Precalculus during first semester

<p>Hummm, the criteria you describe to allow you to get into calc 2 or multivariable seems typical. Many schools will require more that a 3, some may even require a 5 to get you out of calc 1 and/or2. The part that seems odd is that from what you have said you need to take and pass the AP test in order to be able to take Calc 1, that seems odd to me. Students come from different schools or may be homeschooled. Lots of students may have taken precalc and done well in it and be ready for calc. even if they did not take the AP class in HS. Others may have taken the class and not done well on the test or like you not taken the test. That class probably did more to prepare them to take Calc 1 than the precalc class would. Perhaps others will comment on if this seems as odd to them as it does to me. From everything I know it seems something is off and it might help to explore this. If the requirements really are as you say, and a gap year or CC are out of the question, you need to make the best of it. As for your question about calc 2 in summer school I expect you will have a better sense of whether you are up to this after you have become familiar with your school and have some idea of how difficult you found calc 1. College calc is often more difficult than AP HS calc but I would expect that you might have some feel for this based on how you felt about the difficulty of your AP classes. For now just do your best freshman year in whatever classes you take and make the decision when you have more information. Good Luck</p>

<p>This is bogus. According to
<a href=“https://www.fullerton.edu/admissions/resources/forms/AP_CLEP_IB_Word_Chart_April2014.pdf”>https://www.fullerton.edu/admissions/resources/forms/AP_CLEP_IB_Word_Chart_April2014.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>CLEP exams won’t place you into calculus. I can see not giving credit for calculus, but not giving placement for passing a pre-calculus CLEP at a CSU? </p>

<p>I would

  1. Take the CLEP exam in precalculus and calculus immediately. They are computer based and you get your results immediately
  2. Go to a community college this fall that will place you in calculus and the corresponding engineering physics class</p>

<p>@ucbalumunus That day to take the MQE is already filled up because other students who had their orientation before me took all the available spaces before I knew of my situation.
@spectrum2 at our orientation, they told us that students who only took up to precalculus in high school would still have to try and place into calculus since a lot of kids who take it dropped out due to a lack of math skills. Taking up to precal in high school is not enough.
@ClassicRockerDad after all the money my parents invested in me for high school and now for college, community college is OUT OF THE QUESTION.</p>

<p>That’s a little funny that you use money as an excuse not to do the community college route because it would actually save you money in the long run given that it would chop a whole year off of your time in college (since you could start in calculus and physics) and would be cheaper than the full university, to boot. It basically saves you probably almost 1.5 years worth of CSU Fullerton tuition. In other words, don’t use money as the excuse for not doing that. Find a better reason if you are going to be so dismissive of it.</p>

<p>I don’t know much about CSU Fullerton’s engineering program, but if they legitimately won’t let someone who took and passed calculus in high school start above precalculus in college, I question their quality as a school. That is very asinine. You didn’t bother to look into this before committing to attend the school?</p>

<p>At this point, if you don’t want to start in precalculus and be a semester or two behind on technical courses, you really only have two options: go the community college route or talk to the math department and politely explain your situation and see if they can either free up a seat in the MQE since it was full before you even had a chance to take it or else will give you the benefit of the doubt due to your grades in calculus in high school.</p>

<p>If you don’t like either of those two options, I think you are just out of luck.</p>

<p>It does make sense that you need to take the MQE, I agree that it’s pretty crazy that every student who wants to take it cannot get to if they attempt it before the sign up deadline, which is different from not getting there first. Are there still more orientation sessions after you? Is it possible they might open more sections for the test? You should watch for this and as suggested contact the math depth and also maybe engineering and be persistent, if you aren’t satisfied with the answer, ask if there is someone else you can talk to who can work with you. So odd at son’s school the test is given online and can be taken from home and even with some limitation retaken…And for engineering it’s required for every student even with a BC 5. Every school is different but as I and others have said that seems so wrong. Good luck.</p>

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<p>It is probably understandable from the point of a moderate-selectivity school where the common case is the situation where an entering student is overconfident of his/her math and other academic skills (perhaps because their high school math courses were not rigorous enough or had too much grade inflation). Such students, on their own, are likely to attempt too high a level of entry level math course and fail. So the school makes placement testing mandatory before enrolling in an entry level math course. Note that many of the better students in math bring in AP calculus scores which exempt them from the placement test and/or one or two calculus courses. The OP represents a rare case who may be relatively advanced in math but has no external validation (e.g. AP calculus scores).</p>

<p>The main thing that the school can be blamed for is lack of seats in the MQE placement test. However, it looks like there is an additional MQE placement test on August 9, with registration deadline July 30: <a href=“http://www.fullerton.edu/orientation/freshmen/placement.asp”>http://www.fullerton.edu/orientation/freshmen/placement.asp&lt;/a&gt; . But it looks like you missed four other MQE test dates already.</p>

<p>My recommendation is to try to get into the placement test; if not, contact the math department as soon as possible. But also reconsider the community college route (although be aware that many community colleges have their own mandatory math placement tests).</p>

