Should I ditch honors math?

Applying to College
1

Hi all.

I am a rising junior who’s struggling to figure out what math class I should take next year. It’s about to be story time, so be ready.

My freshman year, I just took regular algebra 1, the only level of algebra 1 offered at our school. After reciving a very high grade in the class, my teacher had told me I could take double honors math my sophomore year, so I did. I took both honors geometry and honors algebra II. However, taking both of these classes and adjusting to taking honors math proved difficult for me, and I recieved two B’s first trimester and two B+'s second trimester. I had gone from a 4.0UW to a high 3.89/3.9UW student because of those grades.

I am considering applying to some selective schools and really want financial aid. For my schedule next year, I signed up for regular pre calc, because at the time I was really struggling and wasn’t ready for honors. However, towards the end of my course, both my teachers said they saw great progress in my critical thinking skills, and I felt my honors math skills really coming to work when taking the PSAT.

Now I struggle to know if I should take honors precalc and risk the chance of getting another B or two, or just stick with precalc and hopefully get a 4.0. While I really want to take honors to challenge myself and get better at thinking, and simply because I’ve come to love the subject, I really want to get some merit based scholarships to some more competitve schools, and want to have a 3.89/3.9 when applying for those.

The rest of my course load includes 4 AP classes, two required electives, and orchestra. I plan to study some sort of science on a pre med track, and spanish.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

2

My line of thinking is always to take the harder class. This is for a couple reasons:

  1. You don't know the teacher. I go to a catholic prep school so I have to take religion. The class is not accelerated or honors or anything, just college prep. It is much harder than most of my honors and ap courses. If the teacher is a dick the class will be hard. That's true from third grade math to Calc. 5. You might have an easier time taking the honors!
  2. Easy to drop, Hard to rise Generally it is fairly simple to move down in a class, but you could be prevented from moving up due to a variety of reasons.
  3. Pain is temporary. Pride is forever It's just one year. If you don't take the class you may go on to regret it. Going the hard road teaches you how to push yourself harder than your peers. More likely than not youll probably rise to the occasion anyway.
3

Pre-meds and science majors generally have to take calculus. It is best to have as strong as possible precalculus knowledge for when you take calculus.

4

Based on what you’ve said, I think you have a good case for taking Honors. It’s just one class; even if you end up with a B it shouldn’t wreck your GPA that much.

5

I think you should take the class. Colleges want to see students pushing themselves and trying to take the most rigorous schedule available. You’re clearly skilled at math, and a B+ is not a bad grade at all for Honors Math!