A Proposed Courses Structure for the Preparatory College Year

Abstract

Colleges in Saudi Arabia receive many college applicants with all sorts of high-school education, knowledge and skills. A large percentage of these applicants have a weak background in the English language, math and science. As a result, most Saudi Universities have a precollege year labeled the preparatory year. During this year accepted applicants are scrutinized to weed out the less qualified, and prepare those with limited deficiencies for college. It is important for a freshman to acknowledge his/her lacking and or lagging in any of the mentioned fields above. Such recognition facilitates the learning process for those who realize their deficiencies. This paper presents samples of a course structure that meets the needs of those with inadequate background in all or two of the three mentioned subjects. The paper offers examples of two curriculum courses in the two main topics, English and math, and suggests a basic curriculum set of courses for the physics discipline. The first semester introduces fundamental material in the two subjects, with more in depth intermediate courses in the second semester. The paper presents a few simple examples for both semesters.