Reply to How can precalc be an AP class?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not all states have 4 years obligatory math in high school. For example California only has 2 years mandatory, which is why precalculus could be a university class.[/quote]

But wouldn't it be considered remedial? There are college English classes that cover the absolute basics of grammar and composition,  and they're zero-level classes, whereas "Introductory Composition" is 101[/quote]

All the scoffing is a little ridiculous, elitist and parochial, all at once. The educational requirements are varied across the 50 states not everything is the same as in your neck of the woods.

It would not be remedial, but if course it will not count as a requirement for science and engineering majors. It will count for some other majors like humanities, and frankly you don’t need to take calculus for comparative literature or marketing.

If UC Berkeley has a precalculus course and gives credit to it, it’s good enough as an AP from some random high school. It’s up there with all lower division courses like calculus, multi, Lin alg, etc.
https://math.berkeley.edu/courses/overview/lowerdivcourses/math32

Another benefit is in an age of grade inflation and lax standards there some attempt at an independent evaluation, which I welcome. [/quote]
But the AP precalc exam is watered down. It only tests on the first three units of AP Precalc, which is roughly 2/3 Algebra 2 content. The exam does not cover the more challenging aspects of precalc.[/quote]

Check the Berkeley precalculus, it’s the same as what’s on the AP exam.

College Board doesn’t have to do the most challenging course or the most in depth, probably there are honors precalculus classes that are better.

The student should choose whatever makes the most sense to them. [/quote]
Berkeley's course appears to cover even less content than the watered down AP Precalc exam; no polar functions. Berkeley's course is just a validation of Algebra 2 skills. The SAT does the same thing. But, since the UC no longer considers SAT scores, they appear to need an alternative way to do the same thing.

Berkeley's course name for precalc is interesting. Math 32. Generally, math courses are ordered sequentially in order of difficulty. But calculus is Math 1 at Berkeley. So their options were to label Precalc as Math 0 or give it a higher number. They opted for the latter even though it is incongruous with the ordering of other courses. [/quote]

There's always kids that need remedial courses in college. Their HS didn't offer good coursework, they struggle on some subjects etc. But we used to just call it remedial, now that term is disfavored.[/quote]

[b]It isn’t remedial, there’s only two years of math required in high school in California [/b]so a student could be done after geometry. Most take 4 years, however given that the UC system serves a large number of California residents, it makes sense to offer precalculus.

Those classes were never called remedial. They are just called the same as they would be in high school, ie algebra geometry etc. Students that need to take them most often go through the CC, where precalculus can be transferred to UC, but algebra and geometry can’t.

It has always been like that, it has nothing to do with SAT, or anything else.[/quote]

That doesn't mean it's not remedial -- admitting students who don't have the standard college prep background doesn't mean college graduation standards have been lowered, it just means that kids who might not have been admitted previously will be given more help to catch up. That's a good thing, but it doesn't make precalc a college-level course.

I mean, you can argue that if it's taught in college, it's by definition a college-level course, but in that case, you're abandoning standards entire rather than being flexible in how students meet them.[/quote]

Then you don’t know what remedial is. Not only Precalculus is offered at a university, it also counts towards a degree. Remedial courses don’t earn credit.

You’re writing from the viewpoint of someone intending to major in stem, not everyone follows this path. Whatever you think the standard college prep background is, it’s just too narrow.

AP Precalculus is in the same category as AP Physics 1, 2. It’s not good for a stem degree but it satisfies requirements for other degrees (eg nursing). You wouldn’t say AP Physics is remedial.[/quote]
DP. Then why put students intending to go on to BC calculus into AP Precalculus? [/quote]

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