Skipping PreCal?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

So my school is a bit odd in how they work their math system compared to other neighboring schools. After completing PreCal we don’t get a choice between AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, or AP Stats. We’re forced to take classes in a certain order.

  1. Algebra I
  2. Geometry
  3. Algebra II
  4. PreCal OR Algebra III (that’s really the only choice)
  5. AP Calc AB
  6. AP Calc BC
  7. AP Statistics
    I’m going into my Junior year after this summer and will be in Algebra II. I want to be a pharmacist and there is quite a bit of math involved in that career. As a senior the farthest math option I’ll have will be PreCalculus. Summer of my Junior year I may be able to take PreCal online and enter AP Calc AB my Senior year, but does anyone think learning PreCal in three months would be too big of a jump? I would take Algebra II this summer so I could do PreCal Junior year but its an EOC course so I’m require to be in a classroom environment.
2

same spot as you. in Algerbra 2 junior yea and i want to skip pre cal to take AP calulus

3

Does your school’s algebra 2 program include a lot of trig or is the trig in precalculus?

If you’re expected to learn trig on precalculus, then it’s certainly doable, but you NEED to know it well! You can’t settle for just kinda knowing your trig or you’ll have trouble later.

Have you talked to your guidance counselor about it?

If you can learn math pretty fast and put in the work, then three months should be doable. I’d suggest starting sooner, if your school doesn’t teach trig then maybe you should try to get a foundation in it so you can take full advantage of having a teacher when you take the course.

Basically, you can do it if you’re a quick learner and willing to put in the effort, go for it.

4

My Algebra II class will be mostly non-trig. The whole second semester of PreCal at my school is trigonometry. We did a mini unit on it this year in Geometry (just over things such as tan, sin, cos, etc., and how to solve for things) and it can easily to me. I’ll talk to my counselor when she’s back. Unfortunately she’s on leave until May.

5

I second @DogsAndMath23‌ - definitely talk to a counselor.

Personally, I say skip it, but study lots of trig and algebra over the summer.

I took precal, and it was definitely helpful. I got to refine my algebra skills and learn trig identities and the such.

With that said, I could’ve done calculus without all of that. Calculus starts with algebra-heavy material (aka finding derivatives the hard way using limits) and then it goes into using more trig (aka once you are good with derivatives and the books start asking you to find the derivatives of trig functions).

If you do end up skipping, look online for guides to trigonometry in calculus. The Internet is your friend.

Hope that helps

6

I highly recommend Life of Fred: Trigonometry, by the way. There are tons of great internet resources, as @julianstanley‌ said as well. As we speak I’m taking notes from it :stuck_out_tongue:

Just know that while summer classes will help (and are probably needed for credit) you should be going beyond that to be sure you’re really prepared. It’s a good skill to know anyway, because math is uniquely accessible if you want to teach yourself.

7

Yeah, thanks everyone I’ll get a head start on trig soon! I don’t know why my school is so strict. Lots of school let you skip math classes no problem, but I can’t even take AP Stats until I take AP Calc AB and BC. I’m going to try to work around that and take AP Stats my senior year.