Gabs91

I have a kind of screwed up situation. When I was in middle school, I went to a school that was not very good. Their math department was horrible. They put me in Alegbra and Geometry for 7th and 8th grade. My teachers were really bad: One rushed through the whole book in the last few months of school and the other teacher would always discuss his personal life with us, even telling a bunch of 13 year olds why he had to call the cops on his girlfriend. Needless to say I did not learn anything, but recieved very easy "A's".

A few years ago, I was put in a very rigorous private Catholic School. I took the test to get in and they decided to put me in Algebra, again. They really wanted me to grasp the subject. Most of the school starts in Algebra anyway, so I was placed in what was normal for the school. I have been really disappointed even though I am glad I had to go through those classes again. Now I really understand Math!

However, I have been very upset because this would put me in Pre-Calculus and not Calculus when I get out of high school (I am a junior in Algebra II/Trig). I read on the Darmouth website that they recommend (but don't require) Calculus and I know that this would be a downer for me.

I am more than willing to do summer course in calculus the summer before I go to college. I was also upset because I don't think my school will let me do a course in Pre-Calculus this summer and THEN go to Calculus senior year. This is something that has been upsetting me for a while and I don't know what to DO! Please help Me!

johnleemk

If you don't have calculus you can take Math 3 in your freshman year (a lot of people take it). You don't even need calculus unless you want to do something quantitative like economics. I would say do it if you want to, but don't sweat it - it was out of your control for the most part anyway.

Gabs91

Thank you so much! You just took a huge load off my shoulders

forax

If you do plan on taking math 3 at some point in your Dartmouth career, I would recommend some form of calculus exposure, be it a summer course or self taught. Math 3 is a fairly easy A if you have had calculus before because its mostly review, but if you haven't had any exposure to Calc, Math 3 is going to range anywhere from mildly challenging to very difficult. Luckily there are tutorial sessions three times a week (led by grad students), so if you struggle w/ the material or w/ the homework you can get help.
Good Luck!

indiejimmy

Teach yourself precalculus during the summer, then just test into calc next year. You don't need to take a class. You said you're already doing trig this year, and trig is the meat of any precalc class, so you should be fine doing that. Precalc is basically just common sense anyway.

Kristina

Kids at my school have been known to skip precalc, but only those with a fair bit of aptitude in math. If you feel strong in math, you'd probably be OK doing summer school precalc and then going straight to calc.

Procrastination

precalculus is really not necessary to understand calculus. calculus is a completely different branch of mathematics, all you really need to know are the fundamentals of algebra + trig to survive in most cases(depending on the rigor of the course, I guess). i've taken 3 years of calculus and can't remember a damn day of precalculus and im doing alright. grab yourself a calculus textbook and see if you can understand/follow the ideas presented. you'll see how different a mode of thinking calculus rfeally is.