<p>Hi guys!
I am currently a junior in high school and have a opportunity to attend a local community college in summer, where I can take two college classes. </p>
<p>I really want to take Calculus so that I can see if I'm able to handle that kind of math before choosing a major. </p>
<p>I don't know if this is going to be a good idea since I have not taken PreCalculus, nor have I taken Trigonometry, but I do have 100 average in PreAP algebra 2 and almost perfect math score on the SAT. </p>
<p>If by any chance I fail this class, will it hurt my college GPA at A&M? Can I retake it at A&M even though I pass it? Because I have heard that math at A&M is significantly harder.</p>
<p>Thank you for reading. Any responses are appreciated.</p>
<p>Take trig/precal. You really need those skills in that class to do well in Cal. Just thinking about going from Alg2 to Cal sounds horrible…Cal is easy (to me) but I wouldn’t do well without precal. You’re gonna wanna take it in A&M again anyways…so take a history or English class instead and don’t re-take at A&M. You can ahead in your basic classes :)</p>
<p>You can’t do calculus without knowing trig first. Take trig at your community college instead.</p>
<p>I’m looking to transfer as well & the A & M admissions counselor recommended I take Pre-Cal & Cal prior to transferring. I’m a history & math in general is my achilles heel, so I guess now I know why he advised me to do as such.</p>
<p>Agree with the others, do not take Calculus without taking PreCal…</p>
<p>I’m speaking from personal experience… I currently go to a community college, and my first semester there I took college algebra STEM… I did really well in that class because my professor suggested I skip pre-cal and trig and go straight into calculus… So I did… I took two semesters of calculus and ended up making A’s in both classes, but honestly it did not come easy… Every week I would be in tutoring or getting help from other classmates and I would do the homework for about three-four hours every night… I studied for the tests every night before, the morning of, and driving to class… It’s not impossible to do, but it will be a definite challenge… Honestly, if I could go back, I would have taken the trig or pre-cal class because I was so lost on the sections that involved those equations…</p>
<p>^Perfect example. To the OP, it’s called pre-cal for a reason. Basically everything you do in calculus incorporates stuff you learn in pre-cal. So if you take calculus without taking pre-cal, you’ll end up having to teach yourself trig/pre-cal on top of calculus topics. Doable, but I wouldn’t recommend it.</p>