Math placement exam

I’ve taken two years of calculus, AP calculus AB and BC. If I happen to not place into calculus, will they take my two years of calc into consideration? I got a 3 on AP calc AB so unfortunately they won’t accept that score

My S is in AP Calc AB right now and just took the MPE earlier this week. He said it was very easy and he placed into Calc 1 (MATH 140).

@bluejay89 I took it a few weeks ago but unfortunately I forgot a few basic trig techniques so I don’t feel like I did well on that part. How did your son get his score before orientation?

@cammiekohl I am in the same situation you are but however I was able to get my score before orientation as well, I was put in math115 (precal) on the math test but since Im already taking that at my cc and calc 1 and 2 over the summer, ill be in calc 3 by fall.

@LustinJack12 and @cammiekohl @bluejay89 are you all science majors? I wonder if my DD takes it and she does a decent job, if she could still skip math. She has AP credits for calc and stat and she is a humanities student. she probably won’t ace it since she was out of the country for a whole year doing things unrelated to math so she hasn’t touched math for a whole year. But she should be okay since her math was good in HS a year ago.

@Maxwellequations I am a Computer Science major, and I pretty sure AP credits triumph over the placement test

Straight from Maryland’s own website: (http://www.orientation.umd.edu/MathPlacement.html)
“ALL first year students, regardless of SAT or AP/IB scores, must take the Math Placement Exam before coming to New Student Orientation. There are no exemptions from taking the Math Placement Exam for first year students.”

@maryversity Yes, but if you for example place into pre-calculus on the placement exam but have a 4 or 5 in AP calculus AB they will place you into calculus 2 despite your exam placement right?

Yes, that is correct. The highest math class you can actually “place” into is MATH140 which is Calc I. If you have the appropriate AP test and scores, you can absolutely start in a higher level. My son took AP Calc BC and was able to start in MATH241, which is Calc III.

After taking the math placement exam, do you get your score immediately? What score is needed to place into MATH140/Calc I?

@Jgcstation You can email the math department for your score. I don’t really know what score you need to get into Math140 but I know that I got everything right on the first section and like most of everything right on the algebra and algebra 2 sections however the trig one I did terrible on and I was put into math115 (pre cal). I was told that I was like 5 questions away from 140 but yeah.

I have an update, I retook the math placement exam and was placed into math 140 this time. All you need us to get most or all right on the first 3 sections mostly because its very easy and for the trig Im pretty sure I got 9 out of 13 questions right.

@LustinJack12 cool, thanks!

I have a question: so I recently got my math placement results and I placed into math 111 which is intro to probability. But, my major (public health science) requires calculus, which math 111 won’t help me with at all. Is there an equivalent level class that deals more with calculus topics (like college algebra or something similar) or am I stuck taking a math class that’s useless to my major?

You can try to retake it. From what I hear you need math 220 only which is like applied calc or something like that.

When S emailed math department for his math placement results, he was told that he had to wait to get results from the advisor during orientation. For those of you who have been able to get your results, what email address did you use? With whom did you speak?

@JGCStation Email wrs@math.umd.edu He is the head of the math placement test and can get you your results in less than a day… at least thats who I emailed. If you need a valid excuse just tell him that you need to be placed in math 140 to sign up for your major class and if you did not get put into 140 then you will need to know the placement test score asap so that your child can take the math course at a community college so that he will be in 140 by the time school starts. Best of Luck

@JGCStation I used the email address listed on the math placement info page but I think I only got my results early because of special circumstances (I plan on taking a summer math class and it starts before my orientation)

Oops didn’t notice that someone else answered your question before me

Does anyone know if you can place out of Differential Equations class? Do you need to take an exemption exam? Thanks in advance.