A Guide to First Year Mathematics Courses
This document is an attempt by the mathematics department to help our students decide where they should begin their college mathematics experience. Should the students still have questions they should contact the chair of the Math Department for clarification.
All entering students are expected to take the Math Placement Exam in orientation week or the first semester at DePauw, with the following exceptions:
- students who transfer in college credit for Math 151, 152 and 251;
- students who score 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement AB calculus exam, and who report their score to DePauw;
- students who score 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement BC calculus exam, and who report their score to DePauw;
- students who score 3 on the Advanced Placement BC calculus exam with a 4 or 5 on the AB subscore of this exam, and who report their score to DePauw.
The Math Placement Exam determines readiness for Calculus I (Math 151). It consists of 30 questions covering algebra, pre-calculus, and trigonometry topics: geometry and measurement; algebraic manipulation; equations, inequalities, and factoring; trigonometry; functions and their notation, including linear, polynomial, rational, trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic functions; graphs of functions; and word problems and modeling. You can only take the Math Placement Exam once, no retake policy.
|
|
Scores |
Course & Credits |
|
Calculus AB |
3 |
If Math 152 is completed with a 'C-' or better, 1.00 credit will be awarded for MATH 151. |
|
4/5 |
Award Math151, Calculus I credit. Student may enroll in Math 152. |
|
|
Calculus BC |
3 |
Award Math 151, Calculus I credit. Student may enroll in Math 152 or 251. If MATH 251 is completed with a 'C-' or better, 1.00 credit will be awarded for MATH 152. |
|
4/5 |
Award Math 151, Calculus I, and MATH 152, Calculus II credits. Student may enroll in MATH 251 |
There are several options for entry into the mathematics curriculum, but any student who HAS NOT scored at least 500 on the SAT (Mathematics) or 22 on the ACT (Mathematics) should expect to struggle with ANY collegiate course in mathematics. Mathematics courses require students to DO mathematics and most of them build on skills and content developed over the course of the semester.
|
Student Interest |
Recommend Course |
|
Major or minor in Mathematics |
Math 151 and Math 152 |
|
Major in Actuarial Science |
Math 151 and Math 152 |
|
Minor in Statistics |
Math 141 and Math 151 |
|
Major in Computer Science |
Math 123 |
|
Major in Physics or Economics |
Math 151 or Math 135/136 |
|
Students who want a math course that will count toward Science and Math distribution credit or Q competency, but who do not need calculus |
Math 123, Math 141 or Math 143 |
Math 123: Computational Discrete Mathematics. This course is required for the computer science major. The topics covered in this course should be familiar to students, but from different places in their pre-college curriculum. Some students find a challenge in “changing gears” between the different topics.
Math 135: Calculus with Review I. This course is calculus with a “just in time” approach to precalculus. It is a safety net for students who enroll in Math 151 and find the challenges of a collegiate course- pace and independent inquiry- too much for them. For that reason, there is limited space in these courses with spaces saved for students attempting Math 151 and “dropping back” to Math 135. This course is not open to students with credit in Math 151 or any higher level calculus course
Math 136: Calculus with Review II. Completion of this course is equivalent to completing MATH 151 and is adequate preparation for any course requiring Math 151.
Math 141: Stats for Professionals. This course can be used to fulfill the requirements for a major in kinesiology. It has significant content overlap with Econ 350. While very practical for people wanting to understand modern life (confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, polling, research data, etc.), that understanding comes from a solid base of mathematics that allows students to understand how statisticians think about and interact with the world around them.
Math 143: Mathematical Modeling I. This course is very useful for people wanting to understand mathematical modeling and analysis of real life data (population growth and decay, rate of disease spread in population, savings certificates and annuities, purchasing power, etc.), and this understanding comes from a strong foundation of mathematics that allows those who take the course, to understand how mathematicians think about and interact with the world around them.
Math 151: Calculus I. This is the “standard” collegiate mathematics course for many years. Through the growth of the Advanced Placement program, the large majority of all students first encounter with calculus happens in high school. The majority of students who enroll in Math 151 have already had at least one experience with a calculus course before. The course moves at the same pace it has always moved, but this is significantly faster than high school courses.
Math 152: Calculus II. You must have Math 151 credit or Calculus I transferred credit to enroll this course.
Math 251: Calculus III. You must have Math 152 credit or Calculus II transferred credit to enroll in this course.