Ann.without.an.e Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I really want dd to take Chemistry at the community college next year. They absolutely require her to also take the math and she doesn't want to take math there. They will not allow her to test out of the class completely. She can register for the math and then ask the prof if she can test out. It will be up to his discretion. The math is not a co-requisite it is a pre-requisite and it "may" be given this summer but maybe not and we won't know that until much later. So "if" it is given this summer and "if" there is room after normal registration then she might be able to enroll and then maybe be able to take a placement test to skip the test. All of this to take chemistry. So, do we just ditch the idea of chemistry and only DE for things like Psychology or History? or do we attempt to jump through the hoops and hope for the best? Any experiences? Thanks :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I think you should have her take the prerequisite math course, it is not an unreasonable requirement. There will be many classes over the course of her education that have prerequisites in place. The only thing I might suggest is that you find out if they will accept a CLEP exam in it's place and have her take that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I agree, can she take a CLEP exam to fulfill the requirement? They are probably trying to prevent a student from taking a Chemistry class that has math the student may not be ready for. That just leads to frustration for both the student and the teacher and possibly dropping out of the class. Maybe they would accept a CLEP exam to prove she can handle the math requirements. (I don't know your child, obviously so I have no idea what her math skills level is. Do you have any access to the materials they use in the pre-requisite math class? If you think she is definitely prepared for the college level math in this college level Chemistry class, hopefully a CLEP exam will be a way to prove it.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann.without.an.e Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 It really won't be a problem taking it this summer if it is offered. If it isn't then she will need to wait a year on Chemistry and she wants to take physics her senior year. So I guess I should reword...if she can't take it this summer then should she just skip taking math and science at this school? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I'm a little worried that dd might be facing this kind of thing come the fall. The Physics class she'd like to take at the CC has a co-requisite of Pre-Calc. She will be taking Pre-Calc next year, but online - she loves her teacher (same teacher does Alg2 and PreCalc), and is doing great. The CC teachers for PreCalc get pretty much universally panned. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for Physics (the CC teachers for the Physics, otoh, get great reviews), if she can't take it there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Can dd try talking directly to a professor or dean of chemistry? If she's lucky, one will be willing to listen to her explanation and possibly allow her to go ahead and test out before registering. I honestly don't get why they require this - is it b/c they make you pay for the class regardless? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I honestly don't get why they require this - is it b/c they make you pay for the class regardless? They require the prerequisite math because it is necessary for success in chemistry. It looks as if the CC has no universal "testing out" procedure in place, rather such examination for credit would have to be performed by the math instructor. This is nothing unusual. At my school, if any student wants to skip the physics prerequisite to be allowed to take the next higher course, but does not have college credit for the class on record, it will be up to me, the instructor of the prerequisite course, to give the student an examination to determine whether he has mastered the subject material sufficiently. I am not entirely sure what the OP's issue is. Prerequisite courses are standard, and it is also standard that - if no transferred college credit is on record - the instructor of the course determines whether the student has mastered the material at a level comparable to the prerequisite course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaughingCat Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 regentrude - are you saying it is standard to make a person sign up for and pay for a course they are attempting to test out of? because that is the part that seems incredibly strange to me. Why would the testing being contingent on being enrolled in that particular class?-- it seems like they should just set a fee for the instructor's time and let them set up a time for testing irregardless of enrollment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I really want dd to take Chemistry at the community college next year. They absolutely require her to also take the math and she doesn't want to take math there. They will not allow her to test out of the class completely. She can register for the math and then ask the prof if she can test out. It will be up to his discretion. The math is not a co-requisite it is a pre-requisite and it "may" be given this summer but maybe not and we won't know that until much later. So "if" it is given this summer and "if" there is room after normal registration then she might be able to enroll and then maybe be able to take a placement test to skip the test. All of this to take chemistry. So, do we just ditch the idea of chemistry and only DE for things like Psychology or History? or do we attempt to jump through the hoops and hope for the best? Any experiences? Who did you speak to? You should talk to the instructor who teaches the math course that is prerequisite for chemistry. The chemistry department (as PP have suggested) is not in a position to test your DD to evaluate her math knowledge; this would be the math department's task, and if there is no general "testing out" mechanism, credit by examination would be handled through the instructor. This said, I find it highly unusual that a college lets students sign up for math courses before they are given a placement exam to determine whether they are in the correct class. Typically, the placement test is administered before letting a student enroll in a math course. Other than that, this is a standard situation. The college wants to ensure that students are prepared to succeed in chemistry by requiring a certain level of math. Prerequisites for courses are standard. This may even be the case for humanities classes - certain literature courses, for example, may require composition first, and certain history courses may have history prerequisites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 regentrude - are you saying it is standard to make a person sign up for and pay for a course they are attempting to test out of? because that is the part that seems incredibly strange to me. Why would the testing being contingent on being enrolled in that particular class?