Pre calculus in the summer?

Test Preparation AP Mathematics & Computer Science
1

Im a sophomore whoi is taking algebra 2 without trig. I am excelling and want to challenge myself this summer with a precalc class. The class is for 2 months 4 times a week and 3 hours a day. Plus the class is 6 units while a normal pre calc class is 9 or 10. However I am willing to self study the extra chapters. In planning on taking calculus BC or AB next year as a junior if I take pre calc in summer. Do you think I will have content flaws because it will be condensed because I plan on taking the sat 2 math right after the summer. Do you think this a good or bad idea and what are other suggestions.

2

@Hard_Slacker1 i think it is a good idea to take it over the summer, but only if you are certain that you will keep up with the workload and not procrastinate. some of what you learn in pre-calc doesn’t even carry over into ap calculus. the key things you need to take from pre-calc in order to be successful in calc bc are:

  1. *** the unit circle (definite must know)
  2. trig functions (sine, cosine, tangent, secant, cosecant, and cotangent)
  3. rewriting trig functions (reciprocal functions, like cosecant = 1/sin or tangent = sin/cos)
  4. basic polar calculus skills (such as converting between rectangular and polar, graphing polar coordinates, knowing basic polar graphs such as rose, limacon, and cardioid)
  5. pythagorean identity (shows up every now and then, all those other identities we learned in pre-calc never showed up for me)

if you decide to just take calc ab, then polar calculus is not needed, but it’s a good idea to know it regardless. if you take calc bc, then be prepared to learn everything from calc ab, on top of series/sequences, polar/parametric calculus, differential equations, and exponential/logistic functions.

and of course have a strong foundation in algebra because that is basically 70% of calculus : )

3

Bump

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Definitely. Pre-Calculus is basically just a repeat of Algebra 2 just with added Trigonometry along with Vectors, Conics, and Polar and Parametric Functions. None of those last three topics are covered until Calculus BC, so you can jump straight into AP Calculus just by knowing the graphs of trigonometric functions, the trigonometric identities, and the Laws of Sine and Cosine. Good luck, and I wish I skipped Pre-Calculus.