut instinct, too.</p>

<p>Unsupported assertions–I think that you will be approved to take Stat 1he even without pre-calc. However, if you want to study Psychology, you’ll need Stat 11. Find out whether the math department will allow you to take Stat 1, then Stat 11; it’s not specified either way in the catalog, but I seem to recall this being a possible sequence if there’s not enough high school math preparation.</p>

<p>Math 3 is really for math-phobic people, not unprepared people who nonetheless want to learn to USE statistics.</p>

<p>Thank you Keilexandra. I was accepted early (to my surprise, seeing as how my math SAT and grades sucked majorly). I wasn’t planning on taking the precalc exam because I don’t know it, but since you suggested it, it might be the most appropriate step for me to take. It might not be too disastrous since I’ll be getting some tutoring over the summer. I guess when I actually get to Swarth, I’ll talk with the professors about taking Stat 001 then following it up with Stat 010 the following semester. Hopefully, they’d accommodating to my circumstances.</p>

<p>:)</p>

<p>Correction: Precalc exam = “Math/Stat Readiness Exam,” which is a better name. Phil Everson is the placement advisor. Here’s the information page from last year, in case you haven’t seen it:
[Swarthmore</a> College :: New Students :: Math/Stat Placement](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/x26424.xml]Swarthmore”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/x26424.xml)</p>