-- it seems like they should just set a fee for the instructor's time and let them set up a time for testing irregardless of enrollment. I addressed the weird order of events in my other post. What I mean is that it is standard to get credit by examination from the course instructor, not that it is standard to require the student to enroll in a class in order to test out. It is also extremely non standard to let students sign up for a math course without giving them a placement test first. This leads me to believe that the OP may not have talked to the right people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I really want dd to take Chemistry at the community college next year. They absolutely require her to also take the math and she doesn't want to take math there. They will not allow her to test out of the class completely. She can register for the math and then ask the prof if she can test out. It will be up to his discretion. The math is not a co-requisite it is a pre-requisite and it "may" be given this summer but maybe not and we won't know that until much later. So "if" it is given this summer and "if" there is room after normal registration then she might be able to enroll and then maybe be able to take a placement test to skip the test. All of this to take chemistry. So, do we just ditch the idea of chemistry and only DE for things like Psychology or History? or do we attempt to jump through the hoops and hope for the best? Any experiences? Thanks :) I don't entirely understand the issue. I assume the math prereq is algebra of some kind. Is the problem that you believe she's already passed a suitable algebra class, but can't prove it, and doesn't want to essentially repeat the same material? Most CCs use the COMPASS or other placement test for math -- has she taken a placement test? It's hard for me to believe that a CC wouldn't have some kind of math placement, and force all students to run completely through their own math sequence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 They require the prerequisite math because it is necessary for success in chemistry. It looks as if the CC has no universal "testing out" procedure in place, rather such examination for credit would have to be performed by the math instructor. This is nothing unusual. At my school, if any student wants to skip the physics prerequisite to be allowed to take the next higher course, but does not have college credit for the class on record, it will be up to me, the instructor of the prerequisite course, to give the student an examination to determine whether he has mastered the subject material sufficiently. I am not entirely sure what the OP's issue is. Prerequisite courses are standard, and it is also standard that - if no transferred college credit is on record - the instructor of the course determines whether the student has mastered the material at a level comparable to the prerequisite course. I didn't mean why the prereq; I meant why does she have to enroll in the class before testing out. The OP's issue, if I understand correctly, is that someone is telling her dd she has to enroll in the prereq before testing out, which makes the timing difficult. At my university, and at the university where my dd is currently DE, testing out is done by the department, not by the course instructor. Yes, it would be the math department doing the testing, but the reason some of us suggested speaking to the chemistry department is because they are the ones who can make exceptions for their own courses, if an exception is needed. ETA: Some schools are better than others at conveying information and/or accurately telling you the rules or who to speak with. Some schools are better than others at not having conflicting information (yes, even in writing). The sea of information can be tough to navigate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I really want dd to take Chemistry at the community college next year. They absolutely require her to also take the math and she doesn't want to take math there. They will not allow her to test out of the class completely. She can register for the math and then ask the prof if she can test out. It will be up to his discretion. The math is not a co-requisite it is a pre-requisite and it "may" be given this summer but maybe not and we won't know that until much later. So "if" it is given this summer and "if" there is room after normal registration then she might be able to enroll and then maybe be able to take a placement test to skip the test. All of this to take chemistry. So, do we just ditch the idea of chemistry and only DE for things like Psychology or History? or do we attempt to jump through the hoops and hope for the best? Any experiences? Thanks :) Has she sat down with an outreach or DE counselor? I found conflicting or circular directions online. We had our best results just working with one of the admissions folks. I would expect a placement test. They ought to be as to place her in math well past precalculus. Depending on that placement you would know if she meets the prerequisite for math or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieZ Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Some universities allow placement based on SAT scores for math. My dd is enrolled at U. Alabama for next fall, and I saw in her online thing that her SAT score had placed her in some math level (calc 1, I think), and then when her AP Calc score got logged in, that placed her out of the first two calc semesters, too. So, if your dd hasn't taken the SAT or ACT yet, check out that route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.