I’m an eighth grader, currently taking H. Alg 2 at school, and AoPs Pre-calculus. My math teacher recommended I take pre calc next year, but I think I have a solid foundation and would be ok doing calc. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Or someone who just knows what I should do. It’s a bit stressful since I only have three days to confirm.
How strong are your grades in mathematics up to now?
My vote would be to spend a year taking pre-calculus. You are already way ahead of normal schedule. Jumping ahead in math is not as important as learning it very well. There are two issues here.
One issue is that calculus really is much easier if you are very strong in the prerequisites. I for example did not take calculus until I was a freshman in university. This did not stop me from graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from MIT. However, the day that I arrived on campus I was very ready to start to take calculus – I had done very well in the prerequisites. I have heard that students who are shakier on the prerequisites often find calculus to be difficult.
The other issue is that if you are that far ahead in math, you are probably very good at math. If you are very good in math, you are likely to actually use it professionally. I personally have used algebra, calculus, trigonometry, probability theory and linear algebra on the job on multiple occasions. Knowing this stuff well can be useful in life, at least for some jobs.
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You may want to try this quiz to see if you are ready for calculus: rurci3
However, given how far ahead you are (+3 or three grade levels ahead), if there is any doubt, just take precalculus. The marginal benefit of advancing one year ahead of where you are already is typically small, unless you live and breathe math (in which case, you probably would not be asking this question, and your teachers would probably tell you to advance as much as you want).
Remember, after (single variable) calculus, you need to find out what to do about math, since most high schools run out of math courses then.
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I have a pretty much perfect grade in both Alg. 2 and AoPs Pre-calculus.
According to the test I qualified for calc. (It seemed particularly easy? Mostly algebra stuff.)
Is the curriculum for Pre-Calculus in 8th grade like a dummy down version of it in HS or are you being taught HS pre-calculus at a young age. Either way, it’s pretty impressive.
In my opinion, I see no reason to not take Calculus as opposed to Pre-Calculus since Pre-Calculus is pretty much useless UNLESS you’re taking College Pre-Calculus because that will definitely help you in Calculus.
The only downside I see in doing this is that if you take Calculus early, what other math courses will you take in the future if you’re going to do 4 years of high school without any math, then I’d say college will be very tough on you. This and the chance that your grades will slip if you think that Calculus is too hard for you.
I don’t know a single person who has taken Pre-Calculus or Calculus on their freshman year of HS since most students start out with Alg2 or Geometry.
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Unless there are multiple courses after Calculus readily available at your school, take precalculus. There is no benefit to being that far advanced if you have minimal to take after single-variable calculus.
My school has enough math classes to take all the way through senior year. I’m taking high school level pre-calculus on AoPs, as well as BYU since that’s acceptable credit.