Students should be thoroughly familiar with the language and nomenclature for oscillations in time from the “Oscillations” paradigm.
They should have had some exposure to the topic of waves in introductory physics, and most will be able to distinguish transverse from longitudinal oscillations, will understand the concept of a standing wave as characterized by nodes, and a traveling wave as “moving”, with velocity $v= f\text{ }\lambda$.
Most students are unfamiliar with, or have certainly not mastered