<p>So I will be taking Trig/Precalc for my senior year. If I bombed the math placement test in college and sent me back to Precalc, what are my chances of becoming an engineer? What if I start with Calc I in college?</p>
<p>You’d be a semester behind, since calculus is at the head of an important prerequisite chain for all engineering students.</p>
<p>But really, if you complete precalculus as a high school senior, you should have no trouble passing the placement test and starting in first semester freshman calculus. If you do have trouble passing the placement test, that may not be a good sign for studying engineering.</p>
<p>I started off with basic algebra in community college. Like x+4 = 7 algebra. I worked my way up through intermediate algebra, college, precalc, calc 1-3, and Diff eq. When I transferred to a 4 year university, my adviser was surprised how far I came in their math department, while getting A’s and B’s in every math class. I think it actually helped me because I had a solid base in the basic mathematics. I did take classes during the summer, so I caught up pretty fast.</p>
<p>Engineering program generally take 5 years because they are so packed. In your case, count on it being 5 years. The most important thing is to get the mathematics done right because it sill be important for many of the advanced courses.</p>
<p>You will NOT need to take trig in college. I took trig/precal my senior year of high school and took calculus my first year in college. I’m now on pace to graduate early with my engineering degree.</p>
<p>Everybody takes Calc over the summer to get caught back up. Don’t even worry about it! Not everybody, but enough people that you won’t feel like you are alone. You could even take a class between HS and college if that works for you to stay on track. As a matter of fact if you were at my college I would tell you (after having done it the wrong way myself) that you can take Trig (which back then you really needed for Calc II) and Calc I the same semester. Yes, there will be a ton of homework, but if you think that is a ton of homework just wait until your Jr. year when all your classes are engineering.</p>
<p>i started last fall with intermediate algebra. im taking differential equations in the spring. almost everyone i know in my classes started in precalc. no big deal :P</p>