By Luis Marquez
The Math Advancement Program (MAP) is a relatively new at East Los Angeles College. It is spearheaded by math professors Gabriel Castro, Ruben Arenas and Rahim Faradineh.
This program allows students to take two of the basic math classes that are required to be able to transfer in one semester.
Students take one class during the first half of the sixteen week semester and if they pass the first class, they are guaranteed a seat for the next class in the second half of the semester.
“For example, a student could take Math 115 pass it in eight weeks and then jump into Math 125 and pass that in the next eight weeks. So in that one semester they finish two classes, as oppose to finishing just one. That’s what MAP is in a nutshell.
“We tend to see a better success rate in short term classes like winter, and summer than we do in the regular semester,” ELAC professor and co-starter of MAP Castro said.
Students forget a lot of what they have learned in a semester and tend to retain that information for just that one semester.
“It’s so imperative that students take their math classes consecutively,” Castro said.
According to Castro and a group of math instructors at ELAC, if a student takes a class after having passed a class with an A, they have a 75 to 85 percent chance of passing the following class. Castro also went on to say that if students wait a semester to take the next math class that percentage drops to 50 percent.
“(This program is very beneficial) I took care of the math classes I needed in one semester,” former MAP student Angela Herrera said.
“I still remember the lessons taught for the most part. Also, it allowed me to be able to transfer a lot quicker than if I wouldn’t have (taken these classes),” former MAP student Kevin Muñoz said.
The class meets four days a week and has a mandatory lab on Friday, in which students meet with tutors to get help with their homework.
“The program was a bit challenging and there was a lot of work involved. As long as you make sure you’re caught up, and attended class every day the work was easy to stay caught up with,” explains former MAP student Stephanie Diaz.
“It’s good because you have professors that are very passionate about their work. For example, I had Castro for my 125 class and he was really passionate and wanted us to learn everything. I love that they reply to their emails right away to answer any questions we have,” current student of MAP, Jazmin Quijada said.