So before going to college, I was in regular precalculus. I did fine in the class with minimal effort. Now I’m taking Calculus, but I find that I’m struggling a lot. When I took the proficiency quiz, my score didn’t fall under the range that required me to drop the class, but I did fall under the “questionable” range. I have my first quiz tomorrow and I really only understand about half of my web-assign problems (for the rest I got help from friends who already took this course). It’s too late to drop/add courses without a $20 fee, and if I drop to Math 120 (Precalculus) I’ll be relearning everything I learned last year.
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TL;DR - Would it be better to stay in Calculus and struggle, or re-learn Precalculus at a more difficult, college-level?
I heard that a lot of the things we learn in pre-calculus don’t apply much to calc, so would re-taking precalculus be even worth my time?
At my daughter’s college she had to take a math placement exam. That was followed by advising, and the school recommended registering for the level tested into, and if it turned out to be too hard it was easier to drop down a level, compared to starting at too easy a level and trying to move up. Seems like you are kind of in this situation, and dropping down to college precalc might help you when you retry Calc.
You should have been going to professor office hours, forming a study group, looking at Khan Academy videos, talking to the TA, getting a tutor or going to the math center if your college has one.
You didn’t say how much effort you were putting in. If you are not attending every class, getting help from the TA, reading the book regularly, and looking at the Khan academy videos, then doing these things could really help you do better for the rest of the semester.
I was in a similar situation a few yrs ago, I was marginally ready for college algebra but was on the edge in the beginning of the sem and steadily got worse. I didn’t put in as much effort as I could have regarding office hours and tutoring, and I was lazy and too focused on my work and social commitments at the time so I just decided to withdraw and do a lower level later on. I regret not just sucking it up and doing everything I could to pass with at least a C because I changed schools the next yr and since I didn’t take college level math nothing transferred so I had to do the placement testing again and my memory of math dwindled and it was harder for me to place into the same class at my new school that I had previously qualified for. This is basically the worst case scenario but there’s still valuable lessons to be learned from my mistake! Just get it over with now so it doesn’t have a chance to haunt you later.