Math Advising

We've accomplished a lot this year in terms of communicating to others our advice about placement, etc. We're getting many compliments from students and others who see the Web pages. Thanks to everyone who has helped with this!

At the Feb. 20 meeting with RGC counselors and advisors, we agreed

• To investigate using the "Diagnostic" scores on the COMPASS. (Apparently they can print something about this for each student.) Irene will be going to a meeting at the TCCTA convention about how these can be correlated with the curriculum from an Addison-Wesley-Longman book. We need to figure out how we would use these scores if we convinced the college to pay the extra money or whatever it takes to get them.
• To provide a way for advisors and counselors to get definitive answers to their questions from the TF. (See our official advising page and follow the link at the bottom about questions.)
• Ferne also said that she'd try to talk with math faculty members at RGC (because this was a RGC meeting) and see if we can get lists of who is available to answer advising questions and when are good times to send students to them. No doubt the counselors and advisors at all the campuses would appreciate that.

Here are some of my ideas about where we need to go next. As always, before anything goes up on the public Web pages, it will go up here in draft form and there will be opportunity for input, discussion, and changes.

1. Write something about what NCBR is and what it is not. (Mary W. says she spends far too much time explaining that it is NOT an opportunity for the student to take Elementary Algebra as a self-paced course with a personal one-on-one tutor.)
2. Advice about algebra for students who have been home-schooled. Basically, the advice is to not trust the results of a multiple choice standardized test about whether they have learned Algebra II. Some smart kids who have been home-schooled may do great on standardized tests, and, if they enroll in College Algebra, may even pass it. But, if they intend to go on, no other course will really fill in all the gaps they might have at the Intermediate Algebra level. So, if they intend to go on to take Calculus, they really should make sure that they can pass a test on algebra that actually has problems for them to work out (like our Prereq Review Sheet for Trig.). Our experience is that students who studied Algebra II on their own often skipped some of the chapters if they or their parents didn't understand all the parts, and so have some "catching up" to do. None of the later courses will necessarily give them the teaching they need for that "catching up".
3. Some overall page of advice about how math courses, although they're linear, don't teach you all the material in the previous courses. I don't know yet exactly how I'll write it, but my purpose is to make it clear that, if a student doesn't know HS Algebra II, he should not expect to learn those topics in College Alg or Trig. Similarly, if a student doesn't know Trig, he should not expect that the little time spent on it in Precalculus or even in Calculus will teach him Trig.
4. Revise the Web Prerequisite Review Sheets. I'd like for all of them to have "answers" more like those on the trig test, where it gives the name of the technique so they could look it up in a textbook. I also think that we need more thought about the 1764, 1674, and 1854 ones.
5. Put links to some Web sites that students can use to review algebra. Or suggest good computer software. Also, maybe make more specific suggestions about how they could use Schaum's Outlines to study these. I'd like for us to get a really good Web site for review and then we could give review sessions for the Assessment Test and for the TASP test in a computer lab somewhere and introduce students to all of our materials. They could continue to use the site to review after the session was over. Of course, I think we also should continue (and even expand) the review sessions we have for TASP (and don't we also do some for the Assessment Test?) in a more conventional format.
6. Increase the number of links to four-year colleges' lists with which of our courses will transfer. (Maybe encourage others to put up such lists!)

History: (These won't be updated any more. New files will be created for discussion of advising updates)

COMPASS committee

Draft of Web Advising info

Draft of first set of answers to questions from advisors, first draft

DVM 1051 (and non-course-based remediation): Proposal for NCBR Guidelines, Previous discussion documents

Last updated Feb. 21, 1998. mparker@austin.cc.tx.us