I’m planning out my schedule for the fall semester as I will enter as a 9th grader in the 22-23 school year. I plan to accelerate a few levels in STEM courses before officially entering high school. Currently taking honors algebra 1 (which I self studied in the summer), I started studying for my geometry credit by exam in September in which I plan to take in may. Though my school hasn’t released information about upcoming summer classes, I plan to as well get credit for algebra 2 through credit by exam as of now. I started preparing for this exam around November and plan to take the exam in July. I also have a tutor to help my learning (3hrs a week with 2 hours of study daily). I also plan to take an AoPs class in intro alg b and inter alg. Thus being said, I plan to take honors precalculus as a freshman, AP calculus BC as a sophomore, MVC as a junior, and something along the lines of DIF EQ, Lin Alg, and/or discrete math as a senior. I have a strong math foundation and am currently studying to take AMC 10 next year (didn’t sign up this year). Due to having to plan out my 9th grade coursework in January, I planned to take honors geometry, honors eng 1, honors biology, AP Human geography, honors alg 2, honors spanish 2, and soccer. I would be able to change my schedule once I take the tests (if I pass that is), and plan on getting my speech credits and health credits through summer classes. I don’t know if I should only take the test for geometry and then take the test for alg 2, or take alg 2 in freshman year and take pre calculus over the summer (geo is the highest math offered in summer courses to incoming freshman). Also, the test only give regular credit and not honors credit and anythign above 80% must be given to the student as credit (the take your average of the semester a exam and sem b exam as long as both are 80+), whereas honors classes are offered for summer classes. Because I know that the summer classes that my school offers are extremely short (24 days), and I would DEFINITELY not want to rush fundamental math into my brain, I would only take the summer class with what I am doing currently as “ahead studying + a tutor.” The problem is, I asked my counselor if they could allow me to take an offered honors class at another place that had a longer course time, but the district needs to look into their syllabus first. My parents would have have to pay for my tutor AND the school’s offered classes for me to get honors credit but would only have to pay for the extra program for me to get both credit and an actual class foundation.
You should do this only if you are sure that you won’t slip below an A in most of these, AND, won’t slip below an A in the rest of the non-Math course work, AND, be comfortable that you can devote a 20hr/wk extra-curricular schedule, if you want to eventually benefit from all this acceleration to land a top school admission.
An accelerated path is fine; self studying and testing for credit is not. Colleges will not be impressed by testing out of classes; too many fundamentals can be missed, and they want to see you’re a good student not just a good test taker. Please meet with your GC and the head of your school’s math department to create a plan that will challenge you, help you meet your goals, and ensure you aren’t skipping crucial skills.
Why?
You are not even is HS! Relax.
Is your goal to get into a particular school? You will be happier if you keep a “normal” schedule during HS and find a college that tits you.
Adding my voice to ask, why? There’s no need to put such a rush on education. It often leads to burnout later on and isn’t required for any sort of success.
Academics is important, but so are many other things in life. A diverse set of experiences is the best for development of the human brain, esp in the teen years. You want to learn about as many different things as you can to develop the most neurons. Not just different academic things, different things. Cooking, cars, languages, instruments, beach/forest walks learning about flora/fauna and more all count. Someone who specializes so intently knows a bit about that one thing, but misses out on so much more.
I 100% agree with this. The whole confusion is just the honors credit because as someone interested in STEM, idk how much it would matter to both my GPA and colleges that I have a regular credit for math but it’s accelerated. I already know a lot of the information in these subjects (geo, alg 2) due to amc 10 studying.
Even for very strong math students, this level of acceleration is not required for admission to the top schools. So don’t do it for that purpose. There are other ways to show your math skills.
There are some colleges that require you take a Geometry course and will not accept that you have tested out of this class so be aware of some possible issues that could arise. As long as you complete Calculus by Senior year, you should be in great shape for the majority of colleges in the US.
I do not have a list but it is something you should consider and research when crafting your college list. Besides the UC’s, the Cal states also require a Geometry course.
I don’t believe colleges are going to give a lot of weight (let alone honors credit) to self studied math courses. Not only that, you risk being underprepared in key areas by trying to cram a years worth of material into 24 days. That could leave you at a disadvantage down the road. There are other ways to show your strong math abilities that don’t involve trying to accelerate to this degree.