Can anyone help!
I’m currently taking Honors Geo. I struggle most of the time and I am only able to pass with Bs. However, I want to go to Honors Pre-calculus but I don’t know if that would too hard. If I don’t take Honors Precalculus, would that look bad to colleges, especially the selective ones? Should I even apply to Precalc? I don’t want to major in any STEM fields by the way! I’m better at humanities.
Hello! I’m currently in Hnrs Precalc & Trig! It’s a simple class, a lot of it being algebra and using formulas. If you love puzzles, then you’re going to love trig proofs! However, shouldn’t you take Hnrs Alg 2 before going into precalc? I also suggest for you to take normal precalc if you’re struggling with basic geometry, graphing, and formulas. It’s centered around trig and if you don’t have a good grasp on that, you’re going to struggle a lot. If you don’t want to even go into STEM, then there’s yet another reason to not take it. Why struggle in a class you don’t even want to take?
Best of luck! 
Based on your previous threads, you have taken algebra 2 and struggled with that as well. Precalculus is a lot of algebra review and it goes a little deeper with some of the concepts and introduces some calculus topics as well. I wouldn’t be worried about struggling with geometry, since you won’t use very much geometry in precalc or calc (though it is important for the SAT), but the fact that you struggled with Algebra 2 means that it may not be the best idea for you to do honors precalc. As for your question about selective colleges, at an info session an admissions officer from Brown said that most of their applicants take AP Stats or AP Calc senior year. If you take regular precalc, then you probably won’t be able to take AP Calc, which may put you at a disadvantage when so many other people take AP Calc. Based on your previous threads, you want to go to Stanford and the vast majority of people applying to Stanford will probably be in AP Calc or even a higher level of math than that. Also, dropping from honors to regular probably won’t look very good. That being said, if you think that it is better for you to drop to regular then do it. And don’t get hung up on selective schools. You can still be successful if you don’t go to Stanford. Since you are struggling with math concepts, I suggest using online resources like Khan Academy. Math honestly is not very hard; anyone can master a math concept with practice. So put in that extra effort, seek help, study everyday, and see if you improve. You probably will. See how the rest of this semester in geometry goes and then make your decision.
@reallypanicked hey, would i have to be good at geometry to be good at precalc? i took geometry honors my freshman year and did really bad (got a C+ both semesters). i’m currently taking alg2 honors and got an A last semester and currently have a 95%. i suck at geometry, but i’m decent at algebra. would i still have a shot at being good at precalc honors?
@needtosucceed27 Precalc is basically a review of alg2 with intro to calc so yes
@needtosucceed27 Not at all! In fact I was the opposite of you, I did amazing in Hnrs Geometry and got low A’s freshman year in Hnrs Alg 2. Hnrs Precalc is all about knowing how to apply trig formulas and knowing when to use them. You will need to know basic geometry- how to graph simple fcns like parabolas, abs value, etc. In 1st semester you will learn how to graph transformations of sin, arcsin, cos, arccos, sec, csc, tan, and cot graphs (if you want to get a head start). That’s such a small part of 1st semester that I honestly wouldn’t even worry about it. Most of it, however, is algebra. 1st semester was all review about Hnrs Alg 2 and 2nd semester is where you get more into calculus. Learning Pythagorean identities will require some decent understanding about how to get the areas of certain shapes.
TL;DR- If you did well in Alg 2, you have a good chance about getting an A. If you did bad in Hnrs Geometry, there’s a decent amount of understanding transformations required, but not a whole lot. You’ll be fine!
@reallypanicked thanks!! that was really helpful :))
Thanks for the advice, everyone!
Geometry is it’s own animal. Taught well, tt’s a totally different kind of thinking from most other math courses. I’ve had some very bright math kids struggle in Geometry-- and some kids who ace it, having never found real success in math before.
So, no, there’s no tie-in between success in Geometry and in Precalc.
If your grades in both Algebra I and Algebra II & Trig are strong you should be fine.