Newswise — Picture the first day back to school when you were in high school.
You caught up with your friends and what you all did over the summer. You met your teacher, got a syllabus (if there was one for the course), got the list of school supplies to purchase, checked out a book, maybe even played an ice-breaker game. In some classes, your first homework assignment was probably to put a cover on your book.
Switch now to college.
You walk in your first day of math class where you meet your teacher. In that first 50-minute class, you get the syllabus, a quick discussion of the class rules and then the lecture begins. For the first night, you already have 20 homework problems to do!
What happened to that week of adjustment before you had to really buckle down?
How can you get ready for this onslaught of math information? How can you possibly learn in one college semester the same amount of material you would were expected to learn in at least a year in high school?
SDSU Associate Professor of Math and Statistics Donna Flint offers some hints to help students prepare for their first college math course, wherever they plan to attend:
"Purchase the correct textbook ahead of time and thumb through it to see what you will be learning over the semester. Many schools have a website listing what books you need to purchase. If yours doesn't, contact the professor to find out what book you need. (At SDSU the website is http://learn.sdstate.edu/flintd/textbook/textbooks.htm)
"Do a little review during the summer. You don't have to devote your summer to review, but a few hours throughout the summer will help the math you took in high school stay fresh. There are lots of places on the web to find review material; here is a good example: http://www.clc.mnscu.edu/kschulte/mathworksheets.html.
"Once you have your textbook, you will probably find some review material either in the front or in the appendix of the book.
"Make sure you have the right background for the course you chose to take. There is a big difference between 'taking' the prerequisite for a course and 'mastering' that prerequisite. Check out this website to identify weaknesses you should fix before the first day of class: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/rur_index.html .
"Once class starts, if you experience any difficulty starting up, see your instructor right away; they want you to succeed in their class and will help as much as they can. Most schools have some kind of tutoring system (SDSU has the Math Help Center in the basement of Mathews Hall) and your instructor can direct you to the best place to get help. Don't wait until you fail your first test!
"Look for other people to work with early. Whether you are forced by your instructor to work in groups, or choose to do so on your own, classes are easier when you have someone to share with. It's not cheating if you work together to understand your homework, but make sure whatever you turn in is ultimately your own work.
"If you are attending South Dakota State University," Flint said, "there are a few things you should know."
"In Math 102 (College Algebra), you will have a set of 20 problems which review many of the topics which comprise the prerequisites for the course.
"This problem set is given to EVERY Math 102 student and counts as two quizzes in your final course grade.
"Use this to help you identify any weaknesses in your background, so you can fix them before you need to use them in Math 102.
"In Math 123 (Calculus I), you will be taking a 'Gateway Exam' on the second day of class.
"This exam, which counts as 5% of your grade, has two purposes: (1) to encourage you to brush up on your Precalculus skills before classes start, and (2) to help you identify any weaknesses in your background so you can fix them, with the help of your instructor and the Math Help Center, before they affect your performance in Calculus. Information about this exam can be found here: http://teach.sdstate.edu/users/vestals/Gateway.htm ."
Finally, Flint said that the key to success in college mathematics is staying organized and staying caught up.
"Even if your instructor does not collect homework, they expect that you are doing it every night," she concluded.
For more information on math at State, go to the website, www.sdstate.edu and use "mathematics" in the search window.
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