A bit of a complicated question about math placement

da6onet
Sun, 18 May 2014 21:42:36 +0000

If he decides to take Calc this summer at his community college:

A. Will it transfer (as MATH140)
B. Can he take it just for “practice” and it won’t count as an attempt at UMD…so if he gets a poor grade but just uses it as prep for 140 to assure a good grade, is that cool?



A) Yes
B) Since you’re already admitted, you technically wouldn’t have to submit the “practice” transcript (they’re not going to check clearinghouse again), but that would be unethical.



I know once you are enrolled at UMD, you can’t take math outside of it. But when is he officially “enrolled”?



You’re enrollment date is when you’re officially allowed to start classes - your admission letter will say something like fall 2014 or 2014-2015 academic school year –> September 2nd (though I know of at least one Fall 2013 admit who managed to exploit a mistake with his registration blocks into taking summer II classes at UMD). I personally took one last summer class at another school before the fall semester started and just sent in updated transcripts to get the credit transferred.

This may depend on a particular department’s policy, but at least for engineering you simply submit a form asking to take a course at another institution (following the laundry list of rules for such an action). It is very common for people to take courses at other institutions over the summer; less common during regular fall/spring semesters (essentially commuting back and forth throughout the week between two schools).



Say someone took pre-calc (college pre-calc, not high school) and got a C or above, but the placement test didn’t place them in Calc…they would literally have to take the same class over again at UMD?



Very likely yes. The university just doesn’t trust other school’s to teach some subjects and/or wants more money (just take a look at how the computer science department treats transfer students when it comes to comp sci I and II). I took calc I at another school and they didn’t accept that credit because they syllabus no longer exists, but they did accept calc II, III, DiffEq, and Linear Algebra (all A’s). So yes, I had to “retake” math140 (I did credit by examination). Common sense and bureaucracy don’t play nice with each other when it comes to situations like this I’m afraid.



…do you remember how quickly you can get the score?



I was wrong about getting the results immediately. This is from the math department page ->

“The exam should be completed at least three days before your scheduled Orientation date. Results will be given to you by your advisor.”