Placement in mathematics courses.

Information for all students

Mathematics is part of the program of most undergraduate students at the University of Kentucky. Course prerequisites help to determine the courses a student is eligible to take.  In addition to exam scores, placement should be based on a student's background, interests, and likely major. 

Students who wish to take an introductory mathematics course are given an initial placement based on their ACT or SAT scores. Students with a Math ACT of 29 and below (or SAT equivalent) are encouraged to take the ALEKS placement exam in order to obtain more information about their readiness for a course. We use the ALEKS score, the Math ACT score (or SAT equivalent), and High School GPA to create a number, MathIndex2, which we believe to be a more reliable predictor of  success in our courses. Departmental recommendations are summarized in the document linked here. If a student would like to take a course that is not allowed by their initial placement, they may use the review modules within ALEKS to earn placement into a different course. More information about the ALEKS exam is available at http://www.uky.edu/app/faqs#Math. Advisers can provide help in choosing the appropriate mathematics course for a student's major. 

Placement in Calculus courses for students with AP credit.

Students who earn a score of 3,4 or 5 on an AP Calculus exam earn credit for one or more of our first-year Calculus courses, MA 113 Calculus I or MA 114, Calculus II. Students who have credit, but plan to take additional mathematics sometimes choose to repeat a course for which they have credit in order to develop a stronger foundation for further study. The department does not recommend that students who earn a score of 3 on an AP Calculus exam use the credit to satisfy prerequisites for the next course. More details are available in our recommendations for students with AP Calculus credit..

Historical information

Placement guidelines from 2011 are available to assist in interpreting scores on our previous placement exams. pdf file.