Math Placement Information

Your Math Placement level will determine which math classes you are eligible to enroll in at NAU. Five factors are used to establish your Math Placement level.

View the following video for a breakdown of these five factors.

Click here for a transcript of the video.

The following table summarizes the five factors that are used to determine Math Placement level.

The first factor is the number of math courses you successfully completed during High School. There are a few restrictions, but in general, successfully completing three or four qualifying math classes during high school will translate to a specified Math Placement level.

The second factor is your unweighted GPA in core academic classes completed during high school.

The third and fourth factors that may be used to determine your Math Placement are scores from the SAT and ACT tests. On both tests, only scores from the math subsection are considered.

The fifth factor is a score on NAU’s Math Placement Test. This test is not required but it is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your current mathematical knowledge if you feel the other factors that determine Math Placement level do not fully capture your mathematical readiness.

NAU’s Math Placement Test is a free, online assessment that is available to you as soon as you are admitted to the university.

A wide range of resources are available to help you explore the specific content that is assessed on the Math Placement Test as well as to familiarize yourself with the online testing environment.

Click here for more detailed information about NAU’s Math Placement Test.

Transfer credits work alongside Math Placement to determine which math and statistics courses you are eligible to enroll in.

You may have previously earned college-equivalent credits through AP tests, dual-enrollment, or similar programs. These credits appear on your NAU transcript as transfer credits and, where appropriate, you are given credit for completing the associated NAU course(s).

If you are given credit for completing a mathematics or statistics course in this way, you will be eligible to enroll in subsequent courses that have your completed course as a prerequisite. In this way, transfer credits earned through AP tests or similar methods can determine which math and statistics courses you are eligible to enroll in at NAU.

But, it is important to note that such transfer credits are not directly incorporated into your Math Placement. Your Math Placement level is based on the five factors described above; if you have additional transfer credits, they will not change your Math Placement level.

So if you have transfer credits (earned through AP tests or other means), you may see a disconnect between your stated Math Placement and your actual eligibility to enroll in math and statistics courses.

NAU’s enrollment system, LOUIE, will always give you the highest eligibility you have earned. So if you have transfer credits that give you a higher eligibility than the five factors used to determine Math Placement, you will be able to enroll in courses based on the higher eligibility, even if your assigned Math Placement level does not reflect this.

Each major has specific course requirements, so to get a detailed description of the exact MAT and/or STA courses that will be required for a particular degree, it is best to look through the details provided for that major in the NAU catalog and to speak with your academic advisor.

To get an initial sense of the MAT and/or STA courses required by a range of majors, general guidelines for broad groups of degrees are provided below. As noted above, for detailed specifications for particular majors, you should consult the NAU catalog or speak to your academic advisor.

Physic, Engineering, and Math

Majors within the fields of Physics, Engineering, and Math generally have the most demanding and extensive sequences of required MAT and/or STA courses. Most degrees within these fields suggest a target first math course at NAU of MAT 136 Calculus 1 and require a significant number of subsequent MAT courses.

In order to efficiently complete the full sequence of MAT courses required for such degrees – as well as related courses with MAT courses as prerequisites – it is strongly recommended that students strive to be eligible to enroll in MAT 136 Calculus 1 their first semester at NAU.

If you are thinking about pursuing a major within the fields of Physics, Engineering, and Math and your initial Math Placement level does not enable you to enroll in MAT 136 Calculus 1, you may consider taking NAU’s Math Placement Test in an effort to increase your Math Placement level. A wide range of resources are available to help you explore the specific content that is assessed on the Math Placement Test as well as to familiarize yourself with the online testing environment.

If you will be starting at NAU next fall, NAU also offers the Peak Performance program, a free flexible online summer program, designed to help incoming first-year students who are looking to refresh their math skills and attempt to increase their Math Placement before their first semester at NAU.

For more details regarding the significance of Math Placement for students interested in Physics, Engineering, and Math, visit this page.

Sciences and Health Professions

Scientific disciplines (such as Biology, Chemistry, Geology, etc.) and majors focused on health professions (such as Nursing and Dental Hygiene) have a moderate number of MAT and/or STA classes prescribed for their degrees. Specific course requirements vary for majors within this category, but if you think you might pursue a degree in these fields, it is valuable to be mindful of your Math Placement level so that you can enroll in the target first course for your chosen major as early within your academic progression as possible. If your initial Math Placement level is lower than desired, you have the option of taking NAU’s Math Placement Test to demonstrate your current math content knowledge and possibly increase your Math Placement level.

