<p>Hey everyone,
So I am a freshman at Bellevue College hoping for CS transfer to UW Seattle. I got placed into Math 098, because I took my Compass Test at Lake Washington Institute of Technology (it was free :)) so when my scores got transferred over, my Math placement went lower (I think I was in Math 099 or 107 originally). The thing is that my senior year I took Pre Calc (or Math 141/142). So could I retake the compass test after the quarter to see if i can place into Math 141? </p>
<p>Each WA community college has different COMPASS cut-off scores to get into each Math course. Lake Washington, (LWIT) Shoreline, Edmonds, Everett and Cascadia formed a consortium that agreed to common COMPASS test cut scores, but Bellevue (BC) is not part of that consortium. </p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind is that unless the course prefix is followed by an ampersand (&), then the course is not necessarily common across the state. So, MATH& 107 is the same course at every WA community college. On the other hand, MATH 99 is not, so it may vary across somewhat across the state.</p>
<p>Both BC and LWIT call MATH 98 “Essentials of Intermediate Algebra”, while MATH 99 is “Intermediate Algebra”. The difference is that MATH 98 is only a prerequisite for non-STEM math, such as MATH& 107, MATH& 138 (College Algebra) and MATH& 146 (Statistics). If that is all you need, math-wise, then MATH 98 should be a fine prerequisite*. On the other hand, if you intend to major in a STEM discipline, then you should take MATH 99 instead, because it leads to MATH& 141 and 142 (Precalculus) and MATH& 151 (Calculus).</p>
<p>Students who took Precalculus in their High School senior year do not necessarily place into community college precalculus (MATH& 141), because they may have forgotten some concepts and/or the high school course was not taught at the same level as the community college course. Could students have received College in the High School credit for taking your high school Precalc course? If not, then it may not have been taught at a sufficiently high level.</p>
<p>In any event, it wouldn’t hurt to try to take the COMPASS course again. I’d suggest brushing up first by looking at an online COMPASS preparation course. Here is what we use at Everett Community College: <a href=“http://EverettCC.edready.org”>http://EverettCC.edready.org</a> . Also, if you have any documentation that you placed into LWIT’s MATH 99, you could possibly show that to a BC Math instructor to see if s/he will let you into their class without having to take the COMPASS test again. But, if you want to try to place straight into MATH& 141 you should definitely do a little studying first.</p>
<ul>
<li>If you don’t take Intermediate Algebra, you should also check with UW-Seattle to make sure that they will accept the Algebra II class that you took in high school. They can be sticklers about their Intermediate Algebra Proficiency requirement for transfer students. If you end up taking Precalc at Bellevue, then it won’t be a problem.</li>
</ul>
<p>Al Friedman
Math & Science Division Dean
Everett Community College</p>