Oct 05, 2024  
2024-2025 Credit Course Catalog 
    
2024-2025 Credit Course Catalog

Academic Skill Levels


For courses that do not require placement testing and do not have prerequisites, MCC provides information on academic skill levels for reading, writing and math. The information listed below is designed to inform the students of the level of basic knowledge required. The intent of providing this information is to give students the information they need to make informed choices about their classes. Skill level information may not be available for all classes.

Although this information is provided as an aid to students, this does not reflect all of the material content that will be discussed in these courses. MCC encourages students to meet with an academic advisor to answer any questions about how to choose the most appropriate classes, as well as any questions about interpretation of the Academic Skill Levels. Students who are not in good academic standing (cumulative GPA less than 2.0) are required to meet with an advisor prior to registering.

READING SKILL LEVELS
N/A Basic
(Limited reading)
Intermediate
(Regular reading)
Advanced
(Frequent, complex reading)
Reading Not Required

Typical Length:
a few paragraphs at a time.

Vocabulary:
may require learning a few new words.

Expectations:
Follow instructions or understand basic facts. 

Typical Length:
Essays or textbook chapters.

Vocabulary:
Learn subject-specific vocabulary to understand the readings.

Expectations:
Find the main idea, simple details, and the different parts of the reading materials.

Typical Length:
entire books or research articles.

Vocabulary:
Use advanced subject-specific vocabulary to use or apply knowledge.

Expectations:
Identify how various parts of the reading material relate to one another, use reasoning skills to find meaning of reading materials.

WRITING SKILL LEVELS
N/A Basic
(Limited writing)
Intermediate
(Regular writing)
Advanced
(Frequent writing)
Writing Not Required

Type of writing:
Write about student’s own experience, opinion, feelings, or observations.

Length of writing:
Paragraphs and short essays (1-2 pages)

Type of writing:
Read 1 or 2 sources of information, write a response, compare/contrast writings; argue a point of view.

Length of writing:
Mid-length essays (3-5 pages)

Evaluate source credibility

Type of writing:
Read 3 or more sources of information, analyze and summarize materials read.

Length of writing:
Longer essays (6+ pages) or research papers.

May do research oneself to compare own findings to findings of what was read.

MATH SKILL LEVELS
N/A Basic Intermediate Advanced Expert
Math Not Required Add, subtract, divide, and multiply. Use fractions, percentages, and negative numbers to solve practical problems.

All Basic Skills plus interpret basic graphs.

Graph answers to problems such as x + y = 21.

All Intermediate skills plus factor problems such as x2 + 10x + 24; and

graph quadratic functions such as y = x2

All the Advanced skills plus solve and/or graph problems like:

x/3+2x/4=5, and

x+2=6, and

101-x=104, and

f(x)=log2x.