I’ll be a freshman at the Tandon School of Engineering this fall, and the only info I could get on the Tandon placement exam was this one example of the test:
http://www.math.poly.edu/courses/sample_diagnostic.pdf
From that one example test, it seems like it does some basic algebra, trig, and geometry then moves onto easy/medium/hard calculus.
The later half of that paper is mostly foreign to me, but I know that I will be able to learn this material quickly, so I would rather be placed in at least Calculus I at NYU instead of one of the precalculus courses. What do you think will be the best resources (especially free material/online) to help me study for this over the next few months? Thanks 
2 Replies
Hi Stella,
Thanks for your message and even though I’m in the NYU business school not Tandon, I have a couple of friends who did go there and gave me some tips. They said (and I’m sure you’re already well aware) that Tandon requires a high level of math and physics knowledge.
For building this up, I’d recommend you look at past International Baccalaureate Math SL and HL papers. If you read up and self study the content in these (use khan academy and google to help), you should be well prepared for whatever Tandon throws at you first year. There’s an abundance of these IB past papers online and many of them have worked answers, so it’s well worth checking them out.
You can also go onto course hero and check out the NYU precalc/calc course content and see what level you’re at. Maybe try some of the homework test sheets in there and see how you feel. you should note that the homework sheets are generally harder than the actual exam content(teachers expect you to collaborate with others on HW), so don’t be put off! If you don’t think you’re ready for calc, don’t be afraid to take precalc as it will provide a solid foundation which is absolutely necessary for Tandon.
Hope this helped and good luck! I hope you love NYU. I know I do
Cheers,
Jen
Thanks for the tips!
