Is Coolege Algebra & Trig the same thing as Pre-Calculus?

[Poker-face]

I am at community college taking intermediate Algebra. I want to move up to Calculus. I was told that College Algebra and Trig is Pre-Calculus. Is this true?

Thanks,
EG

 

[winowmak3r]

Every CC is different, but the one I'm going to college algebra was a step above intermediate. In that case, you'll probably want to take pre-calc before calculus or take college algebra (or whatever equivalent is at your school) and trig. Before calculus you'll want to be able to be able to factor in your sleep and be best friends with the unit circle and the 90 degree triangles.

If you take one semester of Trig and one semester of College Algebra you'll have essentially taken one semester of Pre-Calc. Most semester long pre-calc courses are basically everything you need to know about trig and algebra crammed into one semester. It's usually taken in the very first semester of one's college career before taking Calculus, if one has had up to something like "Algebra II" at high school. Depending on how confident you are at math, you could skip pre-calc and take Calc I next semester or take Pre-Calc next semester and learn your trig there. I'm pretty good at trig but am not so hot when it comes to the algebra so I took College Algebra and then precalc and learned the trig there. Really depends on your prior math experience. I'd recommend pre-calc or trig after your algebra course before taking calculus I.

Every college is different, the best advice you'll get is from an adviser at your school.