<p>hey what are some of the academic skills should i be trying to hone?</p>
<p>Like grammar?</p>
<p>anything and everything. Focus on your weaknesses. If your grammar is bad, work on it. I find that in all of my college english courses, none of them teach you how to write essays or about grammar, they assume you were taught this and move on to analysis and argument development. For me, English was always an issue. I could never seem to write an “A” quality paper. Even if i tried hard, I would often get A-, so I always slacked and just settled for my B’s. I try to improve my writing by getting comments from the people at the writing center (though they don’t seem to help because all they focus on is grammer, not style or substance). If your having trouble with any of your subjects you should definitely attend your professors office hours - they’ll definitely help you and they will realize that you are putting fourth your best effort and give you some “points” in that category. This quarter, i’m determined to get straight A’s and I have english (ugh!). I’m definitely going to make use of the office hours and peer review because I sure as hell am not a great writer and my professor seems to be a harsh grader.</p>
<p>Really depends on what u plan to study. I think reading comprehension is important. U will be assigned reading from text books and tested on it. Being able to write well is also crucial. Of course if u’re a science major, it becomes a different game. Problem solving, advanced math, memorization will be the keyes. I dunno about the school that u want transfer to, but in cali, everyone must take a math class. SO u really need to know math foundation to some level. I don’t know to what level b/c i had calculus in HS and never really thought about it. I do see many CCC student have to take 3-4 math classes just to reach the “college” level, starting w/ arithmetic and pre algebra. </p>
<p>IN most CC, u’re given placement exams for english and math. WHere u place will be ur first class. Some people end having to take 2 remedial english classes and 3 remedial math classes just to get to “college” level. This is all fine for ur future and beneficial to u if u end up w/ good teachers, but u will lose a year doing that.</p>
<p>Oh and i would advise against studying for the placement exams because they place you in a class at your level. If you don’t know an answer, leave it blank because if you score too high you might get into a math/english/chem class you cannot handle because you do not know the fundamentals well enough. My roomate took the same math as me (2nd class in the calculus series) and he barely got through with first year calculus. After the first midterm, he promptly dropped the class because he received an 8 percent. Admittedly, the class was really hard and the class average was really low (don’t remember too long ago) but he totally screwed up. Moral of the story, know your basics and don’t try to place high just to finish early.</p>
<p>how do u improve reading comprhension?</p>
<p>Also what is a good math leve i should be at to be at college level?
Pre-algebra
Geometry
algebra II
Algeba III/TRIGNOMETY
Pre-calc,or calc</p>
<p>hmmmm… thats a really good idea, i was worried about what i should do for this exam that is approaching. Are the exams hard anyway?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>By reading dificult text. Like i said, try taking challenging course in HS if it’s not too late b.c it doesn’t matter if u mess up and thats the best prep for cc.</p></li>
<li><p>Like i said i don’t know what school that u want to enter wants. Take as high of level as u possibly can b/c if it’s high enough u can take it again in cc and u will have a great advantage.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hobo, i strongly disagree. Most students forget some math concepts or just need very brief refreshment, ie doing exponents, intro to trig etc. U can review those concepts quickly by urself. Taking a class for that is a MAJOR waste of time if u think u learned it and just to review.</p>
<p>Why do most teachers spend the first week of classes doing review in math? Same reason.</p>
<p>uhm… It’s been awhile but the placement exams i took were a mixture of easy and hard questions. The math one tested all types of math from algebra, algebra2 to trig and calculus. What was the highest math you completed in highschool? You really should be at least at the algebra 2 level if not higher. If you want to graduate on time you should be at the calculus level i believe (depends on your major). And it hink trig = pre calculus.</p>
<p>highschoolda,</p>
<p>i think it really depends. A lot of math classes build off of previous classes so if you weren’t proficient in one than your just going to get worse (much like chemistry). I can tell you right now that calculus uses almost no trigonometry, however trig uses a lot of concepts from algebra 2. For the science classes, this is definitely the case because like i said before, if you dont know the fundamentals you will get lose in the harder classes. Also, i don’t think the intro classes test minor things such as exponents and the such - it’s usually designed to have general questions on the subjects to determine where you place. Also, from my experience i would say that testing out of the lower math courses such as algebra 2 and trig should be really easy as long as you know the general concepts. I probably could have tested out of the first calculus class because i took calculus in highschool (Not AP though) but my school doesn’t allow you to test out of that calculus class unless you take calculus AP. So I took that class and after the midterm, i literally stopped going to class because the material was really easy. i studied a little for the final and got an easy A. However, my next calculus class was really hard. The material was very difficult. I took the same professor that i had for my first calculus class, so it definitely wasn’t the professor’s fault. I know that if i had gotten into that class in the beginning i probably would have done a lot worse than i did.</p>
