If he may play football in college, the academic calendar (quarter versus semester system) of the college may be relevant. At most quarter system schools, the football season overlaps with 1/3 of the academic year, while at semester system schools, the football season overlaps with 1/2 of the academic year. So a football student athlete at a quarter system school may have more of the academic year available for hard courses and schedules than one at a semester system school.
^^^
Very useful indeed…something essential to consider. Thanks.
You need to talk to the math teacher at your school about placement. Ask whether the BC class assumes prior completion of AB material or whether it’s the class for the better students coming out of precalc which starts with the AB material and also covers the BC. You do not want to jump into a BC class that skips over the AB material.
Keep in mind that while people on this site love to tell advanced math students to “just” take post-calculus math at a college, that can create significant or prohibitive scheduling, transportation, commuting time, and/or cost issues.
Still, why the rush? I can see the reasoning if the purpose of the schedule is to offset Math and English classes but it looks like your son is planning to take Math again as one of the five classes next fall. And itIt sounds like the high school only goes up to Calc BC.
The main issue is you really don’t want a strong math student to go for two years without math. That seems worse to me than slowing the child down. That said, he will obviously be ready for Calc BC far earlier than senior year. Timing his academic schedule for Calc BC in junior year seems like the compromise choice.
@SlackerMomMD No rush…that is the path he has been on since MS. He will finish pre calculus during the summer (as well as AP English)…these will count towards his 10th grade classes. He will then have 5 courses taken during the regular school year(10th)
Honors Chemistry
Spanish 3
STEM
AP World History
Leadership year 2
Once football is over usually around early November he will take AP Computer Science as well.
Ah, that makes sense. I was envisioning your son taking BC in the fall. So will your son start calc after football season in the spring/summer to count for junior year? It is a bit disorienting for me.
Then, the prevailing advice is to talk/email his precalc teacher for guidance. (I’m sensing that your son has not taken math in the local high school, so I don’t know how much help they may be if they don’t know your child)
@SlackerMomMD He will take BC starting in spring 2017(so he finishes over the summer before his junior year). You are correct…he takes some courses via FLVS so although he technically has a teacher, he has no interaction or contact other than a once a month phone call.
Why not take something else this summer and do pre-calc as a sophomore and then BC as a junior? Or, if your HS allows, then take AB as a junior and BC as a senior. Is there an option to take a college level course somewhere nearby if he finishes calc? Otherwise, he has no math to take junior and senior year. Not clear how that is an advantage for college.
Seems like an unnecessary slow down for someone who is obviously a top math student.
Since he is apparently mostly self-studying math as it is now, perhaps the post-BC options of self-studying advanced AoPS courses or Caltech Ma 1a (see reply #1), even without official credit, could help keep his math in practice, in comparison to doing nothing for math the last two years, if there are no realistic options of taking advanced math at a local college.
Your S is a bright student. Second that he can take up AP Stat if he is interested.
My D would have been in a similar situation. She decided to go a little slower in math. Instead of taking harder math courses, she took up honors courses in other subjects and one more EC she was interested in. She is happy that she chose this path after spending almost one year into it.
Ap Stats would NOT be satisfying for a student who’s good at math. He could take it in 10th grade if he wanted - it’s algebra-based stats, not calculus-based stats. AP Stats is a math class for strong students who can’t or won’t take calculus. Somebody as advanced as Moscott’s son should go from calc to stats.
If a community college is nearby AND it offers classes such as Multivariable calculus, discrete math… this may be useful to take after BC.
I agree that starting at 9 am or later is better for adolescent bodies, so if that means completing two classes over the summer, it’s a good solution. I would not have chosen Math for one of these classes but I suppose that’s how the HS does it or that’s the class easiest to get online.
@MYOS1634 His 3 electives(STEM Spanish 3 and Leadership) have to be taken at his HS. STEM is mandatory 3rd period and Leadership mandatory 7th period. Therefore he will have AP World and Chemistry honors 4th and 5th allowing him to arrive at school at 3rd period(9am). In order to do that he takes pre calculus and AP English starting now and finishing over the summer. They come pretty easy to him thus not spending his whole summer on school work. It’s thru FLVS so he can go at his own pace. This approach is especially helpful during football season starting in August when they go back to school.