<p>My DS just finished his junior year of HS. He is going to the University of Alabama in June for their Summer Honors Program. This program lasts approximately 5 weeks and he will be taking two classes for which he will receive college credit. It is a regular freshman class and neither the teacher or the other students will know that he is still a high school studet.</p>
<p>It has been strongly suggested that the students going to this program not elect to take a math course. The program info said that although they want students to be challenged they do not want them to be overhelmed.</p>
<p>My DS loves math and has just finished Algebra 3/statistics with an A. He has not had any pre-cal courses yet. DS is being stubborn about it and thinks that he can do the work and is not afraid of a challenge. The college does give placement tests to determine your ability.</p>
<p>Are the entry math courses that much harder than what he has been doing or is it more that the pace of the class is much faster ? DS is a first generation student so I do not have any concept of how much material is covered in a regular college class or how long the class is. Can someone please share this information with me. The math course is 3 credit hours. Since he will earn full credit does it mean that they are going to teach a whole semester of Math in 5 weeks?</p>
<p>If you are a logical thinker and actually like Math is it possible to do well? He scored a 32 or 33 on the math portion of the ACT. </p>
<p>The grades that he makes for the summer courses will follow him into his freshman year of college.</p>
<p>There are many "entry-level" math courses; there is bound to be one that will challenge him without being overwhelming. That said, I am surprised that your son has never had precalc. It is typically a junior year course, to be followed by AP-Calculus for math-lovers. All the more kudos for his high score on the ACT. But perhaps the Algebra 3 is the equivalent of a precalc course?
Ask him to take a look at the catalog description of each math course that is offered and look as well at the number of hours a student is expected to take. It is entirely possible to cram a semester's worth of materials into five weeks just by doubling or tripling the number of class hours. If he has not had precalc, perhaps that would be a good course for him to take in summer school. Does his school offer calculus? Then that would be the next logical course to take when he gets back to school.</p>
<p>What is the math class he would be taking during the summer - Calculus?</p>
<p>And what is his exact math background? Is he familiar with trig identities and exponential function/logarithms? If so, I think he would do just fine in Calculus, given his strong ACT math scores.</p>
<p>I took Calc after Algebra II and Geometry without a background in pre-calc. I did fine for the most part except that I had to play catch-up on different function types like trig functions and exponential functions which were not covered in algebra at my high school. However, summer courses tend to move significantly faster than academic year courses, making it harder to catch up on missing material on the fly.</p>
<p>(Son Speaking): The Algebra 3/Statistics course I just got out of yesterday did cover logarithms/exponentials, polynomials, and various other things... I also have a larger background than the typical student at my school because of my independent study, particularly for SAT math. I am familiar with Trig. Identities, to some degree. I have taken Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Algebra 3/Statistics. Due to my transfer from a 7-period/day schedule to a block schedule, I am behind on my math courses. If I had attended my current school throughout high school, I would have taken AP Calculus and only have AP Statistics left to take. Next year, I plan on taking Pre-cal and AP Calculus. Alabama has recently passed a law allowing a student to "challenge" a course by taking the end-of-course exam before the course. If it is in effect by my senior year, I plan on challenging Pre-Cal. The counties have to individually place this law into effect, so when it will become available in my country, if it will, is uncertain. I get bored in my math courses because they move too slowly. I am looking forward to the accelerated pace, though I am prepared for it to be challenging. I will spend the majority of my free time studying, if need be.</p>
<p>I had a look at the program and it looks like they are offering Honors Calc I and III this summer. This is cramming a 14-week semester into one month.</p>
<p>I'm not familiar with "Algebra 3". There's Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra and Precalculus. Perhaps you could provide a description of Algebra III. To take Calculus, the student should have Precalculus or College Algebra and Trig.</p>
<p>This is the description of Calculus I from the University of Alabama:</p>
<p>This is the first of three courses in the basic calculus sequence. Topics include the limit of a function; the derivative of algebraic, trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic functions; and the definite integral. Applications of the derivative are covered in detail, including approximations of error using differentials, maxima and minima problems, and curve sketching using calculus. There is also a brief review of selected precalculus topics at the beginning of the course.</p>
<p>The course your son will be taking is an honors version of this. This might mean that it covers more material than the typical Calc I course (such as integration), additional applications or that it might be a theory-based version using something like Michael Spivak's Calculus text. </p>
<p>If Algebra 3/statistics is college algebra, then he might want to cover Trig on his own before attempting Honors Calculus I.</p>