Hi CC,
I am a student currently taking Algebra 2. I’ve been given the opportunity to take a Credit By Exam test for Pre Cal. over the summer; this way I can take Calculus next year. However, I heard that Pre Cal is useful for Sat subject testing, and as a class before Calculus. So, should I skip it (self teach and take test), or take it and possibly hold myself back?
On one hand, I feel like because I’m maintaining a solid mid-high A in Alg 2 and I enjoy math, self-teaching Pre Calculus in About 2 months during the summer is an option for me. On the other hand, I heard Pre Cal is useful, and some people have told me its too hard to skip, or to learn in less than 2 months. Is it possible? Has anyone skipped Pre Cal?
Thanks CC 
pre-calc is an almost useless class - just learn basic trig and maybe brush up on logs, but other than that, you don’t miss anything
calculus would’ve been far more difficult for me had I not taken precalc - since it was a prerequisite, precalc seemed almost harder than calculus us now. I’d highly recommend you take it, or at least do an intensive summer course
Unless it’s easier at your school than ours, obviously, but that may not be the case
I didn’t really like precalc all that much, but, when it comes down to it, I’m not sure about skipping it.
Like @foolish said, learning basic trig and some log functions goes a long way. Aside from things such as trig identities and logs, I don’t really use much of that precalc stuff in college. However, the trig identities and log parts are used very, very much so here.
@viewthroughkohl0 makes a good point. Although I didn’t like taking precalc, it does help for calculus. However, some of the later precalc topics didn’t really help me all that much, so take that for what you will.
Do it during the summer. Skipping it will make calc very difficult.
Do you guys think its possible for me to self-teach myself Pre Cal over the summer in less than 2 months?
yes - probably possible to do it in 2 weeks even lol
What might it be like if I try to take the SAT Subject test for Pre-Cal? Would it be harder because I didn’t take a class? When would I take the test if I did Pre-Cal over the summer?
If you know the material, it does not matter how you learned it. If you don’t know the material, your hopes for a high score diminish.
It depends on what you mean by pre-calc and how much time you would dedicate over summer.
If pre-calc is taught the right way and includes a full curriculum (trig, polar/parametric, vectors, sums/series, limits) then it would be ill-advised to try to self-study the material especially in a short amount of time. I don’t understand how anybody on this post could say that logarithms and trig are the most important take aways and everything else is useless. Vectors are the basis of physics and polar/parametric equations are crucial to solving problems that can not be solved from a Cartesian perspective. Even if you forsake the previous argument, these topics definitely show up in calculus courses (polar/parametric is heavily focused on in both calc 2 and 3, vectors are the basis of most of calc 3). It definitely helps to have prior exposure to these topics.
I would only advise you to self study if your school’s pre-calc course only goes into trig and does not touch on some of this more advanced stuff. You can easily learn trig over summer if you spend 1-2 hours per day studying.