Advice Needed

<p>I didn't know where to put this..so I thought this is probably the best. I took my math placement test yesterday online. I didn't do as well as I had hoped. I got a score of 40/100...it was a twenty question test. In high school I took every math including cal. I am going to gw in the fall, and the lowest math they had is college algebra, and this is what I was placed in. However, it is remedial, so I would recieve no credit. However, the next class up is precal and cal together. On their chart precal/cal is for the student who scored a 45. Now, that is just one more question right than I got. Should I take the credit bearing class or stick with the college alg. I am thinking going with precal/cal, but I am not for sure. Any advice?</p>

<p>How did you do on the math SATs?</p>

<p>I didn't take the SAT; I took the ACT and got a 29</p>

<p>Samantha was it AP calculus ? How'd you do? If you did well then I'd say take the credit course. I see no benefit in taking the algebra course if you have had high school calculus and performed well in a difficult class. Sounds more like an aberrant test result. Is the 29 a composite or your math score?</p>

<p>It was my math score. I took the AP test...I didn't do great on it I think. Partly, b/c my teacher said it was ok to guess and the lady who gave the test never told us there were directions on the back of the booklet (this was my first ap test). I did ok in cal...of course there were times when I stuggled with it and then times were I did fine.</p>

<p>Samantha - is the placement exam required for the course? That is, will GW allow you to enroll in precal/calc with that score? If not, can you retake the placement exam (after studying)? Or, can you take a community college course over the summer, before starting GW? I assume that GW requires math, and its a shame to be doing remedial math while paying $30K+ tuition. </p>

<p>I'd suggest that if GW will let you take calc, even with the low score, that you should get a review book and bone up during the summer on concepts you might have forgotten, and take the credit course. Or, if you are a humanities or social studies major, you might consider taking a course in statistics instead - maybe the entrance requirements for that are a little bit less than for the calculus course.</p>