My school is offering a summer course so certain people from my class can take calculus. Whoever doesn’t go is forced to take a different kind of math next year.
Thing is, I don’t even know if I want to study psychology. If I do though… do I need calculus?
Calculus is a common class required in College for many majors so it would be to your benefit to be exposed to the concepts. What is the “different” kind of Math, you will be required to take? Have you taken Pre-Calc?
Yup. The different math is something related to business? I don’t really remember.
The requirements for a major will vary from college to college. Check the websites of schools you are interested in applying to and see if calculus is required for a psych major. I would also keep open the possibility that you might change majors in college.
You should find out exactly what the alternative to calculus would be in your HS.
As @happy1 stated, you might want to keep your options open depending upon if you change majors so I would consider the Calculus class.
As someone who knew I wanted to study Psych in high school (and is majoring in Psych currently), I took AP Statistics in high school because I knew as a whole, it’s more practical for Psychology and most other social science fields. It’s what you’ll use to collect, analyze, and draw conclusions when you’re working with data.
Check to see if your school offers a statistics class? You’ll probably end up having to take a Psych Stats class at college for the major anyway (that’s what I had to do).
Why do you need a summer calculus class to take calculus in the fall? Are you sure theyre not requiring precalculus over the summer?
Does your school only have two senior math classes? Is this an international School?
For Psychology you’ll need an excellent background in statistics. Does your school offer AP stats?
Note, however, that statistics at a level higher than AP statistics or equivalent college course generally requires calculus as a prerequisite.