Considering college, what to study beforehand?

[Holocene]

First let me say that I have never considered myself to be particularly strong in mathematics. This is primarily due to the fact that I did not take any of it seriously in high school.

5 years later, I actually find myself quite interested. I have decided that I would like to try my hand at starting a degree in physics at the local community college.

It wouldn't be until sometime next year, so I have about 6 months to buy books and really try to get my math skills up to a level that will be appropriate for surviving college material.

My question to you guys is, what specific area of math should I educate myself in?

The college courses being with Calculus 1, so obviously I'm going to be studying everything from pre-algebra, to more advanced algebra, and then finally buy some pre-calculus books.

Am I missing anything?

Should I brush up on geometry or trigonometry as well?

Anything suggestions on what I should specifically be studying PRIOR to starting classes would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Brad Barker]

First let me say that I have never considered myself to be particularly strong in mathematics. This is primarily due to the fact that I did not take any of it seriously in high school.

5 years later, I actually find myself quite interested. I have decided that I would like to try my hand at starting a degree in physics at the local community college.

It wouldn't be until sometime next year, so I have about 6 months to buy books and really try to get my math skills up to a level that will be appropriate for surviving college material.

My question to you guys is, what specific area of math should I educate myself in?

The college courses being with Calculus 1, so obviously I'm going to be studying everything from pre-algebra, to more advanced algebra, and then finally buy some pre-calculus books.

Am I missing anything?

Should I brush up on geometry or trigonometry as well?

Anything suggestions on what I should specifically be studying PRIOR to starting classes would be appreciated.

Thanks.

you'll need trigonometry.

for a brief review of precalc algebra and trig, and a very lucid introduction to the concepts of calculus, i'd recommend "the complete idiot's guide to calculus." i loved it back when i used it before my first calculus class.

 

[Holocene]

you'll need trigonometry.

for a brief review of precalc algebra and trig, and a very lucid introduction to the concepts of calculus, i'd recommend "the complete idiot's guide to calculus." i loved it back when i used it before my first calculus class.

Thanks. Will definitely look into that.

 

[leakin99]

I have found the following website useful when it came to notes that were easy to understand and digest. I used it for Calc III and DEs. There is also a section about algebra and some review on the Calc I section. It's free and you can download the whole set of notes as one pdf file or individual chapters.

Algebra: http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/Alg/Alg.aspx

Check out the first section of the notes, "Review"
http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcI/CalcI.aspx

This is good too: http://library.thinkquest.org/20991/calc/precalc.html

I would suggest you pay a visit to a library. The bigger ones usually have a decent collection of math books.

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Extras/StudyMath/HowToStudyMath.aspx
It gives you some good pointers. I found it very helpful.

 

[thebuttonfreak]

hey! I followed a similar path to yours and it worked out great. Lots of algebra and trig.

Know your functions!