<p>I'm very talented in math. I finished Algebra before middle school and I've won medals and awards. Due to moving around all the time, the school districts lost track of the classes I took and I repeated some classes. So fast forward to the present, and I'm in my Junior year of high school in Algebra II/ Trig honors. I failed the same class in sophomore year, so this is my second time taking it. My friends are taking Calc II and higher next year, and I feel left out.
My problem is that I can't sit around in class all day listening to some boring lecture with a bland powerpoint. I fall asleep sometime. It sucks. Luckily, I'm really good at self studying at my own pace and schedule. I was wondering If I could do this over the summer, and somehow earn credit so I could at least take Calc 1 my senior year instead of taking pre Calc. Is there any place I can take a test or is that even allowed? My school is big on prerequisites and boasts on being "The best calculus school in the world!" (That is literally what my teachers tell me), so they are very thorough that I know the material and stuff. Thanks for reading.</p>
<p>“My problem is that I can’t sit around in class all day listening to some boring lecture with a bland powerpoint.”</p>
<p>I suggest fixing that problem if you want to succeed in college. (I mean, in high school you can find other more interesting ways to learn material even if you don’t actually pay attention in class.)</p>
<p>“My friends are taking Calc II and higher next year, and I feel left out.”</p>
<p>Which is pretty unusual, because most schools don’t offer Calc II, so there’s no reason to feel left out. In any case, you need to work at your own pace, not your friends’. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t try to advance if you want to, but it shouldn’t have anything to do with what your friends are taking.</p>
<p>“I was wondering If I could do this over the summer, and somehow earn credit so I could at least take Calc 1 my senior year instead of taking pre Calc. Is there any place I can take a test or is that even allowed?”</p>
<p>This depends on whether your individual school will allow it. If they do, you’ll probably just take their pre-calculus final. This is what I did.
If they don’t allow you to just test out, they might let you skip pre-calc by taking a summer class at a community college or an online class.</p>
<p>My school I just talked around. I was in Honors Algebra II as a sophomore and then this website inspired me to do better. I self-taught myself Pre-Calculus in the early part of the year, convinced my teacher I knew it, so they were going to let me take Calc AB as a junior. (nobody at my school has ever done that). I then proceeded to self-study for the Calc AB exam and took it. I am expecting a really solid 4 or weak 5. They just decided once my scores get back as long as I get a 4 or 5 they are letting me take Calc II at my local university.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s necessary for you to take Pre-Calc next year - you should be able to go straight into AP Calc AB. At my school, it works that way. I took Algebra II/Trig Honors as well, but took it as a sophomore and my class was all sophomores and freshmen. All of us went on to AP Calc AB the next year and some even went to AP Calc BC (they self-studied Calc AB over the summer). My teacher told us that Pre-Calc would be essentially repeating everything we learned in our class so there was no point in taking it. We were all extremely prepared for Calc, excelling as the best in the class. So, in short, I think you should be able to skip Pre-Calc next year as it would be redundant in topic material.</p>
<p>Wiggle around at your school. Don’t hesitate to talk to the head of the math department, or, if that doesn’t work, do NOT hesitate to set up a meeting with the superintendent. You have to make your way. </p>
<p>If you put your mind to it, you can self-study all the way to Multivariable Calculus over the summer. You said you are talented at math; use this summer to prove it.</p>
<p>Wait did you say that you failed out of algebra 2 in sophomore year?</p>
<p>“So, in short, I think you should be able to skip Pre-Calc next year as it would be redundant in topic material.”</p>
<p>Pre-calc isn’t strictly necessary for calculus, but it’s not really redundant either (unless your Algebra II class was really advanced) and it’s good to have exposure to stuff like parametric curves, polar coordinates, etc. before calculus even though they don’t come up immediately. I don’t think someone who’s failed math classes should skip pre-calc altogether.</p>
<p>How did you fail it in sophomore year if you’re so talented in math?
(I don’t mean to come across as questioning your talent, I’m just curious)</p>