Welcome to the Precalculus course
The contents of the course
Welcome to our precalculus course. We will be considering some basic elements of high school mathematics:
- numbers: naturals, integers, rationals and reals;
- functions: powers, polynomials and their quotients, radicals;
- elementary algebra;
In a follow-up course, we will deal with more advanced topics like exponentials and logarithms, trigonometry, plane and solid geometry.
The course is designed to be taken over five weeks; each week is subdivided into several subtopics. In each subtopic you will encounter several steps:
- Francis explaining the theoretical content of the topic (video and related PDF)
- Alberto and Carlo suggesting and solving some exercises (video and related PDFs of the texts and the solutions)
- Quizzes with multiple-choice answers (each problem is solved in detail)
How to follow the course
We suggest the following approach:
Theory: watch the video by Francis, possibly more than once for the parts that might be unclear to you at first. Study the associated PDF, taking notes. Then look at it once again.
Exercises: for complete understanding, going through some difficulty is often necessary. Try to solve the exercises yourself (or perhaps in a group). Look at the solution only when you think you have reached the right conclusion, or if you are really stuck.
Quizzes: quizzes are exercises with the feature that the answer appears among the multiple choices. Proceed as in the exercises!
Get extra benefits, upgrade your course
You can now get extra benefits by upgrading this course, including:
Unlimited access to the course: Go at your own pace with unlimited access to the course for as long as it exists on FutureLearn.
Access to tests: Ensure you’ve mastered the material with access to tests on the course.
A Certificate of Achievement: To help you demonstrate your learning we’ll send you a Certificate of Achievement when you become eligible.