Fr Chris' Trigonometry & Pre-Calculus Course Web Site

At the turn of the century (2005), some (like R. James Milgram at Stanford) claimed that over 40% of graduating seniors in California were not prepared enough to enroll in college level mathematics courses. Before enrolling in a Mathematics class at the Cal State and Cal Poly schools students must take a an Entry Level Mathematics exam (ELM) and at most University of California campuses they require passing a Mathematics Diagnostic Test (MDT).

You can link to the Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project web page here. At the start of the year you should be able to pass the Math Readiness (MR) test, which is what would be required to enrolled for the Precalculus Course at a four-year university. At the end of the year, you should be able to pass the Calculus readiness (CR) test.

Before attempting them, get at least two (2) sheets of blank paper (no calculators allowed) and allow yourself one hour in a quiet place. Unlike an AP or SAT exam, try not to guess. The idea is to find out which skills you need to improve, and you don't want a lucky guess to hide an area of deficiency. At the end of the test it tells you which of six (or eight for the CR test) areas of math each question is evaluating.

The objective of this course is to help students do well on these exams (as well as the SAT Mathematics Level 2 Subject Test, formerly known as the SAT-II Mathematics IIC exam) so as to avoid any remedial Mathematics Courses at college (i.e. cannot be applied toward General Ed (GE) nor Elective requirements toward a Bachelors degree).

Next to the weekly homework assignments I have referenced, as much as possible, the relevant skill on these exams as well as the Mathematics Standard of the NTCM and the State of California.

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