Hi! I’m a high school graduate and am going to be attending the University of Missouri in Columbia in the fall. I just had a quick question with regards to the types of math classes I should take in college. I’ve recently taken a math placement exam and I didn’t fare too well. I was placed just under college algebra. I don’t think this is due to the fact that none of the material seemed familiar, in fact, I recognized all of it, I just forgot what/how to do a lot of the simple stuff, like solving logarithmic equations and such. I also didn’t take the time to review anything prior to the exam, I just went in blind. I guess that’s the point seeing as the University wants to know how much knowledge I have of math just on the spot. I’ve always done excellent in my science classes but my math skills were never up to standard. Having this in mind, will this affect my goal of getting into medical school? I fear that since I placed so low on my placement exam my application will be frowned upon or something of that nature. Thanks! 
https://www.temple.edu/healthadvising/documents/Timelines/PreMed.Timeline.pdf
You can look up the requirements for each medical school as they vary slightly.
Don’t stress yourself out. Med schools don’t look at your college placement. They only look at whether you have fulfilled admission requirements.
Here’s the admission requirements for your state med school.: https://medicine.missouri.edu/admissions/application-requirements
MIzzou requires 3 credits in college level math (college algebra or higher) for admission.
However, you’ll need to supplement college algebra with with at least one other math course–statistics or biostatistics–because stats is heavily tested on the MCAT. (Also, many med school require stats for admission.)
Other med schools may have different math requirements–some specifically require one or two semesters of calculus. (WUSTL, JHU, for example) You should look at the admission requirements for several med schools to get feel for what’s expected.
The bigger issue will be ability to perform well in classes that require strong math skills to be successful in–like gen chem or physics. Make sure you have completed college algebra before attempting either class.
Contrary to what you think that placement test SHOULD be prepared for. Usually you get two attempts. Study and retake. Make sure you’re ready for the placement test this time.
Starting so behind in math means you won’t be able to start on your pre-med pre-requisites till sophomore year and you’ll be blocked from taking classes for various majors; if you have a time frame to complete entrance to major you may well be stuck because those credits push you out if the allowed time frame. What do you want to major in?
Starting in a class other than College Algebra or calculus1 is one of the main reasons for students being held back and never graduating.
In a nutshell, never take a test (placement or otherwise) without making sure you’re ready to perform .
Contact the pre-med advising office when you get to campus (or earlier if you have questions about what classes to take first semester freshman year) https://premed.missouri.edu/
I’m majoring in chemistry, ironically enough. My ability to learn various math concepts isn’t the issue, in fact I like learning about it. It’s cool to see how a lot of the conceptual ideas start to connect as you start taking higher level math classes. I took pre-calculus my senior year and got a C in both semesters with a motivation that was slowly dying due to the infamous “senioritis.” It’s an issue because I hardly remember anything, lesson learned it seems. I’m not familiar with how classes work in college quite yet. Do they already expect you to know all of this information when you are, for example, taking college algebra, or is it re-learning the material from scratch? If it’s the latter I can easily manage; we covered a great deal of the college algebra curriculum in pre-calc. It would only be a matter of a little elbow grease to get the information really in my head as I progress throughout the semester. I would even be bold enough to say that I would survive in calc 1, though the learning curve would be that much steeper. Time to re-learn a year’s worth of material! 
Thanks for your input
Complete the calculus sequence and Linear Algebra. That my friend will look good for Med school. Everyone at my state school does this.
I go to SUNY Albany
If you placed into college algebra you’re okay. If you placed below it there’s a problem. You’ll need College algebra, Calculus 1, and Biostatistics. Your chem major will likely require more than that.
I don’t think you realize what you’re up against though. You need to review math and chem over the summer, aiming for 100% - you’ll need to be top 10% in your classes and getting complacent about a C in high school is bad news. Even kids who never allowed themselves to get to a B struggle.
Add to this the fact chem is going to be deliberately weedout - it means the tests are designed to fail a certain percentage of the class and, often, at the end of the first semester, half the students have been weeded out already; think of it as a test of will (will you go out or spend 3 hours studying on Thursday your first week? Will you get wasted on Saturday night and feel human around 4pm Sunday, or will you go play basketball with your house league so that on Sunday 1pm you’re in the library?) Yes, an austere life, unlike the rvelry you send depicted in movies. And that may not, is unlikely to be, be enough. You’ll have to go see a tutor, go to office hours with sit in the first three rows in front of the podium in the lecture hall, turn off all devices while in lecture or recitation.
Being pre-med is an intention. 3/4 would-be pre-meds don’t continue, some because they found more interesting pursuits, some because they can’t.
You may want to read the tumbler by Afrenchie36 to see what to do as a pre-med.
General and organic chemistry courses do not necessarily fail (as in F grade) that many students, but they tend to “premed fail” (B+ or lower grades) most students.
@NASA2014 wrote:
i cannot express how wrong and misleading this statement is.
I sent 2 math majors to med school so they had waaaay more math than just linear algebra. No one gave a hoot. Seriously not one interviewer cared. Not for med school admission, not for residency placement. Math accomplishments never mentioned. Never even brought up. (Well, other than the fact the one D, who was a double physics & math major, was on the receiving end of some gender-based harassment from a male interviewer who accused her of lying about her majors. Plus he made an inappropriate comment about her appearance. Who says sexism is dead? )
Have those math majors seen this 1994 medical research paper?
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/17/2/152
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8137688
Here are some of the responses:
http://www.math.uconn.edu/~kconrad/math1132s14/handouts/taicomments.pdf
I see where you’re coming from. But I can’t emphasize enough my determination to do well in college. In high school I refused to overextend myself when I knew that I didn’t have to. You can call that an excuse for not applying myself in my final semesters in high school but it’s the truth. Science is my passion and I love learning about it and I love being good at it; if studying math more intensely than I ever have before is what it takes then so be it. I’m not one to be easily swayed by peer pressure or the pleasure of plastering myself with otherwise “distracting” substances. I have my priorities straight. I understand that the results I get in college are factors that influence my goals and it is because of that fact that I already intended to do a lot of the things you mentioned. I hope this doesn’t come off as simply the ramblings of an inspired student. I appreciate your honesty!
I don’t even know what linear algebra is and I just graduated from an MD/PHD program.