University of Michigan
Department of Mathematics
Mathematics 110

Important Course Information

This course serves a very special purpose. It is designed specifically for students who:

• have placed into Math 115 and have actually enrolled in the course;
• have taken the first uniform examination about four weeks into the semester and received an unsatisfactory grade;
• believe that they cannot satisfactorily proceed with Math 115; and
• feel the need for an intensive precalculus review before attempting Math 115 again.

It must be emphasized that the above is the only purpose for which this course is designed, and the Department of Mathematics normally will allow only students meeting the above requirements to take it. The course remains officially closed to the normal CRISPing process at all times, and registration is by departmental permission only.

There are very rare circumstances under which this course might be used for purposes besides the single one mentioned above, but in order to do so the following is required.

• We must have a letter from an advisor or departmental official specifying the reason this particular student would benefit from Math 110 instead of Math 105, the standard precalculus course.
  • Scheduling convenience is normally not considered to be a substantive reason. However, if there seems to be an overriding need for the student to take this particular course that is driven by a scheduling concern, then this will be considered if accompanied by a copy of the student's proposed schedule (so that it can be seen if it might be possible to find a section of Math 105 that would fit into the schedule instead).
• The letter should be on academic or advising department letterhead and should, again, address the particular student's unusual individual need for the course. Modified form letters specifying a generic need by students of some particular type for this course would not be appropriate.

The Mathematics Department does not normally consider requests for this course to be used as a standard replacement for Math 105. It would have these disadvantages when used for that purpose:

• Unlike Math 105, Math 110 assumes a reasonably high score on the placement examination, since the students it is designed to serve should have placed into Math 115 and will have enrolled in that course, even if they have run into some trouble in it.
• Though the material of Math 110 is covered in about nine weeks instead of an entire semester, it is almost exactly the same material as is covered in Math 105, and in fact the same text is used. It is assumed that the students in Math 110 can keep up with the rather torrid pace, because of their reasonably high placement scores.
• Though the schedule for the course is fairly rigid, with weekly quizzes and several major tests to keep students on schedule, there are no classroom meetings to encourage the students to stay on schedule.
• Though the amount of work done is about the same as for Math 105, Math 110 is worth only two hours' credit instead of the four received for Math 105.

Also, it must be emphasized that Math 110 is a self-study course, not a self-paced one. The schedule for the course is actually quite rigid, since the student must be ready to take the weekly quizzes and the uniform examinations at the scheduled times. No grades of incomplete are given at the end of the semester (and the student must sign an agreement at the beginning of the term accepting that), so falling behind the course schedule can be more serious than in other courses.

Here is the official course information from the LS&A Course Guide:

Math 110. Pre-Calculus (Self-Study).
No credit granted to those who already have 4 credits for pre-calculus mathematics courses (2). (Excl).
Math 110 is a preparatory course for the calculus sequence. Students who complete Math 110 are fully prepared for Math 115. The course is a condensed, half-term version of Math 105 designed for students who appear to be prepared to handle calculus but are not able to successfully complete Math 115. Students enrolling in Math 110 must visit the Math Lab to complete paperwork and receive course materials. The course covers data analysis by means of functions and graphs.

Last modified Fri 5 Dec 1997 08:00 EST