I am a bit astonished that a pre-calculus class includes all these topics.


You and me both.

I recall seeing complex numbers in high school, all right-- but not really WORKING with them in polar coordinate systems until Physics, P-Chem, and DiffEQ. Certainly I first encountered polar coordinate systems in college material relating to analytic geometry. Not in this class, which is effectively the same material as is (theoretically) covered in MTH 112.


Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.