Business

The majority of degrees offered within the W.A. Franke College of Business require a specific math course for their students – MAT 121 Finite Mathematics with Calculus. Successful completion of MAT 121 is one of the requirements you will need to meet in order to apply for the preprofessional program in the W.A. Franke College of Business, so it is important to enroll in and pass MAT 121 early in your academic progression. If you have a sufficient Math Placement level, you can be eligible to enroll in MAT 121 in your first semester at NAU. If your initial Math Placement level does not permit you to enroll in MAT 121, you have the option of taking NAU’s Math Placement Test to demonstrate your current math content knowledge and possibly increase your Math Placement level.

Elementary Education

The Elementary Education degrees offered at NAU have a specific two-semester sequence of required math courses: MAT 150 Principles of Mathematics 1 and MAT 155 Principles of Mathematics 2. You may have an initial Math Placement level that will permit you to enroll in MAT 150 very early in their academic progression. If so, it is recommended that you enroll in MAT 150 during for first or second semester at NAU so that you will be prepared to apply for the Professional Education Program in a timely manner. If your initial Math Placement level does not permit you to enroll in MAT 150, you have the option of taking NAU’s Math Placement Test to demonstrate your current math content knowledge and possibly increase your Math Placement level.

General Studies Math Foundation Requirement

For all majors at NAU, quantitative reasoning is an essential component of the General Studies requirements that all students must fulfill. If you are considering a field of study that falls outside the categories described above, you will most likely need to complete one MAT or STA courses from a group of courses that have the General Studies Math Foundation Requirement. As you prepare to enroll at NAU, you can ask your academic advisor for a description of these classes and which classes from this group you are eligible to enroll in based on your Math Placement level.

Please note that the descriptions above only provide broad, general guidelines; to determine specific requirements for a particular degree, refer to the NAU catalog and/or speak with your academic advisor.

As explained above, there are five factors that are used to determine your Math Placement level. The timeline of when these factors are processed can vary, so it is possible that you will be assigned a certain Math Placement level at one point and then assigned a new Math Placement level once additional factors have been processed. NAU’s enrollment system, LOUIE, retains the highest placement level you earn.

NAU’s Math Placement Test is not a required test, but it is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your current mathematical knowledge if you feel the other factors that determine Math Placement do not fully capture your mathematical readiness.

Above, general guidelines are given for which first math (MAT) and/or statistics (STA) course you should try to enroll in based on a few groups of disciplines/majors. Degrees within the fields of Physics, Engineering, and Math, for example, require an extensive sequence of MAT courses and completing this sequence efficiently relies on enrolling in the target first course MAT 136 Calculus 1 as early as possible. If your initial Math Placement level does not currently permit you to enroll in MAT 136, taking the Math Placement Test may provide you an opportunity to earn a higher Math Placement, so you would be encouraged to learn more about the Math Placement test.

On the other hand, if you are interested in a degree that is not as demanding mathematically, you may need to only complete one MAT or STA course to fulfill the General Studies Mathematics Foundation Requirement. If that’s the case, there may not be as urgent a need for you to try to earn a higher Math Placement, so it may not be as pressing for you to consider taking the Math Placement test.

The decision whether or not to take the Math Placement Test should be made in light of a range of details about your current Math Placement, the target first MAT or STA course for your intended major, etc. Feel free to reach out to your academic advisor or to Math Placement staff to discuss these details.

If you choose to take the Math Placement Test, a wide range of resources are available to help you explore the specific content that is assessed on the Math Placement Test as well as to familiarize yourself with the online testing environment.

Click here for more detailed information about NAU’s Math Placement Test.

Many students come to NAU with extensive math knowledge derived from coursework completed in high school or at other colleges/universities. As described above, Math Placement takes into account several specific factors to determine which MAT and STA courses you will be eligible to enroll in at NAU. It is important to note that earning a certain Math Placement level does not earn you credit for any courses; in particular, if you earn a particular Math Placement level, you do not earn credit for the courses “below” the level you have earned.

Here’s one specific example: If you earn a 605 Math Subscore on the SAT, you will be assigned a Math Placement level of MP50. As indicated in the Math Placement Table provided above, a Math Placement level of MP50 would make you eligible to enroll in MAT 121 or MAT 125, but you are not granted credit for courses “below” MP50 in the table (MAT 100, MAT 108, MAT 114, MAT 150). Suppose your major requires MAT 150; although you have a “higher” Math Placement level than MAT 150, you will still be required to enroll in and successfully complete that course.

NAU does provide one opportunity to earn credit for an MAT course through performance on a test: the Challenge Exam for MAT 121. If you are considering a degree in an area of Business, it is most likely you will be required to complete MAT 121 Finite Mathematics with Calculus. Please view the page linked above for details regarding the Challenge Exam for MAT 121.