Hello, I have a quick question regarding my placement in a course at my new school.
In ninth grade I took an accelerated Algebra II course, and in tenth grade I took a course which covered both Geometry and fundamentals of Trigonometry in the same year. I applied to a boarding school, and planned to repeat tenth grade there. Once I was accepted, I took online placement tests to determine which course I should be placed in.
My previous school allowed students to use calculators on every assessment or homework assignment, however the placement test specifically forbade any use of a calculator. Because of this, I performed very poorly on the placement test. Tonight I got my placement results back, and I was placed in an accelerated Algebra II course at my new school. My school also said in the email that they will not be taking course changes at the current time.
When I apply to college, they will see they I have taken accelerated Algebra II courses in both my ninth grade year and my repeated sophomore year. (I got an A the first time I took the course) I am concerned about colleges thinking less about my motivation as a student and ability to perform. Does anybody have any suggestions? Thank you.
It is very common at boarding schools for new students to be placed in a lower level of math or language than they thought they deserved. Yes colleges will see it and no, they will think nothing of it. It just shows that the BS curriculum is more rigorous than that of your old HS.
As for what you should do? Nothing. 98% of the time the placement is accurate. If they find you were placed too low after school starts, they will adjust. But no amount of complain by you or a parent will change anything before school starts.
As skieurope said, this is quite common. My daughter will also be repeating accelerated algebra II, based on her placement test. She is an incredible math student and had no problems with algebra II, but not all schools cover the same material BSs expect. My nephew (also a strong math student) was in the same situation when he started BS as well. He dropped back two math courses and then made one of those up with an online summer course.
We are seeing the positives in it : our daughter will feel quite confident in that class, so it will be one less area that she has to stress over. And with a new school, and being a new boarder, and classes that demand more than her previous school, one less stressful class sounds pretty nice. And we’re also happy that she will have a really strong base before moving on to Pre-Calculus.
I agree with the above. Also, algebra 2 is something that is worth knowing really well. This is something that you will use again, and again, and again, …
Thank you all for your replies, I really appreciate it! I am realizing that it is likely a good idea to have a strong grasp on Algebra II anyway, as that will come in handy when it is time for standardized tests.