<p>Right now I'm in the ninth grade and for math I have Algebra 2 with Trigonometry. Which is a "weighted" course (in my school instead
Besides that, I'm also taking Honors Geometry. of calling advanced math classes honors, 'they're called "weighted").
I get excellent grades in these and I'm not sure what to do next. The school year is coming to an end and I have to think of what to do in the summer or my sophomore year. Would I be able to do AP Calculus AB in my sophomore year if I take pre calculus in the summer? Is it REALLY necessary to take precalculus before moving on to AP Calculus AB or something similar? What about geometry?
Also, assuming I get excellent grades? Is my curriculum impressive enough to do engineering from an Ivy League school if I keep up the work, (Actually, I plan on working a lot harder as I proceed through the next three years of school.
What if I just do pre calculus in my sophomore year? Is that good enough (because they often don't let sophomores do AP math, just AP geography and history, which I will take.
Any advice?
Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I’m a freshman this year and I took Algebra 2 also. Honestly its probably not necessary to take Pre-Cal in the summer. It’s a lot of work to put in a summer just to get ahead. Going on my path I am able to take both AP Calculus AB and BC without doing a summer course. AP Stats could be an option but it is not really crucial to engineering and it’s a very easy class. Taking both AP Calculus classes are both very competitive for most schools. I’m planning on taking Pre-Cal before I go to AP.</p>
<p>If you have not taken geometry yet you really should, it shows up a ton on things like the SAT and ACT. As for pre-calc it is not a must have, but people tend to benefit from it. You are a freshman, you don’t need to go rush into calc.</p>
<p>AP Calculus AB was extremely easy for me, but you need a solid understanding of Trigonometry. Geometry matters arguably very little to none at all, and Precalculus (like vectors and stuff) will probably be recovered in Calculus BC and are irrelevant in Calculus AB.</p>
<p>Are you in geometry or not? If yes, take Pre-calc next year, getting to calc as a junior is ahead of the game. I would recommend taking pre-calc. If not, take geometry next year. I don’t know if you can double up with pre-calc and geometry, not sure, I think pre-calc requires geometry. Also, geometry shows up on the SAT/ACT, I wouldn’t skip it or pre-calc, you don’t want to have a shaky foundation and get into a lot of trouble later.</p>
<p>If you are in Algebra 2 as a freshman, you are already ahead of 99% of students your age! You can get ahead if you really want to, but it is by no means necessary or even a huge factor in college admissions … there are students admitted to Ivy Leagues who haven’t even taken calculus at all!</p>
<p>Instead of taking Calc AB next year, I would take Precalculus next year then Calc BC your junior year. Precal is not totally necessary outside of a couple of topics you can easily learn yourself, but it helps to build a solid base for future math classes and wraps up algebra. After that, you can either take an elective or move on to Multivariable Calc.</p>
<p>My kids did the following
After algebra 2
Geometry Honors
Pre-cal honors
Ap Cal I (or AB)
Ap Cal II ( or BC optional)
Cal II or Cal BC is not a must by any means. Geometry is very important, so is algebra for test purposes.</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore taking pre calculus right now and took algebra 2 as a freshman last year. I would highly recommend taking pre calc, as the first semester is nearly all a review of algebra 2 but the second semester introduces a variety of new topics you don’t want to miss out on. Hope this helps :)</p>
<p>Actually right now as a freshman, I’m taking algebra 2 with trigonometry AND geometry honors at the same time, sorry for not wording that better. Okay so since I have geometry, algebra 2 with trigonometry, next year I have the option of precalculus or AP calc AB. Question is, which one has more prestige? What do you think colleges will want to see in an applicant’s sophomore year, precalculus or AP calc AB? What if I do AP calc AB and BC too? Would that look better than precalculus and AP calc BC?
Also, do you are think AP physics is necessary during junior and senior year for engineering?
Thanks everyone for the advice so far!</p>
<p>I’m sure there are plenty of people who got into Ivy league schools who took Pre-Calc sophomore year, even junior year. You’ll be fine.</p>
<p>My advice continue with pre-cal, then AP cal AB. AP can BC will not add much to your application. AP physics is a plus for Engineering however ( check if you need some pre-cal). The reason is that you will compete with kids that did take AP physics. For schools like Georgia Tech and up specially. My son felt that this hurt his application. He had all Maths but only Physics honors. He still got into Engineering but not at GTech.</p>
<p>Some people never even make it to PreCalc in high school so you’re doing really good. Also, most colleges would rather that you take some form of math every year so that you retain it. I would just do PreCalc as a sophomore. After all, you’re a freshman. Have some fun. There’s no reason to spend your summer in school! Have fun now, while you still can!</p>
<p>Definitely take precalc. If you rush into Calc too quickly its gonna appear that you were trying to move ahead as quick as possible instead of really learn math.</p>
<p>It really depends how rigorous your alg. 2 class is. I took Geometry in eighth grade, Alg. 2 with trig in nineth, and I am in pre-calc right now as a tenth grader. It is a nice review of alg. 2; for me, there were only one or two topics I hadn’t learned in alg. 2 and the rest was review (and I do my hw while my teacher teaches). I really don’t think it will hurt much to take precalc in summer, but it really depends on how rigorous your alg. 2 class is and how good you are at math. I am going to take calc bc next year since my teacher recommends that. He said calc bc only has two more chapters than ab. I’ll see how that works out next year…</p>
<p>take precalc sophomore year, calculus junior year, stats or even more advanced calc senior year.</p>
<p>It depends on the rigor of your alg2/trig class. I was in your situation in freshman year, but I opted to skip pre-calc because my math teacher prepared me enough for the class (and he was scheduled to teach calc the next year & the pre-calc teacher was pretty well known to be a bad teacher). I’d recommend asking your math teacher at school for advice and/or a counselor.
I would definitely recommend taking AP Physics your junior or senior year - schools like to see that you’ve taken it. It’s also a good SAT subject test to take.</p>
<p>I was in a similar boat in 9th grade, taking Honors Algebra II (no trig though). I’m taking Honors PreCalc now and it’s a breeze. </p>
<p>Since you have trig with your Algebra 2 class, you might know enough to skip to calculus, but preclaculus helps you sharpen those skills and in our school, we get some exposure to proof methods like induction and we derive a lot of the trig identities, which are good practice for things to come.</p>
<p>Definitely don’t rush precal and take it over the summer. There are definitely a lot of things you don’t want to miss. The only math I would suggest rushing over the summer is geometry, because it really isn’t that important for future math classes, but you already took geometry so it’s not a problem.</p>
<p>Wait how do your schools have a separate class for Precalculus – then someone who took Algebra I in eighth grade couldn’t take calculus in high school</p>
<p>^ at my school it would go
Algebra I (8th), Geometry (9th), Algebra II with Trig (10th), Pre-Calc (11th), Calc AB (12th)</p>