<p>Hmm…If he scored a 700 in 7th, he can certainly shoot ahead. The limits would be set by : 1) his interest 2)access to GOOD teachers 3)school policies and procedures 4)pragmatics.
I would not suggest trying to learn calculus using any free online source. There won’t be any really solid feedback. Listening to lectures and such is good, but it’s hard to essentially self-teach calc. (not impossible - my husband did it and my son did a bit before he got into a calc class)
ALEKS is a good , inexpensive site which probably covers pre-calc. Pre-calc is easier to self-teach as well.
Doing some math competitions would be great. MathCounts is a fine one.
If your school does calc AB as a full year , followed by calc BC as a full year, the pace will be moderate so I suspect that if his pre-calc is a bit imperfect, he’ll still be fine.
I"ll post some good pre-calc stuff later.
ANd, yes - have him take the SAT math 2 when he is ready. Don’t wait till he is a junior or senior. Get it out of the way early. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.</p>
<p>avoidingwork asked: "Can someone explain what is gained by accelerating? "</p>
<p>For my child, what was gained was the opportunity to learn more, rather than less math. It’s not about credits or meeting requirements, it’s about learning. There’s only so much time . . . .</p>
<p>Here’s another parent for math acceleration in general, although doubling up Algebra 2 and pre-calc seems a weird choice to me (a more common double would be geometry/algebra 2).</p>
<p>For those looking to extend beyond the standard curriculum, I’d thinking tutoring money would be better spent on AoPS books and (optionally courses), eIMACS courses, and summer programs like Ross, Promys, MathCamp, AwesomeMath, etc.</p>
<p>My daughter did a summer at AwesomeMath, 2 summers at MathCamp, has taken several AoPS courses, and did LM1 & LM2 through eIMACS. Through these, she’s gotten a true appreciation of the breadth of mathematics and a love of math (her current favorite is graph theory, which isn’t on any standard high school curriculum).</p>
<p>By the way, for those interested, I have a list of colleges that offer multi-variable calculus online. Due to transportation and scheduling issues, there was no way for my daughter to take it at the local college, so online became the least-worst option.</p>
<p>“doubling up Algebra 2 and pre-calc seems a weird choice to me (a more common double would be geometry/algebra 2).” - I agree. Most kids should not try that. Our son only did so because the realization that he should do IB HL math did not come until high school, and the high school was in transition on their math sequencing. </p>
<p>I wish we had found a way to send him to a summer Math camp. (I tried asking the math teachers but got no recommendations. Too bad I did not know about CC then.)</p>
<p>tootired, based on what you’ve posted about your son, I think the idea of taking Calc AB at the school as a sophomore and Calc BC as a junior would be totally fine. I think he could probably even go faster. I don’t think he would need a tutor for the pre-calc material. If he sets aside time for it, maybe in the summer ahead of the sophomore year, and works seriously through the book, he will be set. </p>
<p>Then you have the question of what he could take as a senior in high school. If there is a college, university, or even a community college near you, he could probably take multi-variable calculus and linear algebra or differential equations there. Those would be the next logical courses in sequence after Calc BC. When he reaches college, he could decide where to plunge in. An alternative to that would be the Stanford EPGY program in online mathematics. Your son would have a graduate student (probably) or possibly a faculty member who would answer his questions, correct assignments, and mark tests. If he works well independently, that should work out fine. (It is a bit pricey, though.) One limitation that I know with the Stanford online courses is that the student has to have the willingness to format answers in the way they want to see them. They may have computer grading of some work. At least it was that way when I last looked at them–possibly they’ve changed it now. With a 700 in 7th grade, your son will easily qualify for the Stanford EPGY program. (It does not guarantee Stanford admission, though!)</p>
<p>Thank you all who posted. S2 is going to study on his own and try to clear the test (PreCalc) before the school year ends, so he does not have to spend the whole of next year on it. He is very optimistic, has sorted out quite a few resources to study, I will keep you guys posted how this works out. Looks like all set to take AP Calc AB the following year when he will be a sophomore. I am hopeful for him.</p>
<p>Freshman: Pre-Calc/Algebra 2
Sophomore: AP Calc AB
Junior: AP Calc BC
Senior: AP Stat</p>
<p>Couple of issues with this schedule: Doing AP Calc AB followed by Cal BC is repeating most of the course, so it might be better to do Pre-calc in Sophomore year and do AP- Calc BC directly in Junior year.</p>
<p>Accelerate Pre-Calc iff your child is trying to do beyond Calc BC i.e. Diff Eq., linear Algebra or Multivariate Calc in High School.</p>
<p>Thanks to those who posted responses to my questioning of math acceleration. I now see that there are a few ways to look at the issue. </p>
<p>Good luck to the OP’s S2. He sounds like a self-motivated kid who is pursuing his interests.</p>
<p>PreCalc is so easy, he will not need any help. In addition, if he does, then open a book, figure out and help him. Most problem with math is that kids are lazy to read closely what is in their text book. There is no challenge in any math at any HS level, including AP. Very straightforward.<br>
Now, History is anothee story… The most time consuming subject.</p>