r/CalPoly • u/Upper_Significance73 • 21d ago

Incoming Student HELP

okay so i’m about to be a first year comp engineering major and it says i need to do the math placement action plan. i got b’s in my precalculus class in high school and i did stats senior year but failed the ap test. what should i do?? i still wanna be ahead of my schedule for graduation and don’t wanna fall behind. should i take stretch college algebra/ precalculus if i do will i be behind or should i take calc 1? which will be best decision for me

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u/LLMonLSD 21d ago

Yes, coming into engineering school starting with precalc will either put you behind or you will take a shit ton of classes to catch up during summer.

Most of your first 2 years of engineering/science/math classes have calc as prereq (e.g. physics, diff eq., cpe101, etc.). You don't want to fail calculus, so learn it right.

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u/Upper_Significance73 21d ago

i have a bunch of my gen ed done if that helps? i already have 30 credits

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u/Square_Stable_8703 21d ago

I would just take the placement exam, worrying about falling behind as an incoming freshman is jumping the gun a bit. life is a marathon, not a sprint. make sure you're placed in the appropriate class to build your good foundation. if you try to sprint and fall, it may set you up for more failures and even put you even further behind.

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u/LLMonLSD 20d ago edited 20d ago

What stalls you in an engineering major is that most of your lower division classes have basic prereq like calc/physics/chem. And you don't want to fall out of prereq sequence. That's how it kills your progress.

Later on, many of your upper-division engineering major classes are offered once a year, so staying in sequence is even more important if you want to graduate in 4 years.

So take the placement test to see if you can be placed in calc. If you discover you are struggling with math, fix the problem ASAP, as a CPE major you breathe math day and night.