<p>I know every college is different, but the trend I'm seeing with the above average students is taking Calculus I or higher in the first year of college.</p>
<p>I actually placed into Precalculus on my placement test and was wondering whether I should stay in Precalculus or drop it, take the placement test again and see if I place into Calculus I for next semester so grad schools or employers (if they do ask for my transcript) won't see that I'm "not one of the best?" If it's the latter, then I would have to take classes in the summer to catch up with the rest.</p>
<p>They won’t care, I promise. I think it’s better that you take the precalc course and get the best math foundation you can, as if you go into calc under-prepared, your GPA will suffer – and that’s the thing employers and grad schools look at.</p>
<p>I agree with TitoMorito, though I would encourage you to reflect on why you placed into pre-calc. Which topics did you struggle with? Some topics and techniques are essential to be successful in calculus; others are nice to have seen once but not actually relevant. (You don’t need to remember anything about ellipses or hyperbolas or random trig identities, for example. Trig identities will be important in Calc 2, but you can review them when they become relevant.)</p>
<p>What I am trying to say is that you may not necessarily be at a disadvantage going straight to calc, depending on what your placement exam looked like.</p>
<p>Another consideration is your major. Do you need calc for your major? The four-year curriculum for STEM majors often assumes that students will start with calculus. Starting with a lower math course might put you behind, necessitating additional terms in order to graduate. If that would be the case, it might pay off to review pre-calc before classes start and then go straight to Calc 1.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Will you be able to effectively relearn the material from self-studying to clearly pass the placement test the next time around? (if the best you can do is barely pass, that may not be a good sign for taking calculus immediately)</p></li>
<li><p>Will starting in precalculus put you behind in your major so that you will graduate late? This is more of a concern with majors with long prerequisite sequences that depend on calculus like physics or engineering. Many other majors like business and biology that require calculus do not have long prerequisite sequences depending on it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>@TitoMorito, you do have a point. It’s better to take a remedial course, get an A in that, then an A in the harder class as well instead of a C in the harder class alone.</p>
<p>@b@r!um, I struggled with the trigonometric functions mostly. I had already taken Precalc in junior year of high school and AP Calculus AB in my senior year. I scored a 3 on the exam. My high school didn’t have a Trigonometry class, though I’m sure trigonometry was included in precalc and I just wasn’t studying efficiently, I guess.</p>
<p>My major is Computer Science, though I am considering a Math major/minor or a Physics major/minor. Or I could forgo Math/Physics for a more soft major like Communications to balance my hard major. My top grad school is actually University of South California. I am hoping to get into the MFA program in Interactive Media or Film & Television Production. I could use some creative practice in my Communications classes, although I’m not sure my school’s ranking is good in that department.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus, I think I am pretty okay at studying for a test (I did get a 3 in Calc AB though) - as for retaining actually knowledge for the Calc class, I’m not sure. Are summer classes a good way to pick up speed so I graduate in four years? I can take up to six classes without overloading each semester and four classes in the summer. That means eight regular semesters and three summers for a total of sixty classes. I’m sure I have enough space in those sixty classes for the math sequence, right?</p>
<p>It is not necessarily the number of courses that can delay graduation (although that can be true of some majors like engineering). But some majors have prerequisite sequences that are seven semesters long, so there is not much room for error in scheduling (and if your school or department is small, you may find that some courses are offered only once per year, which could mean that being a semester behind turns into being a year behind if those course are in a prerequisite sequence).</p>
<p>Check your school’s course catalog to see what prerequisite sequences are needed for your major, and how starting calculus 1 a semester late can affect them.</p>
<p>Trigonometry should have been included in your high school precalculus course.</p>
<p>As others have said, it depends on your program. In my case, for example, if you don’t start with Calc 1, the prereq chains prevent you from graduating in 4 years unless you spend two of your summers taking classes. You’ll probably be fine, just make sure you do you research and plan ahead.</p>
<p>Thank you for the replies! I have actually contacted the registrar’s office about my AP scores and they will give me credit for Calculus I. I will be skipping Precalculus and taking Calculus II this fall. I am actually afraid of not doing well so I will be visiting the academic support center at my college very often.</p>
<p>Starting at Pre-Calculus would only have you graduate ONE semester later if you were an engineering major. Let me put the rest in capital letters.</p>
<p>YOU CAN STILL GRADUATE IN 4 YEARS AS A MATH, STAT OR COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJOR IF STARTING WITH PRE-CALCULUS.</p>
<p>@OP, you are engaging in a very risky strategy. You got a score on the AP Calculus test that many colleges and universities would not give you credit for, only tested into Precalculus on your school’s placement test and are now going straight to Calculus II. This course is probably the most difficult one in the sequence and a lot of students who earned a 5 on the AP Calculus test fail it. I would see if that based on your AP test they would let you start in Calculus I if you really do not want to take Precalculus.</p>
That would be true if every course was offered every semester. But that’s not the case at most universities. If you miss the calc-based intro sequences because you started with pre-calc, you might have to wait until the next year to take them. That could potentially put a student a full year behind. (Even if we are only talking about a single semester, one semester might cost an additional $20,000. Is that one class worth $20,000?)</p>
<p>If you scored a 3 on the AP Calc AB exam AND only placed into pre-calc, you should at most start at Calc 1. A 3 on the AB exam means you don’t have a solid foundation in calculus, as Calc 1 is the simplest of the calc sequence. 4s or 5s are not uncommon among even non-math majors. As Lemaitre1 said, Calc 2 is the most difficult of the calc sequence. You need to have a solid foundation in Calc 1 before going on to Calc 2. Compared to integration, differentiation is child’s play. You obviously don’t have a good enough knowledge of that, so why do you think you are qualified for Calc 2?</p>
<p>I’ll buy that. I do not know every engineering curriculum…just EE & CompE and yeah, I can see some schools not having every-semester classes.</p>
<p>Still, with computer science. You only need Calculus I to take the first “usual” CS courses like Computer Science I (Object-Oriented Programming I), Computer Science II (Object-Oriented Programming II) and Discrete Structures. Since nowadays, all the math you need for CS is Calculus I, II & Linear Algebra (with some schools requiring Stats), starting at Pre-Calculus won’t hurt a CS major at all.</p>
<p>I need to look at some engineering programs at smaller schools.</p>
<p>The smaller schools are more likely to have the “not offered every semester” problem. In some cases, an upper division course may be available only once every two years.</p>
I think it’s better that you take the precalc course and get the best math foundation you can, as if you go into calc under-prepared, your GPA will suffer – and that’s the thing employers and grad schools look at.</p>