My Math Forum Should I skip trig and pre calc and go straight to Calc?

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 January 13th, 2012, 09:21 AM #1 Newbie   Joined: Jan 2012 Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Should I skip trig and pre calc and go straight to Calc? Hi, after a few years of not going to school I decided to come back. With my high school transcripts, I was able to get into Calculus 1. The thing is though it's been a few years since I took trig and pre calc and I don't remember it anymore. Would it be wise for me to skip trig and pre calc and try to take calculus? Or should I just take trig and skip pre calc and go straight into calc? or skip trig and take pre calc to get into calculus? or should I take both trig and pre calc and get into calc next semester? (I really don't want to take 2 math classes at once, unless it's absolutely necessary.)
 January 13th, 2012, 10:03 AM #2 Global Moderator     Joined: Nov 2009 From: Northwest Arkansas Posts: 2,767 Thanks: 5 Re: Should I skip trig and pre calc and go straight to Calc? Skipping the prerequisites could be more difficult than taking 2 classes at once, though I would advise the second route either. You need to know algebra, trig (mostly identities), and logs/exponentials to succeed in Calc I. A "survey" or "business" Calc class will use less prerequisite knowledge.
 January 13th, 2012, 10:06 AM #3 Global Moderator     Joined: Nov 2006 From: UTC -5 Posts: 16,046 Thanks: 938 Math Focus: Number theory, computational mathematics, combinatorics, FOM, symbolic logic, TCS, algorithms Re: Should I skip trig and pre calc and go straight to Calc? Usually I would recommend taking at least precalc first (you can probably wing it on trig). But since I'm enrolled in two courses this semester, one of which I took the prerequisite 7 years ago and the other I never took it... well, maybe you shouldn't be coming to me for advice.
 January 13th, 2012, 10:24 AM #4 Newbie   Joined: Jan 2012 Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Re: Should I skip trig and pre calc and go straight to Calc? Yeah, I was asking a few people and they said that I can skip pre calc and just take trig. I also heard trig isn't really in calc 1 either.
 January 13th, 2012, 12:04 PM #5 Senior Member     Joined: Jul 2010 From: St. Augustine, FL., U.S.A.'s oldest city Posts: 12,211 Thanks: 521 Math Focus: Calculus/ODEs Re: Should I skip trig and pre calc and go straight to Calc? I would recommend just taking pre-calc first, as you will study trig there, as well as algebra and coordinate geometry, all of which is important for calculus.
January 13th, 2012, 02:13 PM   #6
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Re: Should I skip trig and pre calc and go straight to Calc?

Quote:
 Originally Posted by trekster Hi, after a few years of not going to school I decided to come back. With my high school transcripts, I was able to get into Calculus 1. The thing is though it's been a few years since I took trig and pre calc and I don't remember it anymore. Would it be wise for me to skip trig and pre calc and try to take calculus? Or should I just take trig and skip pre calc and go straight into calc? or skip trig and take pre calc to get into calculus? or should I take both trig and pre calc and get into calc next semester? (I really don't want to take 2 math classes at once, unless it's absolutely necessary.)
Precal and trig do not prepare you very well for the concepts you encounter in cal1. There is almost no calculus in precalculus and there is little trigonometry in calculus.

Somene once said 'It is the algebra in calculus that is hard'

My advice is be prepared to study hard when you get to cal1

Why don't you take the entrance exam anyway since your transcripts are irrelevant at this point?

Determine for yourself how much you can handle.

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# can i skip pre-cal and take cal 1

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