Next year, in my freshman year of high school, I am already signed up to take Honors Biology, Honors English 9, AP World History Modern and Honors French. Should I also take Honors Geometry or just regular? I’m afraid it will look bad to colleges if I don’t do the higher level.
Take honors Geometry. Its no more difficult than regular. Honor classes are not harder. You will be with a better caliber of class mates if you take honors and to me that is motivating and helpful. Honors teachers are usually pretty great.
that is more of a question for your current math teacher and current guidance counselor - they are familiar with your abilities etc. Plenty of people are top students in most areas but not math if that is the case. If you are nervous that it is too much vs worried it is too hard most likely you will be fine. We have teachers that teach both honors and college prep level classes so I dont’ find that the quality of teaching is any different.
It really depends on what your academic strengths are… but the advice I would give you is take Honors Geometry because 1)It looks better on transcripts. 2) You can probably transfer out if you get a bad teacher or it’s just too rigorous.
I would like to take Honors, but also want to be considerate of my already very rigorous schedule and the fact that math is my worst subject. Any advice now that I have added more background info? I appreciate it so much.
If you are at all capable of doing it, take the Honors Geometry. Math was not my kid’s best subject. He usually would just miss the A minus in honors math. One year, because he was going to be away all weekend, every weekend, doing music, I forced him to do regular math. He was SO bored. Got an A+, but he transferred right back into honors level math.
High school is about more than just compiling a record for college applications. Among other things, it’s supposed to be about learning. You will learn more in the honors classes. Your classmates will be the best students in the school. At my kid’s public school, about the top fifth of the school took only honors and AP classes, and formed their own elite cohort. If you have the ability to be with these students, grab every opportunity to do so.
This is not true everywhere. At our high school there is a big difference between honors and regular geometry. I know because my son was in honors and struggling but after learning what they were learning in regular, he decided to stay. Honors geometry is proof based at our high school, but regular is just memorizing and solving formulas. One involved critical thinking, the other didn’t.
OP, talk to your math teacher and ask their advice.
If you plan on majoring in something like political science it doesn’t really matter but if you end up applying for something like business, science, etc. it will matter. But honestly the difference between normal and honors for one class is unlikely to make or break you admissions wise.
I think I will take Regular Geometry, especially with online school and the rest of my schedule, and take Honors Algebra 2 in tenth grade. Then I can move on to precalc and an AP math course as an upperclassman. Hopefully that will be enough math-wise for Selective colleges. I plan in majoring in a non-math related business field or humanities anyway.
@me29034 I don’t know what the difference is from school to school or even within my own child’s school only that honors classes as far as I know, are doable and not nearly as difficult as people make them out to be. You’ve given good advice in terms of talking to teachers and inquiring about the differences between the two if concerned.
I was a concerned parent when my child’s first high school counselor freshman year insisted on my child taking all honors and AP because of her middle school record. I was worried and thought she should ease in and gain some confidence in high school first. She was going to major in a stem subject at the time so why honors english etc. Turns out the counselor was right about challenging her. She quickly adjusted and did very well. Her writing improved tremendously which impacted her entire high school career in a positive way and definitely improved her odds for scholarships and selective college acceptances.
Either way and whatever OP decides, he/she will be fine.
1 Like
It is very normal for the “smart” kids to take all of the Honors courses…I would start out in Honors Geometry…It is easy to drop down to “regular” math sophomore year but harder to go up to Honors.
1 Like