This year, I’m a freshman and I’m taking Geometry. I wanted to take Pre-Calculus, but my school required me to take geometry. I am self studying algebra II (as I’ve done most of it) and am planning to take an accelerated Pre-Calculus class as dual enrollment during the summer. I’m not sure where I should take calculus. The high school AP course only covers AB, but I want to get through Calc BC. Should I take the courses at the college I DE at?
You are already on an acceptable math track; most colleges do not expect you to have taken Calculus at all in high school (although many competitive applicants have). Also, a summer math class, particularly a Pre-Calculus class, is almost certainly going to move at a particularly brutal and rapid pace. If you’re dead set on learning Calculus II material in high school, what I would suggest is that you follow the following path, if possible:
9th: Geometry
10th: Algebra 2 (Algebra 2 is an extremely important class and you would be well-off taking it in a traditional, graded setting)
11th: Pre-Calculus
12th: DE Calculus I (1st semester) / DE Calculus II (2nd semester)
This is assuming dual enrollment classes for you are a semester long; I am a dual enrolled student myself, and this is how it works in my state.
I have already finished most of algebra 2 and plan to take the Pre-Calculus course over the summer. I am trying to decide how I should proceed with calculus in particular.
What’s your rush? You are already on a fine math track with Geometry in 9th, Algebra 2 in 10th (in my area, the honors course for algebra 2 includes some trig), honors precalculus in 11th, calculus in 12th (either AP calc BC or DE calc 1 and 2). How do you know you are self-studying enough algebra 2 and doing problems that are sufficiently challenging? There may be more to learn than you think.
Here’s a short but important article for you to read carefully: The Calculus Trap https://artofproblemsolving.com/articles/calculus-trap If you are interested in hearing more, there’s a longer article by the same author I’d be happy to link for you.
See if your high school has a math club or group of students taking the AMCs.
Thanks for the article. I’m planning on graduating early, and I am very strong in math. I’m already on the math team and have been taking the AMC 10 since 6th grade.
My question is more about whether you think math as a DE course or at the HS would be better.
If you take the DE course, I strongly encourage you to take the AP exam as well, if you can afford it. You may have difficulty getting the DE course to transfer.
I would definitely do that. Tahnks
Whether the DE course is better than the AP will probably depend on the teacher. Ask around at your school about the calc teacher.
But, in the bigger picture, think about why you want to graduate early. So far, what we can guess of your reasoning is circular: you want to speed up your math courses because you want to graduate early because you’re strong at math? Or is there some other reason to graduate early? Graduating early will not be an advantage if you are thinking about applying to competitive colleges.
I’m pretty sure graduating early will make applying to colleges more difficult in the long run, so that’s definitely not it.
The math courses I’m not technically speeding up, since I took most of algebra 2 in 8th grade and don’t want to take it again. I wanted to take a course over the summer, and Pre-Calculus seems like a good choice for me.
The acccelerated math is unrelated to graduating early.
In terms of why I want to graduate early, it’s mostly because I hate the high school environment and want to move on. I know, I know, maturity and loosing experiences exclusive to high school, wrc.
But if I have to stay on that environment for longer than I have ton
, I’m gping to go insane.
I’m taking a total of five DE courses this year and will take all but Spanish and ap lit as DE next year.
I want to go to a good school, and I don’t want to risk my chances of getting into one because I exhaust my options early, but I also don’t want to stay longer than the bare minimum.