from Mary Parker, Professor of Mathematics, Northridge Campus, Austin Community College
The college-credit courses which form the sequence leading to MATH 2413 at ACC are
Many students enter ACC having already succeeded in a year of precalculus in high school. Such students have met the course prerequisite to start at any level in this sequence, depending upon how well they remember the material. It would be a good idea to discuss your ACC Assessment Test scores with a mathematics advisor to see whether they indicate that you remember the material well enough to begin higher in the sequence.
Students who have succeeded in one semester of precalculus, which includes trigonometry, after their second year of high school algebra, have satisfied the course prerequisite for the Trigonometry course (MATH 1316).
Students who score 79 or higher on the COMPASS Algebra Test have demonstrated enough current algebra skill to enroll in Trigonometry (MATH 1316).
Students who have neither a semester or more of a high school precalculus course nor have scored a 79 or higher on the COMPASS Algebra test must begin with either MATH 1314, College Algebra, or MATD 0390, Intermediate Algebra, depending upon their test scores.
Under what circumstances can a student go directly from MATD 0390, Intermediate Algebra, to MATH 1316, Trigonometry?
The specific algebraic skills needed to succeed in a Trigonometry course are those in Intermediate Algebra. Most students are considerably better at those skills after taking College Algebra, thus College Algebra is often used as a prerequisite for Trigonometry. However, some students are good enough at those skills to handle Trigonometry after succeeding well in Intermediate Algebra.
Moreover, the new topics covered in a College Algebra course are also covered (in more depth) in a Precalculus course. Because the Precalculus course covers harder problems and a few additional topics, it is essential that you take that course before taking Calculus, whether you have taken College Algebra or not.
Putting those two facts together, it is clear that some strong mathematics students who are in a hurry to get to Calculus may go directly from Intermediate Algebra to Trigonometry, then to Precalculus, then to Calculus. This path eliminates most of the repetition of topics among the courses.
Students who prefer to have a more leisurely pace, with some repetition, should go from Intermediate Algebra to College Algebra to Trigonometry to Precalculus to Calculus.
Go back to the outline of Mary Parker's "Where should I start in college-credit mathematics?"
This page was prepared by Mary Parker, mparker@austincc.edu.
It was last reviewed on April 21, 2001.