Who might consider the credit exams?

Who should consider the Calculus credit exams?

We offer the credit exams because we recognize that there are a number of situations in which a student may have engaged in formal study of all the content of one or more of our calculus courses but not have transferable credit for these courses. However, not all prior calculus preparation is adequate for success on the credit exams.

• If you took an AP Calculus course but did not take the exam or did not score high enough on the exam due to nonacademic reasons (e.g. personal emergencies) to earn credit at UW-Madison but feel you know the material well, the credit exams may be a good option for you.
  • Students completing AP Calculus AB have seen all the content for the MATH 221 credit exam.
    • If you have transfer credit for MATH 222 but are missing credit for MATH 221 because a prior college/university awarded calculus credit for your AP Calculus AB score but UW-Madison does not, please consult an academic advisor in your intended major(s) to determine if you need to establish credit for MATH 221. If you do, the credit exam may be a good option
  • Students completing AP Calculus BC have seen most of the content of both the MATH 221 and MATH 222 credit exams. MATH 222 introduces vectors, a topic which is not part of the AP calculus curriculum. See the topic list linked above for more details.
• If you studied calculus and completed an A-level exam for which UW-Madison did not award credit for a calculus class, please review the topic lists linked above for MATH 221 and MATH 222. You may have previously studied all the content for these exams and be appropriately prepared to take them.
  If you studied calculus in high school (in the US or another country) in a context where you did not earn college credit for your calculus course, you may be prepared for one or more credit exams. Please see the lists of topics above. If you have previously studied all the topics for a particular course, you may wish to consider the credit exam.
• If you have taken a college calculus course before:
  • If your course is not in Transferology, please submit syllabi for reevaluation. You may be able to receive equivalent transfer credit and not need the credit exams.
  • If your course transferred as MATH 211 and the reason provided for why it was not equivalent to MATH 221 was “missing applications of integration beyond area”, then you may wish to consider the MATH 221 credit exam, as you can likely review that one topic and be appropriately prepared for the credit exam.
  • If your course transferred as MATH 211 and the reason provided was “missing calculus of trigonometric functions”, then your course was missing a significant amount of content from MATH 221 and is truly directly equivalent to MATH 211. You are expected to know topics such as the derivatives of sine and cosine for the MATH 221 credit exam. If you have not studied this content, we do not suggest the credit exam.
  • If your course transferred as electives and the reason provided was “missing calculus of exponential and logarithmic functions”, you are missing a significant amount of content from MATH 221. If you have not studied this content, we do not suggest the credit exam. If you took a second calculus course in which you learned the derivatives of exponential and logarithmic functions and used them in integrals, then you have likely seen all of the content of MATH 221 and could consider the MATH 221 credit exam.
  • If your multivariable calculus course did not transfer as MATH 234 because it was missing line/surface integrals, your course was missing a significant amount of content from MATH 234. These are big ideas that are a significant component of the MATH 234 credit exam. If you have not studied this content, we do not suggest the credit exam. If you studied some of this material and the transfer evaluation said only that you were missing Stokes’s Theorem and/or the Divergence Theorem, you may consider the credit exam but will need to do very well on the remainder of the exam in order to pass.

If you have transfer coursework and are unsure why your course didn’t transfer as MATH 221/222/234, please email enrollment@math.wisc.edu and we can clarify it for you.