After scoring high enough (barely) to go straight to Calc based on the Math Placement exam, I was wondering if i should still take pre-calc in order to maximize my GPA by making sure I really have the pre-calc concepts down cold before starting calc.
I''ve heard some say that there's not a huge correlation between them- have any of you who took both think they really needed pre-calc to succeed at Business Calc?

I didn't learn crap in my high school pre cal class and i still managed to pull off a B in 141 with a lot of work. I took 142 this semester and had to Q drop it even though I had a 99 Homework average the exams had trick questions that would trip me up. The people who took Calculus in high school seemed to have the upper hand which isn't that surprising. The classes aren't similar at all so I don't think it would hurt you to go straight into 142 but if I were you i'd take it at a community college since has a around a 40% Q drop rate and all the professors are crappy.

I knocked both out in a Maymester at a local community college.

I took them both over the course of a summer at a community college. In my time, there was only one prof who was considered decent at A&M (Amy Austin), and I couldnt get into her class. Wasnt worth it to "chance" it at A&M and have to fail/drop, so I paid less for the same thing online.

Based on my tutoring people in them, both classes are a joke, but granted I'm an engineer so math came easy for me.

powerbelly51 said:

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I knocked both out in a Maymester at a local community college.

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Mays is highly restrictive on what outside schools count for 141 and 142 transfer now

Edit: saw Amy Austin and thought we were talking 151/152 vs. Business Calc

141 isn't pre-cal

Last time I looked, about 35-40% of the students fail this course. Don't take it at TAMU if you're trying to fulfill a core requirement.

Aggie09Derek said:

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141 isn't pre-cal

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This

We just visited with an admissions counselor and Math 1324 (Texas Equlvelency course number) and it's equivelent Math 141 at A&M was described to us as covering many pre-cal concepts.

Granted it's been just under 10 years since I took Math 141, but the class I took was much more focused on algebra,probability/statistics, and logic. I ended switching to the college of engineering and of course had to take Math 151 and 152. I can honestly say that nothing I learned in Math 141 was applicable to Cal 1 or Cal 2. You could argue that some of the stuff may be helpful for Cal 3 and differential equations or linear algebra (systems of equations, matrix operations, etc).

The course certainly could have changed since I took it, but I was curious and looked at the course description in the current catalog and it sounds like it hasn't.

Be vigilant/wary about what you hear from admissions counselors regarding course content; I'd reach out to advisers in the department of math for that info.