I am in eighth grade (please don’t be mad for me being on hear, I just want to prepare myself ahead of time) and I am going to be taking algebra 2/geometry 2 (Algeo 2). I did well in Algeo 1 and kept straight A’s all year, and now that I am starting to really think about my classes in high school, my questions are this: now that I am doing geometry and algebra 2, will I be taking pre-calculus in my first year of high school? And if so, would I be able to instead first take statistics and then do both pre-calculus and calculus before college, since I am taking subjects two years above my grade’s schedule? Thanks!
Should you perhaps ask this question of a guidance counselor at your school? We don’t know what they’ll let you take or when.
You’d likely take pre-calculus as a freshman, calculus Bc as a sophomore, and during Jr and students year take math classes at a community college nearby including a choice of Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, Multivariable calculus.
Look at your high school’s course listing and map out a 4 year plan. Talk to your GC if anything is not clear. Your middle school allows 8th graders to take geometry and algebra2 in one year? That’s quite unusual. Is this part of a 2 year integrated math sequence or do you finish both classes?
You should be aware that AP statistics is a non-calculus based statistics class and is considered rather lightweight. My daughter enjoyed it though, but she took it as an elective along with calc.
Many hs students do take math classes at a cc and you will hear it glibly said that you should just do that on this site. However that doesn’t work for many students. Our cc is half an hour’s drive away and not accessible by public transportation from our residential area or from our hs. The high school doesn’t pay any expenses for the cc courses, they don’t give credit for them, and the scheduling is not necessarily coordinated. For a hs student who doesn’t have a driver’s license yet or doesn’t have use of a car at class times or cannot afford or schedule these things, or simply doesn’t have the extra 3-4 hours per week to spend driving across town, it’s not necessarily a real option. It is very uncommon for students at our school to take cc courses. Online is more popular as far as I know.
look at your high school online. See if they have their course catalog for next year on it. In my kids’ high school it’s listed under the counselor tab. If you look through the course selection, you should get an idea of what courses are offered through your high school. For example, after PreCalc, you might see AP calc AB, AP calc BC, and possibly other calculus courses (at ours we have calc 3).
I would take stats alongside other math classes if you are a math person. I wouldn’t take it in place of a calc class.