Hi! I took a year of non honors precalc in high school. I didn’t do bad but I ended with only a 91 Final Avg. i am attending UConn next year and wonder if I should take the calculus course? I am in the business school and my other options for maths are a Math for business and economics(which is all online and I don’t want to take an online my first semester or frankly EVER.) or calculus for business and economics. I want to avoid this course because I am not sure that I will stay in the business school and calculus would be the only math to transfer over. I know that college math is way different that high school math but I feel as if my foundation in precalc was strong. I looked at review sheets from UConn and I recognized that I learned all concepts. While I forget off the top of my head how to do some I am sure with a little review through out the year I will be able to remeber how to do them. What should I do? Take calc?
I don’t quite know what “Math for Business and Economics” would cover, but based solely on what I know from the general mathematics requirements for your standard business degree, it’s likely something you could pick up through other courses or on your own without much trouble.
Business Calculus is typically standard Calculus with some of the math being replaced with business applications. If you feel as though there’s a high likelihood that you’ll continue pursuing a Business degree, it couldn’t hurt.
Standard Calculus tends to be a difficult course for a lot of students; though this is mostly due to ill-preparedness as opposed to the actual course difficulty. Of the three courses you’re considering, I would recommend taking standard Calculus, but only on the conditions that
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- You’re not overloading yourself during that semester
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- You’re willing to spend some time beforehand on brushing up on your Precalculus education.
If you devote some time to studying Precalculus beforehand, you will be very well prepared for Calculus. Still, you want to make sure you’ll have enough time to dedicate per week to the class in case something gives you trouble; the class builds on itself pretty heavily so if you have trouble with a topic and don’t remedy the situation in a timely manner, it will compound your difficulties as the class goes on.
- You’re willing to spend some time beforehand on brushing up on your Precalculus education.
All in all, standard calculus is a versatile course that will benefit you either throughout your business studies, or through any other quantitative discipline. Let me know if you would like some advice on prep if you decide to take Calculus.
https://undergrad.business.uconn.edu/gen-eds/# indicates that MATH 1070 (math for business and economics) and either 1071 (calculus for business and economics) or 1131 (calculus 1) are required for UConn business majors.
https://placement.uconn.edu/mathematics-placement/ is UConn’s math placement exam, where a score of 22 is required if you want to enroll in MATH 1131.
Here are some quizzes that you can use to help you determine which topics you need to review before taking the real one at UConn:
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/rur/rurci3.cgi
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/rur/rurci3.cgi?bcflag=1