<p>My DS, who is a boarding school student, received a B+ in his pre-cal final exam but received a C for his final grade. His calculus teacher for next year thinks that the grade is not strong enough for Calculus. His three options are
1) Repeat pre-cal and do calculus in college.
2) Do summer school pre-cal. Because we live outside of the USA, there's only one place he can do US-style math and it will cost about 900.00USD. I'm not sure if that's feasible.
3) Sign up for calculus for his senior year anyway, and tough it out.
My other concern is, how do college adcoms look at repeated classes?
He is not going to be applying to any very competitive schools (3.14gpa unweighted).
Appreciate any suggestions that you all can throw at me.</p>
<p>I suggest repeating the course. A solid knowledge of pre-cal is important for later, more advanced math courses.</p>
<p>One criticism that I have of the discrete nature of courses is that you have to repeat an entire class for what may be problems in only one or two specific areas. Perhaps you could have him talk to a math expert (familiar with high-school and college math) to determine which would be the better way to go. Kind of like an Accuplacer with the human touch.</p>
<p>Another potential problem is that there is an algebra deficiency. My son (tutored college math for 3.5 years) told me that the biggest problem that college students have in math is a weak foundation in algebra. For these students, taking precalc without reviewing algebra can just result in another weak grade.</p>
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<p>My daughter, who was an undergraduate TA for introductory finance for two years, said pretty much the same thing. Students struggled with the finance course because of a shaky understanding of high school algebra.</p>
<p>You all may have a point with the Algebra. When he first entered boarding school in 9th grade, he did a placement test which put him in Algebra II. I wasn’t happy with that and got him moved to Geometry. If I knew anything about math, I really should have insisted on Algebra 1. He’s struggled with math since 9th grade.
Maybe I should park him with some Algebra 1 books over the summer and see if he can work through those?
Thanks for all your comments, by the way.</p>
<p>One approach would be to give him an algebra I book and have him do the chapter tests. If he doesn’t do well on the chapter tests, then go through the material. This would allow him to move quickly through the material if he does know it well. My favorite book for Algebra I is Jacobs’ Elementary Algebra, written in 1979. It’s an old-school algebra book and quite good for self-study. I have a couple of copies at home.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Elementary Algebra (9780716710479): Harold R. Jacobs: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Algebra-Harold-R-Jacobs/dp/0716710471]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Algebra-Harold-R-Jacobs/dp/0716710471)</p>
<p>There are free online K-College math lessons, tests, etc. at [Centre</a> for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching - Mathematics Enhancement Programme](<a href=“http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm]Centre”>http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm)</p>
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<p>I don’t mean to derail the thread, but assuming the final exam was comprehensive, how can a student earn a passing grade in a prerequisite and a B+ in the final and not be ready for the next course? What do grades mean anyway? If you don’t get a B in a course it now means you aren’t ready to advance? Is this true for all prereqs at all schools?</p>
<p>He can try the on-line math placement test found here to get an idea of how ready for calculus he is:
[Choosing</a> the First Math Course at UC Berkeley - UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics](<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_1stcourse.html]Choosing”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_1stcourse.html)</p>
<p>What is the reason for getting a much lower overall grade (C) than final exam grade (B+)? If it is due to poor time management skills (not doing homework on time) or something that is not subject matter related, that may be something that needs more attention than the subject matter, since university level courses can require more time commitment and time management than high school courses.</p>
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<p>Grade inflation may have to do with it. Once upon a time, a C grade was a reasonably respectable solid passing grade, indicating readiness for the next level, with B and A grades indicating good and exceptional performance in the class, while a D grade meant a barely passing performance that raises questions about the ability to take a later course that depends on the material (repeating courses was generally done only with F grades, or D grades when the student wants to take a later course depending on the material). These days, people seem to think of a C grade like they used to think of a D grade, while a B grade is now thought of as a C grade was back then.</p>
<p>^At my (also boarding) high school, although we used a different grading scale, the same assumptions were made. Passing with the equivalent of a C/C+ was not enough to get into upper level electives that were not required for graduation, including any AP Calc course or some upper level science courses, like quantum mechanics. The idea was that these courses were taught at a much higher level than the required courses and students had to demonstrate mastery (in some cases, B+ or higher) in the prerequisites to show they were ready.</p>
