About the Uconn ECE Calculus Courses offered at Torrington High School.

ECE stands for Early College Experience. Students enrolled in ECE courses get the chance to adjust to college academic expectations without the risk of lowering their college GPA or the loss of money spent on full tuition. I am a certified UConn adjunct professor; they will be taught and assessed the same as students currently taking classes on UConn campuses.

Calculus 1 and 2 (Math 1131Q and Math 1132Q) are the UConn courses for which students can receive credit while taking UConn Calculus AP at Torrington High School. They are each worth 4 credits. The material for these courses are similar to the material covered on the Calculus AB and BC AP exams. The following chart shows how these compare:

AB Level AP Curriculum

Math 1131Q Calculus 1

Math 1132Q Calculus 2

BC Level AP Curriculum

Students who do not receive credit for MAT 1131Q in January will be removed from MAT 1132Q without penalty and will continue taking UConn Calculus AP for high school credit alone. They will also spend the second semester preparing for the the AB AP Calculus exam, which reviews many of the topics covered in the first semester. Since many colleges (including UConn) accept this test, students have a second chance to earn credit for Calculus 1. Students who receive credit for MAT 1131Q in January will start MAT 1132Q in the second semester. They will also prepare for the BC AP exam, which many colleges accept for credit in Calculus 1 and 2.

Students can only earn credit for MAT 1131Q and MAT 1132Q if they do well on the final exams (the final for MAT 1131Q is the high school midterm exam). Students must work the entire school year preparing for these exams. As evident in the course outline, there are many topics to be covered (even after the AP exam). The final exam is required for all ECE students, including seniors who would normally be exempt based on the high school criteria. The pace of these courses requires students to regularly practice skills at home. Because it is for college credit, there is a higher expectation for students to keep up with assignments and check their own understanding of the material covered.

After a student registers for the UConn courses, his/her grades will be based on two separate metrics. The first metric will be for a high school grade, details of which can be found in the high school course description. The second metric (see below) is a more rigorous one specifically for ECE. The second grade will not be reported on high school transcripts and will not affect the high school GPA. Instead, these grades are sent to UConn and will be on students' college transcripts. UConn does give students the option to not include ECE grades in their college academic transcript. For GPA reasons, some students choose to do this even after earning a passing grade.

ECE students receive many of the same privileges afforded to UConn students. They can have transcripts sent out, visit UConn libraries and access online resources. You can find out more about the UConn ECE program at http://ece.uconn.edu/

Metric for grades sent to UConn

The following weighting will be used if the final exam is no more than 10 points lower than the resultant grade.

Tests                     50 %

Homework             10 %

Final Exam             40 %

If the final exam is more than 10 points lower or higher than the resultant grade, the reported grade will be the final exam grade plus or minus 10 points (this is based on rules set by UConn's mathematics department).