Question for parents of college students

[graylocks]

my son is about to start 11th grade. when he takes a math test he is given a list of formulas to refer to. this includes regular tests and end of the year exams the state designs and requires.

this was not the case when i was in school. this is not the case when the SAT is administered. i am under the impression that most colleges give placement test to determine if a student need to be put in remedial academic enhancement classes. do the colleges give the students a cheat sheet when the students take the placement tests?

i know some of you may not know this off-hand but if you could run this by your kids in college i'd appreciate it. or maybe some of the forum members who work at a college could chime in also.

i'm sure we could have a healthy discussion over whether giving the students a formula sheet is good or not. my concern at the moment is whether or not this practice is ubiquitous enough to be done with internal college placement tests.

[mattkime]

what is your son likely to study in college?

i was in a liberal arts program and tested out of math even though i failed to bring my calculator to the test. its not so difficult to test out of math if you have some ability for it.

i doubt cheat sheets would be allowed but i doubt they'd test your knowledge of formulas.

[ztirffritz]

I studied Engineering in college. In my experience, we were sometimes allowed to have a sheet of notes. The logic is that if the test is written correctly having your book available won't help you unless you understand how to use the formulas, which is the most important part. I actually wrote programs on my TI-85 to perform most of the calculations for me so that I could just punch in the variables. That still required that I knew how the formulas worked, and which variables to use, it just saved time and prevented stupid mistakes.

[Grace62]

http://www.erikthered.com/tutor/facts-an...iven-1.pdf

Students are given facts and formulas on the SAT. This is a fairly standard practice.

If the college is using something like the Accuplacer test that college board administers, it's a pretty basic test, much, much easier than the SAT. I don't think they give formulas, they really aren't even needed for the types of questions on that test.

I would contact a local college or a school your student may be interested in and ask them for a sample test. Have your student take it to their math teacher and find out if he's covered the skills included. If he has gone up to say Algebra II/Trig by senior year, he likely won't have a test beyond the Accuplacer.

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/accuplacer/

[graylocks]

mattkime wrote:
what is your son likely to study in college?

who knows but it will not be a math related field.

Georgia math is so screwed up that i've been continuing to homeschool him in math to help insure his foundation. other parents who are aware enough to realize the state is grandly wrecking our kids are enrolling their kids in pricey afterschool classes in droves. my goal is to get him a reasonable SAT score (low 500s would be good for him) and to have him place out of the remedial, oops, excuse me again, academic enhancement courses in college so that he doesn't have to spend college elective credits doing those.

i hated in math in high school. my solution was to find a college that had no required courses outside of your major so i never had to take another math class after high school. my college (Vassar) now requires math as i imagine most schools do now!

[Jimmypoo]

graylocks wrote:
[quote=mattkime]
what is your son likely to study in college?

who knows... but it will not be a math related field.

Uh Oh......

[dmann]

graylocks- if it does turn out he needs a course or two in math, he might be able to take those at a community college. I didn't take enough math classes in HS (did fine in the ones I did take) and had to take one semester of algebra and one semester of geometry. I took both at a local community college where the cost was far less expensive than at my 4 year university.

Might be worth looking into to have your bases covered-

DM

[graylocks]

Grace62 wrote:
http://www.erikthered.com/tutor/facts-an...iven-1.pdf

Students are given facts and formulas on the SAT. This is a fairly standard practice.

thanks, that was useful. my son has taken the SAT twice and he confirms that he is given that information. however, it seems those formulas are limited to geometry. the SAT also requires an understanding of algebra/trig, statistics and probability and those cheats are not supplied.

asking his math teachers is of little help these days. yes, those concepts are taught. given the hamstringing of State rules, they are not being taught well. long, long story...

[graylocks]

dmann wrote:
graylocks- if it does turn out he needs a course or two in math, he might be able to take those at a community college. I didn't take enough math classes in HS (did fine in the ones I did take) and had to take one semester of algebra and one semester of geometry. I took both at a local community college where the cost was far less expensive than at my 4 year university.

Might be worth looking into to have your bases covered-

DM

did you take those during high school or after high school but before attending a 4 year university?

[rgG]

According to my daughter, a sophomore at UGA, when she took the mandatory math placement exam at orientation, there were no formulas given. In contrast to the SAT, the placement exam is more heavily weighted on pre-cal and Algebra II. She said the placement test was much harder than the SAT. She, an advertising and Spanish major, was able to exempt her required math courses; a source of great joy and relief for everyone.