<p>It sounds like cost is an issue, so this may not be feasible, but I’d recommend a copy of Hungerford’s Contemporary Precalc with the CD included (this can be found new on Amazon). The book is good, but the real strength comes from having a CD which gives problems and checks your answers, providing the right answers when wrong. It’s been awhile since I’ve used it, so I forget how much detail it gives in its solutions, but it does work through examples for you too. The one complaint I had was that its answers made use of random numbers of significant figures, and you’d be marked wrong unless you could guess how many they wanted for each problem.</p>
<p>I will say my son is an excellent math student but the SAT1 was a PITA because of the algebra he had to RE-learn…he was so far past it on to calc and his skills were passable for that, but the SAT1 only goes to Alg2 which he was pretty rusty on. A lot of review. So what the tutors are telling you (or the parents of tutors) is no surprise.</p>
<p>Is there any way he can take an online class to make this up or even at a community college? Our high school offers VHS online in the summer and I do know that kids outside of the county can participate at a higher cost. I don’t think it will be a detriment to him to re-do it next year, but I’m afraid he might be bored over the entire year. If you found an online class and a local tutor to supplement perhaps?</p>
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I must be an old-timer. I can think of at least one course from college I’d probably still be stuck on if I needed a B to advance. And I always seemed to do okay in the next course.</p>
<p>It’s a long and boring story, but I skipped pre-calc entirely in high school. Where I went, way back when, pre-calc was a one semester course which basically taught convergence and limits (or something like that). I was fine in Calculus, they re-taught that stuff in the first couple weeks… But I don’t know what pre-cal means today either.</p>
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<p>If you want to know, try the on-line math placement test at the UC Berkeley Math department page linked in post 8.</p>
<p>He could do ALEKS online.</p>
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Really? That looks like what we learned in Algebra II and trig.</p>
<p>Trig’s often seen as part of precalc now. I skipped precalc as well, but at my school, it was primarily logarithms, trig, sequences and series, polar and parametric coordinates, and conic sections.</p>
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<p>Pretty much.</p>
<p>Because credit may be given for things that are not directly related to comprehension of the material or acquisition of the skills taught in the course – like homework completion and enrichment projects – it is possible to get a C in a high school course without having fully mastered the material. </p>
<p>This may not matter much in non-sequential subjects. A C in World History may have little impact on the student’s ability to handle U.S. History the following year. But in sequential subjects – especially math and foreign languages – a C is a danger signal.</p>
<p>My son got a C his last term in Calculus in high school but aced the final and 5ed the AP exam, tested out of MV Calc to go directly into Linear Algebra in college. The course required him to do things like bring his book to class, have his calculator, have pencils, have his homework and to do the problems the way the teacher told him to do them. The final exam was a standardized one as was the AP exam, and he had no problem with those. His problem was with classroom behavior and teacher relationships.</p>
<p>However, I do agree that knowing precalc can be very important for Calculus. I recommend getting a tutor for the summer and going over the course, letting the school know this and request he take Calculus for the fall as a result of your efforts. Have the tutor go into some Calc too so that he is more than ready for the course in the Fall of senior year and has a high chance of getting a good grade in it. </p>
<p>One of my kids did very poorly freshman year in math, but ended his high school math year with a 98 average and let the colleges know how he went from a poor student to an excellent one, taking Calc as a senior and excelling in it. I had his senior grades, all of them reported by quarters to the colleges to emphasize his improving marks. This work, of course, only when a kid truly is improving and doing very well senior year. With a number of kids suffering from senioritus, colleges will note when a kid is on the upswing like that.</p>
<p>Some really great suggestions. Thanks.
Re the C not being good enough for Calc next school year: It’s the same teacher for pre-cal as calc. and she knows DS’s learning style, and isn’t sure that he’s going to have the maturity for the way she teaches calculus. In pre-cal, all homework is checked, all class work is checked, frequent testing, etc. For Calculus, she teaches it more college-style - less checking of homework, less testing…</p>
<p>After investigating more into the summer math classes, it is no longer an option it seems. The 3-week intensive session is full and only the 6-week session is available (three times a week). DS wants to work for the summer, and the 6-week class would interfere. I’m going to look at the UC Berkley test and also the Algebra books suggested in the earlier posts.</p>
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<p>Trigonometry is usually included in precalculus math courses.</p>
<p>In any case, the test does suggest what a university math department considers to be important prerequisite knowledge for taking a calculus course.</p>