I will be double majoring in Public Relations and Marketing in the fall, and I need some advice on which math class to take. I was placed based on my ACT score in Math 121/125. I took Pre Calculus my junior year of high school, and AP Stats my senior year. I haven’t had any sort of calculus since junior year, and although I did very well in Pre Calc, I don’t know if it would be better to take Math 121 or 125. I know they say Math 121 is a dead end course, but it seems more useful than Math 125 if I’m going into marketing and public relations. Any advice? Is Math 125 the better option, or will Math 121 suffice?
Well, if you change your mind later and decide to do something like one of the specializations in finance, math 125 might be better (keep your options open).
MATH 125. You want to keep your options open for the future.
Do you ever envision yourself changing your major to one that will require you to take the three-semester sequence of Calculus courses (Math 125, 126, 227)?
If not, then why bother signing up for Math 125 Calculus 1 and investing significantly more money in textbooks, calculators, and the online Webassign?
If you are not going to be pursuing a science or math degree, then don’t invest in Math 125. It just does not make sense to me. Math 121 is designed for business students like yourself, and don’t you like the idea of taking a Calculus class that will be focused on teaching you how you will apply Calculus to the real world of business? I do.
I am not sure why some would consider Math 121 to be a dead-end course. It counts for your degree, and isn’t that the goal? You just cannot be given credit towards your degree for both Math 121 and Math 125. That’s ok. For a math or physics major, it is not the right course, since both are required to take the three-course sequence. But for everyone else, the only loss is that Math 121 does not open the door to the three-semester sequence of Calculus courses. Based on your current choice of major, you don’t need that door open.
Let’s say you take Math 121 and suddenly realize you are falling in love with Calculus and want to switch your major to Mathematics. You can always take Math 125 and start your journey through those three courses. Math 121 would have given you a solid basis for taking Math 125, and that’s good because you would be on your own in learning the material anyway. I don’t see how taking Math 121 now will hurt you at all.
On the other hand, taking Math 125 could hurt you a lot, especially since you did not take high school calculus. The class is a bear, the book is perhaps the worst calculus textbook I have ever had to buy (and I have a shelf full of calc books at home), the teacher who taught my son’s class never even utilized the text book in the lectures, all work was assigned using the online Webassign, and sometimes there was a connection between what happened in class and what was in the assignments and what showed up on the quizzes and tests.
I managed to save some money by renting the texts from Amazon, and while my son will have to continue on with the second and third courses, we are probably going to rent the books for Fall (they are not worth buying, in my opinion.) The class takes a lot of your time just attending, and then doing the work, and studying for the handful of quizzes and tests. And for what if you don’t intend to continue on to Math 126 and beyond?
If I had known more about Math 125, I would have made sure my son took the equivalent courses for Math 125 at our local community college before he arrived on campus (or had him take AP Calc instead of AP Stats.)
Clearly, I am no fan of Math 125. So unless you really must take that course, don’t. Math 121 fulfills the requirements of your degree. The text looks very interesting and appropriate for your major (I have included a link below to a sample of the text.) You will save yourself a lot of time and money taking Math 121 rather than Math 125. And, again, if you discover you are truly a math/science/engineering major, then you can easily take Math 125 in the spring.
At the myBama website, log in and look up the courses and then take a look at the syllabi for each and the textbooks and supplies required for each, and compare. Also take a look at the texts used for both. I have a link to the Calculus Applications book, and you can find out more about the Stewart book at stewartcalculus.com.
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/lgrseries/calc/detail/sample-chapter/index.html
If you do decide to sign up for Math 125, consider renting your books from Amazon. Definitely don’t buy them new.
Best of luck!
does he need to take a math placement test
Another factor to consider is that Math 121 is a Math Technology Learning Center Course. Math 125 is not. Some people like the MTLC because typically course policies allow you to work at your own pace. Other people hate the MTLC courses because when a class is a MTLC course it means that everything – homework, quizzes and tests – will be completed on a computer and computer graded.
Regarding saving money on math textbooks – sometimes it is worth it to buy the webassign code first before buying or renting a physical copy of the book. Three of my four children have attended high schools that use webassign from ninth grade on. Two have now also taken math classes in college. In every case, they have not needed the physical textbook because the webassign program included a copy of the complete textbook. (Although the physical book hasn’t been necessary in our experience, one of my kids likes to have a hard copy for ease of reference. The other two prefer just to use the electronic version of the book.)
If you don’t need 125 for your major, there is no reason to take it. However these classes can vary a lot by professor, so it may not be a bad idea to choose from both pools based on professor.