<p>I'm a freshmen who is in all honors classes, except for math. However, next year, I am moving up to an honors level class. The problem is that while other honors math students who were in honors Geometry this year will be entering Algebra II Sophomore year, I'll be entering Geometry. This is due to the fact that I didn't make it into Pre-Algebra in 7th Grade, for whatever reason. Will the fact that I'm not in Algebra II affect me in the future or does the fact that I'm still in Geometry Honors be ok?</p>
<p>Can you take two math classes in one year to make up for that?
It depends on what colleges you want to apply to, but some selective schools seem to expect that a challenging schedule would include calculus during senior year.</p>
<p>^Well you would begin calculus senior year if you take geometry freshman year, unless his school added another random math class in there.
The difference is that if you start with Algebra II you get two calculus classes in high school, which can be useful. For example, last year I took Calc AB which got the basics under my fingers, but I truly have it down to a science after this year.</p>
<p>The more I think about it, the more disillusioned I become with the traditional high school path of algebra -> geometry -> algebra -> trigonometry -> the jumpstart called “calculus” into the giant world of real analysis. I think people in college admissions feel the same way; why else would there be so many people in single variable calculus classes at places like MIT, which are so famous for having only “the best” and supposedly the most accomplished students? It’s because the best mathematics students aren’t necessarily the ones who have followed the conventional path at a certain pace; they’re the ones who solve problems and make arguments and prove them because it’s just what they do. Plus, there’s so much mathematics that wouldn’t even be slightly different if not for the existence of trigonometry or calculus and I think it’s silly that calculus is usually the common prerequisite for mathematics majors just about everywhere.</p>
<p>So working twice as hard in math doesn’t necessarily mean doubling up on courses so you can take calculus a year earlier. Try just working twice as hard at whatever course you do take, proving every theorem you encounter, looking for online proofs of theorems that are “beyond the scope of this text”, etc.</p>
<p>BTW as a college student studying mathematics, geometry is the subject I most wish I would have paid more attention to in school, maybe even have studied a couple years later in life when I was more mature and therefore had more patience and more respect for the subject. (I flaked out on proofs.) You could be setting yourself up for a better future by taking your time with geometry and going at it with a bit more maturity than your peers’.</p>
<p>“why else would there be so many people in single variable calculus classes at places like MIT”</p>
<p>Probably because most high schools don’t teach calculus on the same level as MIT, and they need everyone to be on the same page. I assume most of the students still took some kind of calculus in high school for college admissions purposes, even if it didn’t help them much.</p>
<p>I’d imagine people with a strong foundation in geometry and trigonometry are better-prepared for it than people who have already attempted a form of single variable calculus but don’t have quite the same geometric and trigonometric foundation. Hell, even in multivariable calculus at UCLA, I had to go back to my roots in geometry more than in single variable calculus.</p>
<p>Meaning when I was learning multivariable calculus, I had to review geometry more than I reviewed single variable calculus.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! I have an update. It turns out, I can take a month long course in the summer and get credit to skip geometry. The thing is, it’s $900 dollars! Is it worth taking the class?</p>
<p>I suppose that’s up to your parents or whoever will be paying, and if money is no object you may as well indulge yourself, but IMO it’s not worth it. Why not just test out of it? There are tons of math resources on the Internet, and my school has let me take finals without taking the class.</p>