Talk:Precalculus

Pre-calculus or precalculus?
The article seems inconsistent in its spelling. Is there a dash or not? 65.35.11.66 04:05, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Proposed link
My students have had great success with my Precalculus course notes, particularly with the units on graphing trig functions. Would anyone be interested in posting an external link to them? http://www.kkuniyuk.com/Notes Thanks! (New user) Ken Kuniyuki 20:31, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Your notes have the problem of referencing Larson's text, and are somewhat course specific (i.e., to courses at Mesa College). If it was completely independent of another text and not institution-specific, I'd like it more, and would be more inclined to be in favor of a link.  (Speaking aesthetically/personally, I think the site could  use a smaller font, and some cleanup could be done to the layout (also note junk at bottom of page).) Cheers, Doctormatt 02:44, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the input! A long-term project of mine is to make my notes independent of textbook and course; in fact, the problem text in my notes is already colored blue so that readers are aware of that and so that I may more readily delete those pieces in the future. Ken Kuniyuki 04:01, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Lacks global perspective
I'm taking it from the content that the notion of precalculus is largely a US one, given the references to honors courses and so forth (I'm certainly not aware of an equivalent label in the UK or Australian systems). That doesn't invalidate including the entry, of course, but it would be good if someone more knowledgeable on the topic could edit it to reflect this fact (or alternatively to note where in the world the term is used; I claim no particular expertise in mathematics education so I'm wary of doing so myself, though I might have a go if no-one else steps up!). Obviously, it would also be good for the list of topics to be converted into prose. Gusworld (talk) 06:06, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm really interested in the history of precalc. When was it first introduced? What purpose was it intended to serve? I haven't found any information like this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.89.21.34 (talk) 20:08, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

In Brazil some universities call this precalculus, others (foundations of) elementary mathematics. Sometimes it's a pre requisite for calculus, but mostly often offered in parallel with calculus itself. The pitfall seems to be that these precalculus topics are covered in secondary school, but in a way that very few students properly learn them. In spite of the failure rates in calculus many universities don't offer such precalculus courses, probably under the assumption that if the student has passed an admission exam, he/she is capable of going through calculus straight away.

Assuming that the term "precalculus" implies in "introduction to calculus", I don't see "calculus of one variable functions" requiring matrices and complex numbers. Complex numbers is usually taught after vector calculus (or calculus III depending on the case). Matrices are usually seen in multivariable calculus, often in parallel with linear algebra. One example: in up to three weeks the teacher does a quick revision of real numbers, functions and trigonometric functions, before plunging in limits (unless he/she likes Apostol approach, integration first and skips revision of functions in favor of axioms). Some calculus books dedicate the very beginning of the text to propositional logic, in an effort to make it easier to understand the many theorems and proofs that show up in calculus. Qwerty12356 (talk) 05:22, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Topics
I don't think the list mentions systems of equations or limits, which are both included in many texts and courses in precalculus. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.205.34.127 (talk) 13:01, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

introduction to analysis?
Is Introduction to Analysis really an equivalent college-level course? Where I come from, "Intro To Analysis" typically refers to upper division undergrad math courses covering the foundations of real analysis - metric spaces, delta-epsilon limit stuff, etc. Perhaps the article should be changed to reflect this. See, for example, "Introduction to Analysis" (Rosenlicht, 1985) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.102.149.245 (talk) 04:32, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I must agree with this user. Anyone disagree? Cheers, Doctormatt (talk) 18:25, 24 May 2008 (UTC)


 * With no objections forthcoming, the change will be made. --68.106.171.81 (talk) 07:49, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Many colleges offer pre-calculus
In the california community college system pre-calculus courses are offered. Pre-calculus is usually a 5hr/week class intended for students who are going to go into the calculus/linear algebra/DiffEq, whereas a 3hr/week college algebra course is offered for students not planning not to pursue a discipline requiring math. It must be similar in other colleges right? I don't think the article is accurate on this point. 75.83.67.181 (talk) 01:37, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Lack of context
The list set out in this article provides no context for the level of depth into which these topics are explored - coming from a UK perspective, such a list is entirely unintelligible in how it might relate to a British curriculum as many of these topics (which are explored in a fair amount of depth) are the realm of A-level mathematics, and even further mathematics (which itself largely comes from university mathematics), which, when considering that these topics are being described as "pre-calculus", very much gives the suggestion that a mathematician has gone through and noted each topic that comes up, rather than providing proper context for the material that might be covered. --Muna (talk) 19:52, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Motivating Example
I took the liberty in adding a motivating example to justify certain concepts taught in Precalculus. I focused it around the notational literacy as students deal with the limit definition of a derivative in Calculus. Students tend to struggle to deal with understanding the notation for the limit definition of a derivative and highlighting that some misconceptions can be addressed only with pre-requisite knowledge. — Preceding unsigned comment added by B00Sensei (talk • contribs) 00:00, 5 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I am sorry but I had to revert your addition. This is not a value judgement, what you said is quite correct, but this is not how we do things on Wikipedia. If this argument had already been published in a reliable source, then it would be acceptable for inclusion (with the source cited of course). As editorsa, we do not add our original thoughts to the articles, we only present what is already out in the literature. --Bill Cherowitzo (talk) 04:53, 5 March 2019 (UTC)


 * , could you give some general direction or advice about how this article should be improved? Benjamin (talk) 07:06, 29 May 2019 (UTC)


 * , I am a little reluctant to provide such advice. I have taught this course many times and am afraid that I have too many preconceived ideas about it to be an objective editor. I am not familiar enough with the education literature to provide the needed citations (if they could be found, the above motivating example would be a good addition). I also think that a small section on the history of the course would be appropriate. My understanding is that this course was developed in response to the GI bill following WWII. Soldiers returning to college after many years out of high school needed to have a refresher course before heading into calculus.--Bill Cherowitzo (talk) 02:21, 30 May 2019 (UTC)

US?
Is precalculus a USian thing? 31.50.156.17 (talk) 00:03, 1 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Hello London. The publishers appear to be North American, but the concept is from Russia with Introduction to the Analysis of the Infinite. In practice, prospective students may be given an evaluation to check their facility with exponentials, logarithms, algebraic expressions, and functions. As stated, success in calculus requires skill in reading, writing, and manipulating these materials. And as mentioned above, the precalculus class serves as a remedy (anywhere) for students expecting to proceed in science with a knowledge of the calculus. — Rgdboer (talk) 23:18, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Content not about really about subject?
This article reads as being more about Euler's Number than the subject of Precalculus. 2600:4040:11FC:2F00:D051:7B82:1E61:B21C (talk) 20:17, 22 April 2022 (UTC)

"Algebra 3" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Algebra 3 and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Steel1943 (talk) 19:43, 6 January 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: 4A Wikipedia Assignment
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