<p>I do not enjoy upper-level math at all. I am going to a business major and am required to take Calc 1 my freshman year at miami university to start taking business classes. In high school, i took geometry, algebra 2, trig, and stats. I was stupid in thinking i would never need to take pre calc/ calc because i thought business majors would never have to take that. After ending my senior year, should i take pre calc over the summer at community college before i go into calc 1? that seems most logical, however i dont really remember any topics off the top of my mind from algebra 2/ trig.</p>
<p>Depending on how good a self-studier you are, you could save some money in laying down the foundations to your formal Calculus studies in college. I would recommend:</p>
<p>[ul][li]Viewing as many of the [free</a> online courses available at MIT for Calculus](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/]free”>Search | MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials).</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Math is a lot easier and fun if you understand the foundational utility inherit in the discipline. </p>[/li]
<p>Read up on the history of some famous mathematicians like Euclid, Euler, Leibniz, Bernoulli, Cardano, Pascal and Newton so that you can understand what real-world problems they were investigating that resulted in the mathamatics they developed. A fun and easy book to read is [‘Journey</a> through Genius, The Great Theorems of Mathematics’](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics/dp/014014739X]'Journey”>http://www.amazon.com/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics/dp/014014739X).</p>
<p>[li]Another great online course in economics that utilizes Calculus is Yale’s [Introduction</a> to Game Theory](<a href=“http://academicearth.org/courses/game-theory]Introduction”>Online College Courses & Accredited Degree Programs - Academic Earth). This course illustrates the universal utility of Calculus in a field other that engineering or biology and will be very germane to your business studies.[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at Miami right now, an economics/finance major in the Farmer School. Miami requires you to take a math placement test prior to summer orientation to help them place you in the right math class for your abilities. I would take that test and see how you do. You can take it as many times as you want and at the end it tells you what class you should take - pre-calc, calc I, or even a higher level. My son did take pre-calc in high school but, like you, was never a big fan of math. When he took the test it said he should take pre-calc. Much to my dismay, he didn’t want to take pre-calc and went right into Calc I because he felt confident that he could handle the material. I worried all semester but he made it through with a good passing grade. So I would take the test, see how comfortable you feel with the results, and weigh your options. Taking pre-calc in the summer is also not a bad idea. Good luck.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that there is plenty of help available, both profs’ offcie hours and possibly SI (do not know about math, but D. has been SI for Chem prof for 3 years). Also, many study in groups which is very helpful. Use all resources, your tuition is paying for all of them, not just lectures.</p>
<p>thank you for your guys’ input. i still have not decided what to do yet but will probably do something over the summer to help prepare. Just going to have to work my butt off in this class</p>