<p>You really remind me of myself when I was at your stage. Reading your
initial post, you sounded almost exactly like me when I was in
9th grade–same situation, same thoughts–everything. (I’m now a third-year
undergrad.)</p>
<p>In 9th grade, the school I was at had a total of about 40 students
in high school, perhaps a little less than 10 at each grade level. (bigger
than yours, but still incredibly small) The school didn’t offer APs or
extracurriculars. I had a 4.0 average, but that doesn’t mean that I had
to put in any effort whatsoever to get that average–everyone else at the
school just wasn’t motivated to do anything at all, and frankly, most students
were straight-out stupid (cognitively). Like you, I despised the place
and didn’t want any more to do with it.</p>
<p>In 10th grade I dual-enrolled at a nearby high school (one with about
3000 students total), splitting my courses between them. I loved the bigger
school and went there full time for 11th and 12th grade–the best two years
of my life thus far.</p>
<p>You also spoke about dual-enrolling, but it seems that you meant it in the
context of a community college rather than another high school. I actually
did both in high school, taking community college classes at night.
I found that certain APs were harder than
community college classes. Community college is actually very easy,
regardless of the subject matter or discipline.</p>
<p>Wow, man–I was just blown away. You sound almost exactly the same
as me several years back. (I’m assuming you’re male based on your
tone of writing.)</p>
<p>Things will work out in the end. If not, it’s not the end. Feel
free to PM me if you have any questions.</p>
<p>You must be in Florida, since that course number matches with the Florida common course number scheme used by Florida community colleges and state universities.</p>
<p>Completing precalculus (presumably including trigonometry) in high school should mean that you are ready to take calculus, but the variation in quality of precalculus courses in high schools means that they use placement testing to determine whether a student is ready. Other Florida colleges may use different variations of placement tests.</p>
<p>But if you score only 480 on the SAT Math (either the Reasoning or Subject tests) even though you are in an advanced (for a 10th grade student) precalculus course and have a 4.0 GPA, then it may mean that your high school’s instruction is seriously lacking or that it is seriously grade inflated. Usually, the students who are two grades ahead in math (precalculus in 10th grade, ready for calculus in 11th grade) score 700+ on the SAT Math (either the Reasoning or Subject tests) because they are the top students in math.</p>
<p>Your dual-enrollment officer must have a very low opinion of your high school’s math instruction if she wants you to enroll in “college algebra” (= high school algebra 2) after completing precalculus in high school.</p>
<p>One thing to note about medical school: all college courses, including dual enrollment courses taken during high school, will have their grades visible to and included in GPA by medical school admissions committees. So get A grades in all of them, since the minimum acceptable GPA for medical school admission is very high.</p>
If you score considerably above 500, which you should if you want to be doing dual-enrollment young, I recommend you figure out a way around this bogus requirement. Talk to the math department head or something. No point arguing until you have scores in hand, but that doesn’t make sense if you score high 600s.</p>
<p>Yes, I am taking Pre-Calc and Chemistry right now. Hearing the word college makes the classes seem much harder than they actually are. The majority of people who go to CC are not very… academically motivated, so the material cannot be that hard or said majority would fail out. </p>
<p>The way they place people into classes here is a placement test, but they also use the SAT. Their rule is above a 500 places you out of all of the remedial requirements and so I never had to take the placement test; PreCalc is the first and only math class I will be taking there.</p>
<p>Precalculus is a remedial math course from a college standpoint (that is probably why you are seeing other students with low academic motivation there). College bound students at normal grade level should have completed precalculus as seniors in high school, so that they are ready for calculus as college freshmen.</p>