D20 just found out from older students at her high school that the Honors Trig/Pre-Calc teacher next year is horrible. Another teacher at the high school told me the same thing. D20 also went on Rate My Teacher, and the teacher got bad reviews. D is now asking to take regular Trig/Pre-Calc instead, as the teacher for that class is apparently pretty good.
I’m not sure if I should let her step down to the regular class or have her stay in honors. She’s not sure what she wants to major in in college, but is pretty sure that it will be STEM-related. I don’t know how the step-down in math difficulty will be perceived by colleges. Honors Trig/PreCalc would also be the first high school class weighted honors for her GPA, as our school doesn’t have AP’s now until the junior year. She currently has an A- in Honors Algebra 2. I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on this. Thanks!
@vineyardview I’d find out what exactly “horrible” means. If the teacher isn’t teaching the material to the point where the kids aren’t prepared for cal the following year, it might be more beneficial for her to step down and take the regular class instead. The fact that another teacher told you the same thing is telling, especially if that teacher happens to be part of the math department. Trig/Pre-Calc is a pretty high-level class whether or not you take it as an honors class. I wouldn’t think she would be penalized if she took the class that best prepared her for success the following year.
Thanks @tutumom2001. By “horrible” they mean that he breezes through material without stopping to answer questions or re-explain anything; and apparently he often ruminates during lectures about his failed engineering career. Last year, over half of his class failed his final.
@vineyardview I would allow the step down. One really bad math teacher can really mess things up. My S16 says that pre-calc is harder than calc and he is now tutoring students who are dealing with a very bad pre-calc teacher.
My son did non honors pre-calc in 10th grade because they didn’t allow sophomores in the honors class for some reason. I think it was just oversight. It was not a big deal on his transcript. He had so many other things, including a five on Calc AB and 5s on science APs, and dual enrollment for calc 2 that I don’t think anyone actually cared about pre-calc in 10th grade. It was a non issue.
@LKnomad interesting about precalc at your school. S17 found precalc was mostly review. S20 skipped precalc.
@vineyardview what is the progression? Will taking the lower level precalc affect the Calc class? I think the Calculus class will be of more weight on a college application. If one takes AB or BC then which precalc is less of an issue.
@MA2012 That’s a good point that I hadn’t thought enough about. Her next progression would be AP Calc A/B, I believe. From what I can tell, she can still take AP Calc A/B after taking the non-honors course. My line of thinking is that maybe with a better non-honors teacher she will be even more prepared for Calc than if she had taken the Honors course with the “horrible” teacher. Thoughts?
@vineyardview I think that makes sense - get a good precalc teacher. For strong math students there can be a lot of review if one takes Calc AB, then Calc BC. Some schools do it that way and can be hard to get around. Is that the progression at your school? Calc AB in 11th, then Calc BC in 12th? The BC calc exam has an AB subscore, so it is assumed to be a lot of overlap.
I’m going to take a different approach. My DS’18 got the “horrible” math teacher last year, the guy we had been hearing about for years. All the kids and the parents hated him, lots of kids failed his class. But there was nothing to be done to change his schedule. Well it turned out that DS loved him. He wound up being one of his favorite teachers. So you never know. I wouldn’t drop out of honors. You run the risk of the non-honors class moving too slow based on the other students in the class.
@vineyardview My s16 did A/B after non honors pre-calc and would have gone straight to B/C if it had fit into his schedule. The good pre-calc teacher prepared him well for both. We got around the AB then BC situation with dual enrollment senior year so that was not an issue. DE is free for us.
Thank you @MA2012, @VickiSoCal, @keepmecruisin, and @LKnomad for the feedback! I’ve been off of CC for a little while just because this month has been crazy-busy with end of the school year stuff. We signed D20 up for the non-honors Trig/Pre-Calc class. Although there is a possibility that D20 may end up loving the “horrible” teacher, we’ve since had more parents tell us that their kids have had great difficulty with his class. We figure the “good,” non-honors teacher will probably better prepare D20 for Calc A/B, and then B/C (if she wants to take it) . I appreciate everyone’s help with this!
^^^ my son took a non-honors trig/pre calc class. He did fine, we were glad about that decision. He took Calc AB as a junior/ Calc BC as a senior; aced all the AP tests and is now in a math-based field - studying actuarial science. (The high school didn’t let him count the credits for BC though}. I think your son should be fine.
Officially finished with freshman year. 4 'A’s, 2 'B’s…we will take that happily considering the train wreck of mid winter. Oldest has already started summer school (getting Health out of the way) and will be off on a summer abroad program as soon as summer school is complete.
This was such a busy year, I am looking forward to some rest and relaxation. We have a family trip planned for later this summer. 10 days at a lake house sounds just about perfect…I am crossing days off on a calendar waiting for our family treat. :-bd
I know little about Sat IIs since DS did not take any. Does what is considered a “good” score vary by test? I would like to manage her expectations a bit.
@Cheeringsection a “good” SAT 2 score varies by college of choice and not by test. For example the average score for a top school like CalTech and Harvey Mudd on the SAT2 math 2 is 800 AKA a perfect score. A good score for a mid tier school could be in the 600s. To qualify for admission to the University of CA or the CSU system there is a qualifying score usually in the mid 500 for A-G credit if your course is not A-G approved (a CA thing).
So you cannot pass or fail but a good score depends more on where you want to go. My S16 would not send in anything less than around 750 for any college and he took all his subject tests after AP classes not high school level classes. For S20, I want A-G credit for the CSUs or UCs so it does not need to be very high. He is not aiming for top schools just qualifications.
