<p>Hey, I’m a foreign student who will be attending MTSU for Pre-med in the fall. I attended orientation this week, and when it was time for class scheduling, I could not get the Pre-cal class I wanted. The academic adviser then checked my information/transcripts and did an override and placed me in a Calculus 1 class. My question is, would it be tough for me to do Cal 1 without doing Pre-cal? The US system is so much different from ours back home, so it confuses me as to how hard things are.</p>
<p>No one can answer your question since no one has the faintest idea of your math background. In general, it is difficult for most US-educated students to take Calc without precalc. (Of course, math whizzes can and will self-teach precalc.) Since you need A’s, I would wait and perhaps take Alg-based Stats instead. Take precalc in the spring, and Calc I next year.</p>
<p>As an aside, you should recognize that most US med schools do not take any international students. Period. Thus, you will need to be near the top of your class to have any chance at all.</p>
<p>I am a US Resident now. When they converted my transcript, it said I had a 5 in AP math or something like that. I graduated top of my country in Math and Phys.</p>
<p>@Ryan17, use the internet or buy a study guide! I took precalculus during a 6 week summer class at my high school, after 9th grade. It’s easy and you can teach yourself over the summer. You have plenty of time. There must be a good reason they thought you were ready for Calc I. Good luck.</p>
<p>Most likely you found Calc I to be way too easy for you, not the other way around. This is my guess based on knowing level of HS math in the USA and abroad.</p>
<p>Calculus I is pretty much all about limits and derivatives and an introduction to integrals at the very end. If you can do those, it should be a very easy class.</p>
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<p>That implies that you have had calculus before. Have you done differentiation and integration before?</p>
<p>Try going to your college’s web site and using the search box to find “[calculus course number] final exam”. You can try checking your knowledge of calculus with it. If you are not familiar with calculus, do the same search with the precalculus course number.</p>
<p>I just ran through some Khan academy Pre-cal, and I’ve completed these topics when I was 15, then I ran through Calculus I stuff online, I did those a few years ago. I should be fine then. Thanks for the information!</p>
<p>^This was very predictable. Nice to hear!</p>
<p>Personally, not a fan of Khan. Designed for the masses to get-by, it is too simplistic and not even close to what takes place in a typical premed competition.</p>