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Producing a capable and well rounded engineer and scientist is a pri mary goal at Michigan Technological University. A necessary ingredient of that engineer is a firm understanding by the individual of basic mathematical concepts. In the expanding technology of today there is a need for a strong background in the mathematics field at an early date. Because of this need a lag or gap has de veloped between the educational require ments of a student entering an engineering program and that of the actual degree of preparation of the student. Some high schools have begun to comply with the recommendations of such authorities as the Committee for the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (CUPM); others have not.1 This problem has presented much difficulty to Michigan Technological University as well as to other schools across the nation. In order to be able to produce the qualified engineer, Michigan Technological University has had to assume the very recommendations of the CUPM group; that is, the engineering stu-dent must at least begin with analytic geometry if the student hopes to complete his degree work in a normal four-year course. But this certainly brings about a difficult problem; what do we do with the young man who wants to be an engineer and is not prepared? Much more, how can we properly decide which student is ready and which is not?
Nichols et al. (Mon,) studied this question.