When students have difficulty in Calculus, it is almost always due to their pre-calculus background and not the ideas behind Calculus. Hence we will have an exam covering pre-calculus on Jan 25. If you do not earn a grade of 80% or higher on this exam, then you will receive a 0 on this exam. You will be given 5 chances to pass the exam at the 80% level at which point your final pre-calc exam grade will be the average of all the pre-calc exams you have taken. In order to re-take the pre-calc exam, you will need to complete some additional HW related to the problems you missed. Once you have earned 80% or above, you can take the pre-calc exam at most one additional time at the next available time it is offered. However, if you earn below 80%, your grade will be replaced by 0 until you again earn 80% or more.

Example: you take pre-calc exams 3 times with the following grades: 60, 70, 80. Then your pre-calc grade is (60 + 70 + 80)/3 = 70.

Example: you take pre-calc exams 5 times with the following grades: 79, 79, 79, 79, 79. Then your pre-calc grade is 0.

Example: you take pre-calc exams 1 times with the following grades: 80. Then your pre-calc grade is 80.

Example: you take pre-calc exams 3 times with the following grades: 80, 100. Then your pre-calc grade is (80 + 100)/2 = 90.

Example: you take pre-calc exams 3 times with the following grades: 80, 79, 80. Then your pre-calc grade is (80 + 79 + 80)/3 = 79.7. Note since you chose to take the exam a 2nd time and earned below 80, you were required to take a 3rd time.

To check your pre-calc background, you can take Stewart's Diagnostic Exams A, B, C, D. These are available in our textbook (6th edition) and are also available online at (click on "Look Inside") http://www.amazon.com/Single-Variable-Calculus-Early-Transcendentals/dp/049501169X

In addition to the above, the pre-calculus exam will also cover material from sections 1.1 - 1.3 plus some simple expontial/logorithmic questions (click here, for example of first few questions). Some other places Note I do not guarantee the safety/accuracy/etc. of the following websites:

Precalculus Problems Website. This website lists many different topics. Each section provide examples to work through. When you are done you can click the solutions button

          Some good practice problems from the above:
            Solving Polynomial and Rational Inequalities
            Algebraic Simplification

Ms. Lindquist: The Free Algebra Tutor for Word Problems

ALEKS: pre-calculus review

Khan Academy

Math Forum library--links to other websites

MIT OpenCourseWare Single Variable Calculus Fall 2010 (designed for independent study, includes video lectures)

MIT OpenCourseWare Single Variable Calculus Fall 2006

MIT OpenCourseWare Single Variable Calculus Fall 2005

MIT OpenCourseWare Calculus with Theory I Fall 2002

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