Are these Alg 2 chapters important?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
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<p>I am currently a freshman and I am taking Algebra 2. I am switching schools for the second semester, and their textbook covers things in a different order. So now there are 3 chapters that they have already covered but I have not yet. The chapter are: Polynomial Functions (we have done polynomials, just not functions), Rational Expressions and Equations, and Exponential and Logarithmic Relations. I was just wondering which chapters I would need to self-learn over the break for future math courses (I am planning on taking Precalc BC next year), and which chapters maybe aren't as important and/or may be covered again in future math courses. </p>

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<p>They’re all very important to be honest, but if you had to skip one, I don’t think rational expressions and equations would be as paramount</p>

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<p>Yeah, I second that ^</p>

<p>You have to know Polynomials and their Functions and Logs. All three of the topics, however, will be re-introduced in PreCalc but just in more depth. They also, go hand in hand. So once you learn the rules of Polynomial functions, you will see how closely it relates to Rational expressions, especially when graphing.</p>

<p>Logarithms were my favorite part of Alg 2</p>

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<p>I’ve never heard of “precalc BC” (there is AP Calculus BC).</p>

<p>All of them are important and used in higher-level math, as well as many sciences. But you should definitely know what a polynomial is before learning what a rational function is. Exponential and logarithmic functions come up frequently in calculus and many fields including biology, engineering, and computer science.</p>

<p>Also, Wikipedia is your friend:</p>

<p><a href=“Polynomial - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynomial&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“Rational function - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_function&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Those are all extremely important concepts. I recommend Khan Academy. </p>

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<p>They’ll be important later on, so you should at least have some understanding of them. If you use a resource like Khan Academy, you should be fine though.</p>

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<p>All of these come up quite often in PreCalc so know them thoroughly </p>

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<p>In my opinion, precalc reviewed a lot of what I learned in Algebra II, so try to have some background in those chapters, but it doesn’t have to be that strong.</p>

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<p>Just my two cents: I never covered Logs and Exponential functions in Algebra 2 (had to quickly teach myself the concepts…and badly might I add) and I got a 5 on the Calc AB exam, so I question how important they are.</p>

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<p>well the calc exams are notoriously easy, so…</p>

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@thanksagain wait, logarithms and exponential functions are super useful…

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@MITer94‌ Just speaking from personal experience. I question how important they are for Calculus, not for anything else. I’m not going to major in anything STEM related so they’re definitely not important for me.

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@thanksagain um, well given that e can be defined as the unique real number a such that d/dx (a^x) = a^x, I would say they are important in calculus. Also e^x and log x have nice power series representations.

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@MITer94‌ Perhaps I should have been more specific. It was possible for me to self-study them for Calculus as the basic properties of logs (aka what you’re supposed to learn in Algebra 2, which is what this thread is about, NOT e) are easy to, well, self-study. Obviously you’re going to expand on logs in calculus, but the basic Algebra 2 concepts are what I was implying. Thought it was obvious, sorry.

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Is this a joke? Learn them all. These are some of the most basic ideas in math, surely required for Ap calc and beyond lol

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You’re not going to expand on logs in calculus? You my friend, are sadly mistaken

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You honestly need all of them. Math = building blocks. If you’re going on to Pre-Calc, AP Calc, etc. you need them all. It might be more work and harder to accomplish, but it will benefit you in the end.

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I think every thing in A2 is important. I’ve looked at soem of the HPreCalc work and much of the first semester was expanding on things my HA2 was learning the basics of. This is random, but I hare domain and range (not that it’s hard). We started log this week and I can’t wait to see how complex it gets lol

Did you mean Calc BC? I was weak when I saw pre-calc BC

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@Anish14 Pre-calculus usually only gives an introduction to logarithms (definition in terms of the inverse of the exponential function, and some basic identities).

However all of the topics are useful if you want to study pretty much any STEM field, as well as some non-STEM fields. If you were to major in something else, like ancient Greek history, I doubt how useful theorems such as fundamental thm of algebra are.

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@MITer94‌
Really? I am in Hon Algebra 2 and we are learning inverse functions and logarithms base 10 and base 2 or something for now. Not sure what else is to come.