<p>I'm taking this next year, and I hear many people say how easy it is and stuff like that. Some say that pre-calculus branches off of algebra II and covers new topics. I got a 82% in algebra II and I'm afraid that I'm going to die in pre-calculus. My brother said that he thought pre-calculus was easier than algebra II.</p>
<p>What are your opinions?</p>
<p>Precalculus is not hard. You do work with a lot of graphs (their behaviors and equations), there’s trigonometry, which was touched in geometry,that is straight forward if you have a strong foundation in the unit circle. Um…yep. For me at least, it was easy and simple to move from one topic to the next.</p>
<p>It was pretty easy for me, I failed the first two tests because I did not care about the subject, but I managed to get a 93% at the end of the first semester. On the second semester i got a 97%. I never did homework, since our grade was based from tests. I got 97% and 98% in Algebra II BTW.</p>
<p>Yep, yep. My class was based on tests (90% Tests, 10% homework). I stopped doing homework in February after I realized it wasn’t a necessity for a good grade. Finished with a 96%. Algebra II, 97%.</p>
<p>Most of the kids in my honors chemistry class are juniors, and take honors precalculus. I’ve seen many rage quits from just thinking about the class :/. Makes me kind of scared for next year, haha. A lot of kids have C’s, and the day I walked in to get summer work, I got to hear this conversation:</p>
<p>Kid: “So, did that test take me out of the 50’s?”
Teacher: “No, actually I think it put you in the 40’s.”</p>
<p>That may be because of the teacher though; I think this is her first or second year teaching it (she taught algebra II previously).</p>
<p>Precalc extends from algebra 2 for the first couple of units. After that you start trig, and its stuff that you have never seen before. Overall, its not that bad. Algebra 2 was a joke for me and in precalc I actually had to try. So I would say its harder than algebra 2 but not THAT bad.</p>
<p>LOL don’t be scared, It’s just a class. You can use Khan Academy or something like that when you need help. Stop listening to other people.</p>
<p>I may have made that post sound a bit more dramatic than I’d intended; I’m more nervous than scared because math isn’t my strong point already, but I intend to get help if I fall behind or something.</p>
<p>^ My math skills isn’t so strong either. I was pushing it in Algebra II just for a 80%. It looks like I have TONS of studying to do my Junior year lol.</p>
<p>precalc really isn’t that bad :)</p>
<p>My precalc class, other than working with trig identities could have just been called algebra ii redux. We were supposed to actually do pre-calculus stuff like limits and those but there wasn’t enough time this year.</p>
<p>Oh yea, limits. We did that, too. My class finished early so my teacher started teaching us Calculus.</p>
<p>I used to enjoy math. Then I took Pre-Calculus…</p>
<p>it all depends on the individual teacher. Our class was kind of a pseudo-algebra II review for the first part than trig the next. Learn the unit circle and you’ll be fine. But like I said it depends on the teacher.</p>
<p>To be honest, I can’t really tell. I had an easier time with Pre-Calc, but I also had a MUCH better teacher, so that may have been the reason why.</p>
<p>I don’t know, the only hard thing about Pre-Calc is that they introduce a lot of new concepts to you that you’ve never seen before. Once you grasp them, you’re fine, but it’s very confusing until that Aha! moment. Good news is that I thought Calculus was easier than both Alg II and Pre-Calc combined, because all you really do is take Pre-Calc concepts and detail them. </p>
<p>But out of the people I’ve talked to, the ones who prefer geometry over algebra tend to like Pre-Calc better.</p>
<p>I learned differentiation, but my class was IB Math SL + pre-calc, so that may be why.</p>
<p>Pretty damn hard for me. Got a B in the class but a mid-high A in cal BC and a 5 on the AP.</p>
<p>A better question may be, ‘How easy is it?’</p>
<p>Yeah throughout the year it builds on the same concepts so it’s not as if you have to constantly learn new things… Pretty manageable</p>
<p>It really depends on how your school system is, really. </p>
<p>At our school, Pre-Calc is pretty much two parts - first semester is practically a review of Algebra II along with a couple of more advanced algebra topics that your teacher may not have gone over (more in-depth with logarithms, square root, logistic, exponential functions, exponential growth & decay, rational functions, etc.). From my experience, most people find that part really easy provided you did fairly well in Algebra 2. First semester is a really easy A unless you’re pretty bad at math.</p>
<p>Some of first semester and about half of second semester is trigonometry, and most people say it’s the hardest part because you have to memorize trig laws and identities and how to manipulate and balance trigonometric equations as well as analyze trigonometric graph.</p>
<p>The second part of the second semester are some various new topics such as combinations/permutations, vectors, and sequences & series. If there’s any time left, your teacher may go over some calculus topics such as limits and an introduction to derivatives. But this is not necessary - only more advanced/ahead Precalc classes may do this.</p>