Study Questions Conventional Wisdom on Calculus

A new study questions the conventional wisdom that the best way for students to succeed in calculus in college is to take calculus in high school. A study of more than 6,000 freshmen at 133 colleges found that the real key to college calculus success is mastery in high school of algebra, geometry and trigonometry. The study was published in The Journal for Research in Mathematics Education and was conducted by Philip Sadler and Gerhard Sonnert of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.