Should I take precalculus over the summer?

<p>I really love math and science (except bio) and i wanna get accepted into a good engineering school that offers petroleum engineering major like UT Austin. Anyway, I'm a freshman in high school taking Algebra 2. Next year I should be taking precalc but i wanna take it over the summer so i cud take ap calc bc as a sophomore. (at my school, ap calc bc is calc 1 first semester and calc 2 second.) </p>

<p>ive taken a math course over the summer before (geometry) and it was really easy, just a little stressful if you slack. but i talked to my math teacher giving her this idea and she said don't because you won't need to and precalc is a lot of work. she also said that courses taken over the summer as considered by colleges as much as the ones taken over the school year. so im just wondering if this can actually somehow mess up my college chances but taking 2 math courses over the summer total. </p>

<p>if i take ap calculus bc next year, then i take dual enrollment differential equations (my school teaches as different equations of one variable, i think) junior year, and in senior year i could take either ap statistics, discrete math, or some other math class.</p>

<p>do you think this is a bad idea?</p>

<p>I would say go for it. Precalculus mostly expands on Algebra II topics and teaches you very basic calculus concepts, so if you are a good math student, I’m sure you will have no problem. A few of the kids at my school skip precalculus altogether and go straight from Algebra II to AP Calc, and have no problem. The highest math course at my high school is AP Calc BC so it’s the usually the norm to take precalculus, but I personally feel that the class is unnecessary. If you have the opportunity to take it over the summer, it’s definitely not a bad idea to take advantage of it.</p>

<p>Agreed. It is an excellent idea. In addition to setting you up for later courses during the regular school year, it will keep you in the habit of studying.</p>

<p>In addition to UT-Austin, perhaps you should also look at Rice University. They have a fantastic engineering school at Rice. Although they do not have petroleum engineering, they do have chemical engineering which is very similar, but not as focused on petroleum.</p>

<p>When you start applying to college, you should apply to at least five. That way you can compare them for both the cost of tuition and also on quality of education.</p>

<p>what abt trig?</p>

<p>Trigonometry is in precalc at my school</p>