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? re College Algebra vs. Lial's Intermed. Alg


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I'm trying to come to a decision for my ds#2 regarding concurrent enrollment in college algebra or finishing up his Lial's Intermediate Algebra. I'm wondering if college algebra would cover the same material (or close) to Lial's Intermediate Algebra.

 

We will be enrolling for the spring semester soon and my plan was to have him take college algebra in spring 2010, trig in fall 2010, and calculus 1 in spring 2011(his senior year). He will finish Lial's Intermed Alg. in the spring of 2010 if we don't enroll him in college algebra. His ACT score in April 09 (spring of 10th grade) for math was 29. Based on that score, I think he could go ahead and enroll in Trig, but I don't think concurrent students can CLEP so I might just want him to go ahead and take College Algebra before trig so he can get the credit - even if he finds it easy (that will be a bonus).

 

Any advice here? I don't really want to finish Lial's Intermed. Algebra at home if it covers the same material he could get college credit for if he were enrolled in college algebra in the spring. Does that make sense?

 

TIA

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I'm trying to come to a decision for my ds#2 regarding concurrent enrollment in college algebra or finishing up his Lial's Intermediate Algebra. I'm wondering if college algebra would cover the same material (or close) to Lial's Intermediate Algebra.

 

We will be enrolling for the spring semester soon and my plan was to have him take college algebra in spring 2010, trig in fall 2010, and calculus 1 in spring 2011(his senior year). He will finish Lial's Intermed Alg. in the spring of 2010 if we don't enroll him in college algebra. His ACT score in April 09 (spring of 10th grade) for math was 29. Based on that score, I think he could go ahead and enroll in Trig, but I don't think concurrent students can CLEP so I might just want him to go ahead and take College Algebra before trig so he can get the credit - even if he finds it easy (that will be a bonus).

 

Any advice here? I don't really want to finish Lial's Intermed. Algebra at home if it covers the same material he could get college credit for if he were enrolled in college algebra in the spring. Does that make sense?

 

TIA

 

Not all college algebras are equal.... the college algebra at ds college has trig in it and the college does not have a trig course. With Chalkdust, their Algebra 2 is the Intermediate Algebra book, and there is another one for college algebra (which does not have trig, there is a separate trig book, and the precalculus book has both college algebra and trig).

 

I would take the Lial's book to the college bookstore and compare them, your answer will be clear!

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With Chalkdust, their Algebra 2 is the Intermediate Algebra book, and there is another one for college algebra (which does not have trig, there is a separate trig book, and the precalculus book has both college algebra and trig).

 

I would take the Lial's book to the college bookstore and compare them, your answer will be clear!

 

Ack! My bad! It's the Lial's College Algebra book that ds used at our university. Sorry about that!

 

Lisa

:leaving:

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Why not have him take the college placement test and see where he lands?

 

He has, sort of indirectly. The university requires a 19 in math on the ACT for admission into College Algebra. He scored a 28 last spring. So he could definitely enroll - I'm just not sure if I'll be short-changing him by having him drop the intermediate algebra 1/2 the way through. I know he would be able to handle the class...just not sure if there will be some gap that we discover later, say, in calculus.

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My daughter completed Lial's Intermediate Algebra which was Algebra 2. She subsequently took College Algebra and Trigonometry at the Community College. Both of those classes used Sullivan's PreCalculus textbook. College Algebra was definitely Algebra 3 in her case.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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It is a continuation of Intermediate Algebra.

 

"Algebra for College Students' is a DIFFERENT course--it is a review of Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 "smushed together"--and is not for college credit.

 

Have him finish Intermediate Algebra and then move to College Algebra--or if he misses the cut-off and can't take it at the university (dual) then he can complete it at home then test out of it.

 

College Algebra is the first half of the Pre-Calc text. Trig is the second half.

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Thanks all, you've been very helpful. I was ready to chuck the rest of the book, but when I looked at the table of contents (as suggested), I did see that he would be missing some things. Jann, I appreciate the time you took to PM me also. I have worked out a bit of an accelerated schedule which will allow him to complete the book before the spring semester. Oh, I don't think ds will exactly relish the acceleration, but I don't think he's relishing much right now anyways (except food and sleep) :glare:

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Back in the dark ages of the early 1980's I did concurrent enrollment at UCO (Central State back then). My dad teaches homeschool bands in OK and teaches history at UCO--he says that his dual enrollment homeschool students ALWAYS set the curve in his classes! DH and I are both OU grads...

happily living in TEXAS! (well except for last Saturday...)

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He will be taking courses at Rogers State Univ (previously the old military academy). It is now a school under OU's jurisdiction. My oldest is a sophomore at OU majoring in Petroleum Engineering. Many of the professors at RSU say that the homeschooled kids are their best students. My son received glowing letters of recommendation from some of his RSU professors. However the composition profs seem to have a bone to pick with the homeschoolers - so we do that class online. For some reason they actively try to chip away at the belief systems of these kids by requiring attendance for viewing R rated movies (sexually explicit), reading poorly written, semi-pornographic literature (because it was written by a local author), etc. With that exception, the dual enrollment opportunity here is fantastic.

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However the composition profs seem to have a bone to pick with the homeschoolers - so we do that class online. For some reason they actively try to chip away at the belief systems of these kids by requiring attendance for viewing R rated movies (sexually explicit), reading poorly written, semi-pornographic literature (because it was written by a local author), etc. With that exception, the dual enrollment opportunity here is fantastic.

 

 

 

Hate to derail your post, Cynthia, but that is precisely our experience as well! Why *is* it that freshman comp profs are determined to "broaden" (ds' prof's words) these kids' worldview?! I've been hugely dissapointed both in the undisguised agenda and unimpressive academic value of some of the assigments.*

 

Given ds1's guinea pig experience, my next kids will do AP English and Lit online.

 

::sigh::

Lisa

 

*ETA: Such as the "pop culure" assignments including watching late-night comedy channel and The Family Guy.

Edited by FloridaLisa
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It is sad. But we did have a great experience using the university's online course for freshman comp for my oldest. Some of the homeschoolers in the area decided they wanted their kids to sit in the classroom because they felt the kids would get more out of it than online. These parents were warned about the content - but they did it anyways ( I think they though we were too critical) and by the end of the semester they were steaming mad!

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