For students looking to take Calculus I in the fall semester, a revamped process has been introduced to help those who struggle with the subject.

Calculus I, previously Math 221, will be split into Math 224 and Math 225 and offered as two seven-week classes, but students will sign up for both courses at once when registering. Calculus II will be divided in the same manner for the spring 2016 semester, but will remain one course for the upcoming fall semester.

According to William Kazmierczak, the director of calculus for the mathematical sciences department, this change will help students who need to take calculus but find it challenging.

“A lot of students were failing and not doing well, or withdrawing from the course,” Kazmierczak said. “If they don’t do well, they get stuck behind and have to catch up as well as ending up a semester back.”

The half-semester system will offer students who struggle in the course an alternative to the setbacks that come with withdrawing, Kazmierczak said. If a student is doing poorly in the first half of the course, they can now opt to retake the first seven weeks during the second half of the semester. They will be able to take the second half of the course during the winter 2015 session in order to complete their coursework in time to start Calculus II in the spring semester.

“If you look at the first five weeks, you can tell if a student is not going to do well in the course overall,” Kazmierczak said. “So why would we waste the entire semester?”

Kathleen Brunt, the assistant dean for academic affairs and advising in Harpur College, said that this will be helpful for students trying to satisfy mathematics requirements.

“Staying on track is important for all of our students,” she said. “For those who need calculus for their major, if they need to repeat a portion of the course, they can make it up.”

Brunt also said that if a student switches their major mid-semester and no longer needs to take calculus, they can now easily drop the course halfway through the semester.

Kazmierczak said that for those who are ready to progress to the second half of the course, the switch from Math 224 to Math 225 will go more smoothly and the professor and class time will remain the same.

Additionally, the mathematics department will now offer Math 223, an introduction to calculus. This will provide both a precalculus catch-up for students and basic calculus to prepare for Math 224. Previously, students could take Math 108, which is precalculus, or start with Math 224.

“It is to help the students who struggle, aren’t doing well or have a weak background in precalculus to do a bit better,” Kazmierczak said.

Sofia Degtyar, an undeclared sophomore, took Calculus I twice in her freshman year. She said that this change would have made the course material more manageable and will be very helpful for students moving forward.

“If students are just not inclined towards math or happen to have a bad time and miss class or quizzes, they could retake it without losing time,” Degtyar said. “They will be staying on track whether they just need one math class or if they are pursuing a degree that requires them to move on to the more advanced math courses.”