Placement and Self-Evaluation

Because students come into our Freshman Year with a wide variety of backgrounds, we have some suggestions here to assist you with placement and self-evaluation.

I. Placement: First, if you have already taken a rather advanced high school course that is potentially at the level of the corresponding freshman course, you may be eligible to write one of the McGill Math & Science Placement Exams. These exams are held on the downtown campus during the time period when most students arrive on campus - the last week of August and/or first week of September, approximately (see the website link for details). Before applying to take the exams, you must contact the Macdonald Campus Student Affairs Office to determine your eligibility to write them.

II. Self-Evaluation: We have made available a set of self-administered math and physics tests intended to help you determine if your physics and math preparation is adequate for entering the freshman year of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Please note that although a high school physics course is not a requirement for entrance, if you have the opportunity to take one, it will of course help you. We have also provided some online suggestions to help you improve your skills before you arrive at McGill in the fall, should you need it.

We recommend that all applicants to the freshman year take both tests to evaluate themselves, even though you might have already taken a Calculus or Physics course previously. If you find yourself struggling to answer the questions, you should follow the suggestions below to improve your skills.

To take the self-evaluation tests, proceed as follows:

Part A - Download the tests

The tests are provided as pdf files, respectively named MathTest.pdf and PhysTest.pdf. These files can be downloaded onto your own computer as follows:

1. Right-click on the appropriate link below (a small menu will pop up in your browser).
2. Left-click on "Save target as ..."
3. Save the pdf file on your hard disk in some convenient location.

Download the pdf file for the Math Test (also known as the pre-calculus test)

Download the pdf file for the Physics Test (also known as the pre-physics test)

Part B - Print and write the tests

The downloaded files can be viewed and printed from your own computer as follows:

1. Open each of the the pdf files in the Acrobat Reader program (available free of charge from Adobe), and print them.
2. Set aside some uninterrupted time to work on each test.
3. Write the tests by choosing and recording the best answers for the multiple choice questions. Each question is worth 2 points, for a total of 100 points (there are 50 questions per test). You should be able to complete each test in less than 2 hours, without reference to textbooks or notes, and without a calculator in the case of the Precalculus Math test. If the material on these tests is familiar to you, you should be able to do these tests with very little difficulty in the time allotted and be able to receive a satisfactory score of approximately 80%.

Part C - Assessing your performance on the tests

When you have finished writing the tests, try to be realistic in your self-assessment. Were you unsure of your answers? Did you have difficulty answering the questions? Did you wish you could refer to your past texts or notes? Were you unable to respect the time limit? Did you need to rely on your calculator?

Grade your tests with the following answer keys:

Precalculus Math Answers Precalculus Math Answers

Preparatory Physics Answers Preparatory Physics Answers

Give yourself two points per correct answer, zero for an incorrect answer. If your score is less than 80/100, or you got more than 80% but you had to struggle with the test, then you should try to improve your skills. Any extra studying that you can do will help with your freshman courses. Here are some possibilities you might want to consider:

Part D - Possibilities for Improving your Skills

(i) Improvement through self-study

Online Study Aids for either math or physics are available at HippoCampus . This free, public site is intended to assist high school and early university/college students with their studies. To login to the site we have set up, click on the Hippocampus link above, and go to the bottom of the Login page where it says: "If you want to visit someone else's myHippo page, you can look them up here:" Then, in the box that says Login ID, please enter: prepcourses

You will then be able to choose from courses on Physics, Algebra and (Pre)Calculus, with various texts that are readily available, so that you will have some choice. Please read the detailed announcement we have added at the top of that page which will tell you how to proceed.

For Precalculus, you can use any of the following references:

1. Just-in-Time Algebra and Trigonometry for Early Transcendental Calculus, 3rd ed., by Mueller and Brent, Pearson/Addison-Wesley, 2006. (inexpensive paperback)
2. Precalculus, 5th ed., by Stewart, Redlin & Watson, Thomson Brooks-Cole, 2006. (readily available)
3. Precalculus, 7th ed., by Larson & Hostetler, Houghton Mifflin, 2007. (readily available)

Note that difficulties in physics are often due to problems with mathematics; often these issues do not become apparent until the math is encountered in a different context.

Recommended material for self-study for Preparatory Physics: Conceptual Physics, 10th ed., by Hewitt, Pearson Addison Wesley, 2006 (readily available), together with either of the following:

1. Preparing for General Physics, by Pickar, Addison-Wesley, 1993. (paperback)
2. Mathematics for College Physics, by Das, Pearson Prentice Hall. (paperback)

(ii) Take a Precalculus math course and/or preparatory physics course right now at an institution near your home that offers such courses, prior to arriving at McGill in the fall.