Precalculus serves a range of requirements and purposes. For students planning to take Calculus in high school or college, Precalculus with all topics covered thoroughly is essential preparation. Students not planning to take Calculus may be required by their college to take Trigonometry, and Precalculus satisfies this requirement. TPS serves the full range of individual requirements and goals by offering Precalculus as standard and Honors level options in the same course, where the assignments and exams are differentiated based on the level. This course provides an extensive study of trigonometry and functions, including quadratics, exponentials, polynomials, logarithmic, and rational functions, with emphasis on visual representation of functions (via a graphing calculator) and algebraic manipulation of equations, as well as applications in the world of business and science, primarily physics. The course also covers conics, vectors, complex numbers, polar coordinates (applied to conics), and parametric equations. The course introduces infinite sequences and series, limits and continuity of functions, as well as the derivative of a function. Precalculus can serve as a capstone of a math career for students who are not heading to Calculus, because it brings together all the prior math to reveal the manifold and wondrous interconnections of mathematics in a biblical framework. It also serves as great final preparation for the advanced math and science that can be accessed only through study of Calculus.
Precalculus (Standard or Honors) (College Trigonometry)
Description
Prerequisites
Standard
Honors
Notes and Conditions
AP Precalculus: Students seeking college credit for AP Precalculus should take this Precalculus (Standard) course to receive the same college credit with no AP exam. As designed by the College Board, AP Precalculus is for students seeking college credit from Precalculus (which is College Trigonometry) and not planning to take Calculus in high school or college. This course already offers credit as College Trigonometry (Belhaven MAT 102, 3 credits) with no AP exam required, so TPS does not offer AP Precalculus.
College Credit: This course (standard and Honors) is pre-approved for college credit as Trigonometry (Belhaven MAT 102, 3 credits). Upon successful completion of this course, the student may apply for a college transcript from Belhaven University for this course. These transcripted credits may be transferred to other colleges. More information is here.
Flexible Scheduling: This course may be taken with live class attendance reduced or waived if the student has a schedule or time zone conflict. Please review the Flexible Scheduling information for details.
Standard vs. Honors: TPS offers Precalculus as standard and Honors in the same course. Honors students have additional more difficult problems for every assignment and exam. Precalculus (Honors) is recommended for students preparing for Calculus. Standard Precalculus is recommended for students not planning for Calculus. When you enroll, please select the option you want for this course. If you are unsure, please select Honors because after the course begins you will be able to switch from Honors to standard but not from standard to Honors.
California A-G: This course has CA A-G approval.