
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Given a student has 4 mathematics courses to schedule in an 8-period day: algebra, geometry, number theory, and calculus, where no two mathematics courses can be taken in consecutive periods and algebra must be in the first period, determine the number of ways to schedule the courses.

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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