"College" Algebra at UNT

I visited the Math Department at the University of North Texas for the Spring 2003 semester. While there I taught the standard remedial math course, euphemistically called College Algebra. Now, I am sure that there are many good and fine high school math teachers in Texas. But, I taught the students who were not lucky enough to have those teachers. I made this webpage so that all high school math teachers can have an idea what their students, regardless of major, are, for good or ill, expected to be able to do when they walk in the door at a typical state university.

Some of my students only had two or three years of high school math. Not having any math in their senior year, they had forgotten much of what they did learn. This is more the fault of high school advisors than teachers.

But the math courses many of my students did have were quite shocking. Some had precalculus or even calculus and yet could not do basic algebra. One girl reported that she got an A in a precalculus course because she was a cheerleader and "Mr. Johnson believed in school spirit." She dropped after failing the first test. Many had been allowed to use a calculator all the time and so lost what arithmetic skills they once had. One student could not figure out what one divided by one half was; how is he ever going understand the graph of y=1/x?

Below are my tests and quizzes. There were always two versions so students could not copy. ("Mr. Johnson let us copy.") Sometimes they could use a calculator, but only rarely. I hope that these will give high school teachers, and not just in Texas, a sense of what students who plan to go to college (which today is most students) are expected to know.

There was a departmental common final that I have not included. Like many of the standardized tests it was mostly multiple choice and students were permitted free use of a calculator. This is done for logistical not pedagodical reasons. I did not "teach to" this final any more than you should "teach to" the various state exams. I did give them this Calculator Practice Sheet.



Associate Professor Michael Sullivan: msulliva @ math.siu.edu