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Maybe a silly question, but here goes: how does TT PreCalc compare to College Alg?


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Here's why I ask:

 

After completing BJU Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2, and College Algebra (Lial-Hornsby-Miller) in high school, ER received CLEP credit for both College Mathematics and College Algebra, the only math classes he would have been required to take as a music major.

 

EK also plans to test for CLEP credit for College Algebra. She has been using Teaching Textbooks math courses, and within a few weeks, she will have completed TT Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2. For next year (12th grade), I had planned for her to do TT PreCalculus. She plans to be an early childhood education major, and we've been looking at the catalog of the college she plans to attend. She will be required to take College Algebra, but not College Mathematics. (She will also have to take some "math-for-teachers" courses.)

 

Will TT PreCalculus prepare her for the College Algebra CLEP test, or should I have her take the aforementioned Lial-Hornsby-Miller College Algebra course instead? Would I be correct in assuming that the PreCalculus course will have more trigonometry in it than the College Algebra course? Or would these two courses be roughly equivalent?

Edited by ereks mom
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College Algebra is the first half of a precalc course (precalc being college algebra plus trigonometry). Maybe for a CLEP test in college algebra, the TT precalc would be more than needed, and the Lial college algebra text would be the better choice.

 

I was wondering if this (bolded) might be the case. But...

 

ER went from BJU Algebra 2 to College Algebra, but TT Algebra 2 isn't nearly as rigorous as BJU. From what I've read, TT Algebra 2 + about half of TT PreCalculus is roughly equivalent to BJU Algebra 2. Ahhh, decisions, decisions!

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The first 100 lessons of TT Pre-Calc are actually Algebra 2...

That doesn't leave much of the text for an actual Pre-Calc program that contains Algebra 3 and Trig...

 

TT does NOT contain a full semester of College Algebra-- and it does not contain a full semester of Trig...

 

It does have 'enough' for the average/above average student to move on to Calc... in the 'dark ages' students went right from Algebra 2 (with just a tad of Trig) into Calc.... but the FAILURE rate of those students was pretty high...

 

Not sure if TT would have enough to prepare for a CLEP test... it would prepare her to take College Algebra in college... actual credit always looks better than CLEP and will count towards GPA points...

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Option 1: get TT Precalc. now and do the 100 lessons Jann in TX says are actually Alg. 2 at the end of this school year and maybe the beginning of next year, then move to College Algebra (Lial's). Dd moved from BJU to Lial's this year, it was a good move.

 

Option 2: get a used Lial's Intermediate Algebra used, take tests in chapters already covered, then for the rest of the year do the chapters not covered in TT to finish up a true Algebra 2 course. Then do Lial's College Algebra next year.

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Option 1: get TT Precalc. now and do the 100 lessons Jann in TX says are actually Alg. 2 at the end of this school year and maybe the beginning of next year, then move to College Algebra (Lial's). Dd moved from BJU to Lial's this year, it was a good move.

 

Option 2: get a used Lial's Intermediate Algebra used, take tests in chapters already covered, then for the rest of the year do the chapters not covered in TT to finish up a true Algebra 2 course. Then do Lial's College Algebra next year.

 

I'd already been thinking about doing as you suggested in your first Option. And I already have a couple of Lial's textbooks. I think one of them is Intermediate Algebra, and of course, the College Algebra that ER used a few years ago. Thanks!

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