Everybody’s Guide to
Colorado State University’s PACe Program 

Course Organization and Requirements

At Colorado State pre-calculus mathematics is organized into sequences of one-credit minicourses:

Each minicourse is organized into four units or chapters. The requirement for satisfactorily completing a minicourse is to demonstrate competence with the course material by taking Unit Exams and a comprehensive Final Exam, and achieving satisfactory scores. All Unit and Final Exams are given in the PACe Testing Center. If necessary, a student may take Unit and Final Exams several times to earn the required score or the score desired. When a student completes a minicourse, his or her final grade is determined from the sum of his or her best scores for each of the four Unit Exams and Final Exam. The PACe Program provides many Learning Resources to help students master the course material.

The requirement for satisfactorily completing a minicourse is to pass the four Unit Exams, in sequential order, and pass the comprehensive Final Exam with scores of at least 80%.  Unit Exams consist of 10 items, so eight items must be answered correctly to meet course requirements and be eligible to go on to the next unit. The Final Exam consists of 20 items, so sixteen must be answered correctly.

The PACe Program provides many Learning Resources to help students master the course content. Students are responsible for choosing the Learning Resources that work best for them, for managing their time and using these learning resources to master the course material, and for taking the initiative to demonstrate their knowledge on unit exams. To make wise decisions these students need to know what services and resources the PACe Program offers and the procedures and policies for using them.

To ensure that students registered for minicourses have the necessary information, we require that they have taken the PACe User's Exam during the current academic semester before we allow them to access any online course materials.  Students who are registered for minicourses and who have not taken the User's Exam this semester should do so during the first week of the semester.

The User's Exam consists of 15 questions about policies, procedures, and instructional resources of the PACe Program. The minimum passing score for the User’s Exam is 80% (12 of the 15 items). Scores from the User's Exam are not used to compute any final grades.

This Guide contains all the information needed to answer every question on the User's Exam correctly and includes a Sample User's Exam. Students who are registered for minicourses but have not passed the User's Exam this semester should review this Guide, complete the Sample User's Exam, and take the User's Exam at http://online.math.colostate.edu or at the PACe Testing Center (Weber 138).

Students should also read all the following sections:

• Learning Resources
• Testing Procedures
• Minimum Weekly Progress Requirement
• Grading