- Calculus 1 with Precalculus (MATH 139) Equivalent to MATH 140, but for students with no previous knowledge of Calculus. Starting in September 2010, students have a free choice of which of these two courses they take. MATH 139 has 4 credits, 4 hours of lectures/week and 1 hour of tutorials/week. MATH 140 has 3 credits, 3 hours of lectures/week and 1 hour of tutorials/week. There will be a diagnostic test very early in the Fall term to help students to ensure that they are registered in the course more appropriate for their needs.
- Calculus 1 (MATH 140) For students who have taken high school calculus. This is the standard entry level calculus course.
- Calculus A (MATH 150) This is the first course of the two course sequence MATH 150, MATH 151 which is equivalent to the standard MATH 140, MATH 141 and MATH 222 calculus sequence taken by Arts and Science students. Students with no prior exposure to vector geometry are advised to take MATH 133 concurrently. Intended for strong students with high school calculus who have not received six advanced placement credits.
Most students will take either MATH 140 or MATH 139. The pros for taking MATH 139 as opposed to MATH 140 are
- Four hours of lectures per week as opposed to three.
- More time will be spent reviewing precalculus topics such as
powers and logarithms, solving equations and inequalities, trigonometric functions.
- It takes up an additional hour of time per week.
- It is a four credit course which may make it more difficult for students to take all the freshman courses they will need for their intended program.
Most Faculty of Management students should take Calculus for Management (MATH 122) unless they are intending to pursue one of the major or minor concentrations in Mathematics and Statistics in the Faculty of Management. In that case they should take MATH 140 [or MATH 139] and MATH 141 instead. The same is true of management students who plan to take Honours or Joint Honours in Economics.
Students without a basic grounding in functions should take Fundamentals of Mathematics (MATH 112) and then continue in MATH 140 in the Winter semester.
The Diagnostic Test
Students in MATH 140 are encouraged to take the diagnostic test on the Webwork system. This test is not for credit, i.e. the mark for the test has no bearing on the final grade the student receives. The test is to be self-assessed. Two thirds of the diagnostic test is on precalculus topics (e.g. powers and logarithms, solving equations and inequalities, trigonometric functions) and one third is on elementary differential calculus.