<p>If you want to self-assess your precalculus knowledge, try these on-line placement tests:
<a href=“http://math.tntech.edu/e-math/placement/index.html”>http://math.tntech.edu/e-math/placement/index.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/placement-exam”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/placement-exam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It looks like CSU Fullerton Math 150A and 150B (calculus 1 and 2) final exams are not easy to find on the web. However, you can try other schools’ calculus 1 and 2 final exams:
<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses/archives/exams”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses/archives/exams&lt;/a&gt; (Math 1A and 1B)
<a href=“http://www.math.tamu.edu/courses/math151/common-exams/”>http://www.math.tamu.edu/courses/math151/common-exams/&lt;/a&gt; (Math 151 = calculus 1)
<a href=“http://www.math.tamu.edu/courses/math152/common-exams/”>http://www.math.tamu.edu/courses/math152/common-exams/&lt;/a&gt; (Math 152 = calculus 2)</p>

<p>You can also try the released AP calculus questions:
<a href=“http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/1997.html”>http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/1997.html&lt;/a&gt; (AB)
<a href=“http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/8031.html”>http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/8031.html&lt;/a&gt; (BC)</p>

<p>@boneh3ad I already paid for tuitionnd for my SLO so community college is not an option. Also, at least at CSU Fullerton I don’t really have to worry about not getting the courses I need as opposed to some of my friends going to community college and are currently having trouble with all the crowded classes which means they will definitely be in there for more than two years. Especially since Fullerton offered me money, so don’t tell me about how my money situation is when you obviously are clueless.</p>

<p>I would see how this year goes for you. My score put me in Calculus 3, but i’m reviewing old concepts as much as possible. if you do well in both math classes this year, consider taking Calculus 2 in the summer. However I had a friend who took a calculus course at her university during the summer and she was studying 24/7 basically. </p>

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<p>What sort of advice were you looking for? </p>

<p>The following page gives you ALL of your options if you want to stay at Fullerton.
<a href=“404: File Not Found - University Testing Center | CSUF”>404: File Not Found - University Testing Center | CSUF;

<p>Did you follow every one of them? They have weekday testing dates too. </p>

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<p>Picking on the Bonehead, one of this board’s best posters, when he’s trying to help you, is not only disrespectful, but foolish. </p>

<p>Frankly, the only one clueless seems to be you. </p>

<p>Just to give you a little insight into the placement tests from my son’s school’s perspective. As I mentioned all engineering students took the placement test but it didn’t test calc just readiness so from what I heard it tested skills up to precalc. While everyone had to take it, kids with the skills easily passed. During orientation they presented that student performance in their first math class, regardless of what that class was (anything from precalc to multivariable) was a strong indicator of how students did in the program. It also isn’t unusual for kids with 5 ’ s to start with calc1 and 2 by choice. Finally during orientation they went through painful detail on how it is possible to stay on schedule even if starting with precalc. I expect at other schools that start students with precalc graduating in 4 years is still doable but probably challenging. It just seems like a waste of time for a student like the op to start at that level. Based on the prior posts it also looks like taking the test is still an option great news! Op get after it!</p>

<p>Now incessantly bump to the top, hoping to hear an alternative answer when they’ve all already been posited. ;)) </p>

<p>@ClassicRockerDad You have not helped or contribute to the conversation. PERIOD. I wanted insight as to whether or not I should take Cal. 2 in the summer or just stay on track from where I am. I already knew about the MQE, but the testing date posted was already filled up by the time I learned that I was being put into precalculus. Calling me foolish just makes you look immature and it’s people like you that make this conversation go in different directions. Your posts are obsolete.</p>

<p>@ClassicRockerDad Calm down! Your comments aren’t helping this guy out at all. He posted this question in search of guidance as to whether he should stay in the precal. class or just take a math course in the summer. He already posted his reasons as to why it has come down to those two choices only, as posted throughout the conversation.</p>

<p>I believe everyone replying is under the impression that you can’t just jump into Calc 2 without either previous credit for Calc 1 or testing out of Calc 1, both of which you said weren’t possible.</p>

<p>@eyemgh The only way to get in Calculus 2 is by taking Calculus 1 there, getting a high score on the MQE, or by your score on either AP Calculus tests. I remember at my orientation that there were quite a few students who hadn’t taken Calculus in high school or did but without taking the AP exam and the advisers told them that they had to sign up for Precalculus due to Calculus 1 being challenging for those students.</p>

<p>Right. The OP said he has been placed into precalc and has exhausted all options otherwise and then is asking for advice what to do. Now he/she is asking if he/she should drop right into Calc 2. One, how’s that possible? Two, if it’s possible, why is any of this an issue?</p>

<p>@eyemgh Like i said earlier, if I decided to stay in precal. this semester, I would take Calculus 1 during second semester and see if I could take Calculus 2 NEXT summer (2015).</p>

<p>Right. And you’re looking for alternatives which have been delivered. Are you hoping to hear others? If you did do what you suggest in your post above, you’d only be one semester behind, not a full year. </p>

<p>Have you tried to sign up for the August 9 MQE test (deadline to sign up July 30)?
<a href=“404: File Not Found - Titan Orientation Programs | CSUF”>http://www.fullerton.edu/orientation/freshmen/placement.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>@ucbalumnus As of now I am signed up for that date. I was told that if I earn a higher score then I will be permitted to skip Calculus 1 and 2, being that Calculus BC was the equivalent to those two courses.</p>