My daughter plans on attending UT Cap program at UTSA. She is taking College Algebra as a high school senior. Does she need to take a math placement test before UTSA orientation? I assume she will take PreCalculus at UTSA. Just confused about the whole Math placement thing. Have been told different answers by different people. I just want to make sure she does everything correctly, because of course as a CAP student, the goal of course is to make it to UT. I am afraid of going thru all this, only to find something was not done correctly. I called a number for someone listed as a CAP counselor at UTSA and had a horrible experience. A freshman answered the phone and began asking someone in the background every question I had and relaying uncertain answers back to me. The whole call was so pointless. Hope this will not be the norm at this school.
http://catalog.utsa.edu/undergraduate/coursedescriptions/mat/ lists UTSA math courses. Which one is her current math course equivalent to?
We have the course list. That doesn’t answer the math placement situation. She was told by a person at her high school, that because she is already taking college algebra, she will take pre cal in college, no placement test. That doesn’t sound right to me. I feel like there will still be a need for a placement test. She is just scraping by in the College Algebra class. Math is not a strong point and that was her reasoning behind taking College Algebra already. She’d hoped to be done with math. But she is required to take math for CAP. I can see her failing a placement test. Would prefer that she take it ASAP if it is required. That way there is an opportunity to retake it. I feel like the lady at her high school doesn’t know much about CAP specifically. Just need a concrete answer. And if she needs a placement test, need to know how to go about it. I thought I read that someone took the test at orientation, but that seems risky.
I mean, precalculus says: Prerequisite: MAT 1073 or the equivalent course or satisfactory performance on a placement examination. So looks to me like a placement test is needed. She is currently taking 1023, if I am not mistaken. I would feel better if she were just signing on for Algebra. All this dual credit in high school seems like it might backfire. This is a kid who never ever studies, but makes good grades. Except for math. She is going to be in for a rude awakening.
1023 appears to be on a lower level math track leading to 1153 and 1163.
Does her major or CAP require a higher level math track, like 1073 → 1093 → 1214 → 1224? If so, then she will need to take a placement test.
This advice is not specific to UTSA, but in a lot of cases, it makes sense for a student to take the math placement test during orientation, and go with the placement level that is suggested. I have seen a lot of students over time who have ignored the result of the placement test, have selected a higher-level math course (presumably to finish the math requirements more quickly), and then have run into a lot of difficulty. Students who take the course where they are placed, and then work at it, tend to fare much better.
Also, I would say that it is not really possible to “fail” a placement test. The purpose is to help the student figure out what course the student should take next. A low score on a placement test will not have any adverse effect on the student’s record, in itself.
In general, I would only modify the advice that a student should go ahead and take the placement test during orientation if the student were trying to get into a math class that was likely to be full prior to orientation. But usually with the first two years of mathematics classes, the sections are open and not over-enrolled.
Thanks Quantmech and ucbalumnus, this all makes sense.
I hadn’t thought of it as exactly what it is, a “placement” test.
She will be a Liberal Arts major, so Math will not be a key ingredient. Math has never been her strong point.
I think the catch will be whatever CAP requires.
Sorry, I was slow getting back to responses.
I appreciate the input.
Just took a look at the CAP curriculum and it does require: “MAT 1043, 1093, 1193, 1214, 1224, 2214 or 1053. College Algebra (MAT 1073) does not count in UT Austin degrees. It counts in the required 30 CAP hours (but is excluded from the CAP GPA) only if taken in the fall semester as prerequisite to a second course listed above.”
Help! I just don’t understand it all.
I think she took college algebra in high school in hopes she would be done with math.
So now her thinking is her high school college algebra grade will count toward CAP credit and not her GPA.
To me it sounds like she should just now be signing up for College Algebra ?
Of the listed math courses, the prerequisites are (according to http://catalog.utsa.edu/undergraduate/coursedescriptions/mat/ ):
1043: placement test
1053: placement test
1093: 1073
1193: 1093
1214: 1093
1224: 1214
2214: 1224
https://testing.utsa.edu/math-placement/ describes the UTSA math placement exam, and exemptions by other test scores.
As with other courses with “College” in the name, College Algebra is not a college-level class. It’s what is usually called Algebra 2 if taken in high school.
She actually took the college algebra. They are able to do that as high school seniors these days. It was a Houston Community College class, but administered at her high school. The catch is CAP requires a math course. She is doing exploratory studies as a CAP student at UTSA. We just did a 2 day orientation this week. Her advisor suggested pre-cal and there was no mention of a placement test. I think the College Algebra was the prerequisite for that. The problem is, who wants to do pre-cal. She plans on majoring in International Relations and Global Studies at UT. She finished College Algebra with a 75. Wondering if she should have chosen MAT 1043 instead of pre-cal. Anyone else out there whose kid is doing International Relations. I’d love thoughts. Courses have been selected.
This will be an outlier, but I would actually recommend she consider the Statistics course (STA 1053) listed as fulfilling the math requirement. Statistics is actually relevant to life and to public policy, etc. Precalculus not so much (and it’s generally “pre-calc” by way of abbreviation, BTW).