Agreed. Really, middle/high school level algebra ought to be called "simplifying equations" or "solving for a variable" because real math majors know that a college level algebra course is worlds apart and middle/high school teachers should be shot for letting their students think that they are competent at anything more complicated than balancing a checkbook. Similarly, pre-calc ought to be "concepts that we think you ought to be familiar with before you take calculus because you need to have a fundamental understanding of these concepts before you can do anything useful in math because, trust us on this, it will be nice to have these tricks in your toolbox of knowledge," but I suppose that is just too long so they kept it at pre-calculus.