<p>I take two classes now this year: Pre-calc and algebra III/Trig</p>
<p>although i do have to admit, i won’t be majoring in anything in the math field, i’m more lenient towards liberal arts</p>
<p>also another quick question is: Should i study vocabulary for the rest of my senior year; will that be very helpful for college?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Then u’ll be absolutely wrong bc Calculus has a ton of trig. Especially calc 2. U have to know all the trig identity formulas. U to know what qudrant each thing is in. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>All those concepts are found in placement test. I don’t know what kind of placement tests ur college gives, but my college gives tests on the computer. TO get to trig questions u must answer geom prbs, to get to geom prob u have to answer algbr probs and so on.</p>
<p>I am not saying go learn calc on ur own, although if u can thats not a bad idea. </p>
<p>I am just saying review math concepts b/c if it’s been a while u still know this stuff, u just need to refresh ur memory. </p>
<p>Even the brightest people in the world need to do this.</p>
<p>OK nuf said this is so basic, i should have to argue. BTW, i am talking about math here.</p>
<p>gista, if u’re in precalc, u’re in good shape. For me math is straightforward in a essence thats it’s objective. U can tell if u either know a concept or u don’t. Can u do a concept and get the right answer…</p>
<p><quote>
Then u’ll be absolutely wrong bc Calculus has a ton of trig. Especially calc 2. U have to know all the trig identity formulas. U to know what qudrant each thing is in. </quote></p>
<p>it’s been a while since i’ve taken calc 2 but if i remember it was only a small part of it and that part was relatively easy. It’s really easy to review the trig, in fact i was terrible at trig and got through. The hard part for me was the rotation and the areas.</p>
<p>and my placement exam was vastly different from yours. It had an equal amount of questions on all the subjects and at the end it gave you a diagnostic on how you did and what you need to improve on. I think it was 10 questions a subject ranging from easy to hard. You just had to score relatively decent to get into the calculus class. If your’re in precalc right now you’ll have no problem testing into precalc / calculus. If you get placed into precalc, just figure it as an easy A.</p>
<p>Gista369,</p>
<p>As others have said, doors that seem like they’re shut right now can be reopened. I was very average in High School and I ended up going to a CC. A few years later and I’m amazed that I’m actually able to give serious thought to attending Harvard or Yale for law school.</p>
<p>Also a susgestion, don’t cut off your entire social life, that’s a terrible idea. When I was at my CC I got much to wrapped up in school (it got to the point where I would be upset if I did not have the highest grade in the class) and ended up losing almost all my friends. Despite things at school going great, I felt terribly lonely and that was not fun to deal with. It’s important to focus on school, but you need a social life! Friends make getting through school a lot easier.</p>
<p>hey, allena since you said you didn’t have such a great high school record what made you change? i am very lazy and i have very bad work habits and study habits and i’m really trying to change that. Simple things like studying a little every day just doesn’t register in my brain. I’ve been attending all my classes this quarter unlike previous quarters but how do you develop that work ethic?</p>
<p>I think failing a calc midterm did it for me…(tho it has made me a bit neurotic 
)</p>
<p>hahaha nice. The problem with me is that i don’t really fail - i just get B’s and i justify them by telling myself - “for the amount of work i put in, a B is pretty good!” lol gotta strive for those A’s.</p>
<p>gista, i think you should develop good study habits if you haven’t already. I think it’s the most important thing you should learn because they are your key to success. No matter how a hard a class is, if you have good study habits you’ll be able to overcome the obstacles. I think that is what sets an A student from a B student. If you put 110% effort in your classes i think you’ll be able to get a pretty high gpa. I agree with highschoolda, you’re in pretty good shape if you’re in precalc right now. You just need calc at the cc and then you’ll be done with math. About the placement exams, i guess you can start studying if you want to be placed in a higher class. When i took it i thought it was pretty easy, altho i did come from a competitive hs and took ap calc during hs. I’m sure there are sample placement tests on the cc’s website. Mine had sample questions. It’ll give you a feel for what the sample test is like.</p>
<p>don’t take calc unless u have to, calc can be quite challenging.</p>
<p>Hobofromdowntown,</p>
<p>As odd as it sounds, a lot of it was just to prove a point. I had a few friends who nearly constantly told me how if I pulled C’s in college (even at the Junior College level) I’d be lucky. So out of fear I studied like crazy in order to hold a 3.0, which had been around my average throughout high school. All the work paid off and instead of a 3.0, I ended up with a 4.0. After that point I basically just kept working hard and holding onto the high GPA.</p>