Back to school

I have decided to start taking college classes. I am on day shift now and the company will reimburse me if I get good grades up to a certain dollar amount per year. I have had an associate degree for a long time. Now its time for something else. Its an accredited online university and a lot of my old credits transferred. I start Pre-Calculus at the end of the month. What have I gotten myself into

Pre-Calculus not too bad. What's good these days is you can find good help online if you get stuck &/or have trouble with a math topic. I'm sure YouTube has plenty of videos teaching various levels of math. Though I haven't looked (yet).

My daughter uses internet videos a lot (most from links that go with the math program from her college) and they help her immensely. No way I could help her, it's all way over my head and attention span.

What is pre-calculus?

I'm guessing it's what JJ Abrams was doing during that time after he had announced that he would do Star Trek, but before he had released his first movie: He was already planning to be derivative of various sources, but he had yet to functionally integrate those derivations into that new area of expertise, you know, the one with variably defined limits that can move about, but will always remain below the values of the original formula?

I'm not sure. They offered that at my high school, and a lot of people who went on to calculus in 12th grade took pre-calc in 11th. I took a different math class in 11th, that was more focused on logic and analysis. When we got to calculus the next year, it didn't seem like my classmates had missed anything by not taking pre-calc.

In American mathematics education, precalculus (or Algebra 3 in some areas), is an advanced form of secondary school algebra, and a foundational mathematical discipline. It is also called Introduction to Analysis. In many schools, precalculus is actually two separate courses: Algebra and Trigonometry. Precalculus prepares students for calculus the same way as pre-algebra prepares students for Algebra I. While pre-algebra teaches students many different fundamental algebra topics, precalculus does not involve calculus, but explores topics that will be applied in calculus. It often involves covering algebraic topics that might not have been given attention in earlier algebra courses. Some precalculus courses might differ with others in terms of content. For example, an honors level course might spend more time on conic sections, vectors, and other topics needed for calculus, used in fields such as medicine or engineering. A college preparatory class might focus on topics used in business-related careers, such as matrices, or power functions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-calculus

It's easy.

Thank you...my head just exploded! I really feel sorry for the janitor.

that's awesome that your company will reimburse you! what sort of degree are you going for? the videos online can be really helpful, especially since you'll be taking classes online. i'm a fan of khanacademy. their videos helped me quite a bit with organic, and they have videos on almost every topic.

It's what you take before Calculus if you just squeaked by in Trigonometry.

Good info.

But doesn't ep claim to be an engineer of some description? If so, why is he having to go back to study high school maths?

I think EP is a plant engineer. Very common for them to not have degrees, as they typically excel due to working in from the ground up. They're practical.

Put someone with his kind of experience with some headlearning, and you'll see someone more valuable than the other way around.

It goes

Algebra
Geometry
Algebra 2
Precalculus aka trig
Calculus

Yeah, I am basically an engineer without the degree. I work with 2 electrical engineers and I am also a systems administrator. I don't have an credentials to go with it and so I want to get that just in case I have to go to another company.
I have already had a lot of maths with my associate degree. I had 2 different college algebras and trig through university of maryland.
Frontline, its Grantham University. Its not top accredited but it passes muster with my corporation and another guy in my facility is using them. With the way I work, its that or nothing. Its all online except going to a local U to get the exams proctored.
My associate degree was CCAF (community college of the air force) and they gave me some credits for all the electronics training I had with my weather equipment tech training at air force tech schools. With my transfer credits, I am pretty far down the path of the Electronics Engineering degree that they offer. A lot of the electronics courses that I have to take, I don't think I will have trouble with. I had 1307 classroom hours of electronics. My English is out of the way and my physics, but I have never had calculus. I need precalc, and then calc 1 and calc 2. Those looked the most daunting for me so I want to do those first.

When was the last time you had any math classes? Even precalc can overwhelm you if you don't remember Algebra or Trig. I would recommend Khan Academy, assuming you don't mind it's run by a dirty Indian.

I had my last college math class 24 years ago, when I was 24 I have forgotten some I know but I do use math in my job on a regular basis. I wish I could take more physics classes. I might do for electives. I want to get into the quantum stuff. All I ever had was Newtonian. I also want to take all the programming and systems stuff I can because it will help me in my current role.

I decided to bump this. I haven't been on we much due to my class work. I just took the precalculus final. I had a lot of catching up to do besides learning new things. I liked it though and didn't miss a single problem with my assignments or on any test. Just took the final and didn't miss any on it either. I got an A with 100%! I am already signed up for Calculus1 starting the 30th of the oct. I want to then go on to calc2 and be done with pure math classes and get into electronics and programming.

Damn you people are smart! I feel like a caveman since it took me two tries just to get through Algebra one when I was in High School (and my brain was at it's peak, take that for what it's worth). I am truly blessed making a good living with my feeble brain. 7-11 clerks are smarter than me!

So far I like it because its been 20+ years and now I can see all the applications in real life for the math.

So, now I am waiting on the results of my calcII final. I like it. My degree does not require any more math, but I would like to have a class with calculus and Newtonian physics. It general chemistry up next starting in a week.

97 on the final. Woo hoo. I should come out with a 93 for the whole course. It figures that I finally get a break from class and I get a rotten cold. I had to break down and go list my ss and license number and get some pseudo-ephedrine.

Are you better yet?

I am well, thank you. I just started chemistry. I did well on the first homework assignment, but did not do well at all on my first lab report. It's all about dragging out into five or six pages, what could be said in one paragraph. I will adjust.

That does bring up a point. When one buys his legal pseudo-ephedrine limit for 3weeks at the same time one starts a chemistry class in university, does one get put on a special list ?

Talk to people, find someone who has already taken the class and got an A. Get lab reports (they do the same ones every semester) DO NOT COPY learn from those A's. Been there, got the shirt.

It's difficult because it's an online university. Just me and the book and I can email the prof if I have a question and they will respond within 2 days.

Do a google search.

Studying for my Chemistry final now. Lost of cool stuff. Molecular geometry makes a lot of sense. The whole class has been giving me answers to things I always wanted to know. I can't imagine younger folks going through something like this class and being able understand its applications to the real world.