I’m a rising sophomore and classes starts in three weeks. I currently asked for Precalc Honors for 10th grade but over summer I’ve been looking at precalc videos online and most of it seems like stuff we learned in alg 2 so it seems like a waste of time to spend a whole school year on the course. I’ve already watched some videos on the basic topics in the class and I’m wondering if I’d still be able to get an A or at the very least a B if I went straight to calculus for sophomore year. Last year I took Alg 2 and got an A both semesters but it was in the low 90s range (I had bad study habits and would usually study for tests during lunch before class). If I spend the rest of the time before school doing online lessons by myself of pre calculus and study properly over the school year, how likely would I get an A? And college application wise, would it be more impressive to get an A in precalc sophomore year or a B in Calc AB during sophomore year?
At most schools Precalc is the crux course. It’s THE one I would not skip.
Pre-Calc is taught a little differently in different sequences – for example, some schools lump trig with Algebra II and sometimes you do more of it in Pre-Calc. A few videos can’t replace the course, and it’s foundational to everything you’ll do after that – don’t skip it.
You are already ahead of the curve in math. Take precalc and get the base of knowledge needed to do your best in calc.
Don’t expect to get a different answer from when you posed the question in February.
The class I took was Alg 2/trig so we spent a while doing basic trigonometry and went over stuff like the unit circle, Pythagorean identities, graphing trig functions, adding and subtracting sin cos and tan functions
You’ll do more advanced trig in pre-calc. Answer remains the same - don’t skip it. You’re already on track to finish Calc BC in senior year, which puts you ahead of the curve.
How about get an A in both? Take Precalc sophomore year, Calc AB as a junior, and then Calc BC as a senior. Starting next year, there is also a Precalc AP test.
To answer your question directly,
IMO it would be seen as more impressive to get an A in pre-calc sophomore year and an A in calc junior year. As noted upthread, that path still puts you ahead of the norm. And more importantly, you will likely have a better grasp of the material.
If pre-calc proves to be a bit easy that is fine - you can spend additional time on other academics and ECs.
Calculus is a major basis for a great deal of math that you most likely will learn in the future. Calculus is also a major basis for quite a few other things, such as physics. If you are so strong at math that taking calculus this early is even a possibility at all, then it is very likely that you are going to use calculus quite a bit in the future. This is something that you want to learn very well.
In my experience, students who are very well prepared for calculus tend to find it straightforward and do well in the class. I have heard that students who are not as well prepared can suffer in the class.
You want to learn this very well. It is worth taking the time and effort to be very well prepared before you take calculus. As others have mentioned, you are already well ahead. I do not see the rush.
Schools have sequences for math, but they aren’t all the same, so the videos may have covered different material than your class will. The key is to learn all of it really well.
It may be an easy A – or it may not – but particularly if it is, you’ll have more time to play around with, think about, and master concepts that will be valuable to future you.
It’s easy to think that AOs are impressed by kids who are advanced, but I really don’t see it making a difference if it involves skipping critical material or comes at the cost of a lower grade.
Unless your high school’s math through algebra 2 was accelerated to cover sufficient material to be suitable as a prerequisite for calculus, it would generally not be a good idea to skip precalculus. This is especially true if previous math courses were not easy A+ for you.
Precalculus in 10th grade is already two grade levels ahead of the usual high school math sequence in the US. It is not like you will be “behind” if you do not skip it.
Precalculus is a key course. Do not skip; expect it to get hard despite original familiarity. If it turns out to be very easy without much work, use the extra time to develop ECs.
Btw taking calculus without precalculus is a bad idea but isn’t especially “impressive” for adcoms (precalc, a senior class, taken as a sophomore, is already impressive. To top that you’dhave to be a math genius who completed calc as a freshman with an A). Colleges’d rather have you do well (A) in precalc then in calc jr year
I skipped Precalc and so did many I know going into HS. Worked out fine for me, as long as you’re willing to put in the extra mile. At the end of the day, it’ll be up to you whether you’d rather spend extra time studying for calc/playing catchup next year vs devoting that time to other classes/activities.
This!
Standard math curriculum at most US high schools is highly repetitive. The same concepts are introduced, and reintroduced (at a slightly higher level), again and again. This may be necessary for the majority of students, but for some students, it is a waste of time. We don’t know enough about you and your school to recommend responsibly that you wouldn’t have any issue if you skip the course, however.
OP got a low A (not an easy A+) in algebra 2, and did not mention the courses being designed to allow strong students to skip precalculus.