<p>I want to major in Chemistry, and in my second semester, I have to take Pre-Calc. I've never touched Pre-Calc or Trig in my life. My school provides a Algebra 2/Trig course, and a Algebra 2/ Trig II course. What should I take and when should I take it, because I am definitely not ready for pre-calc.</p>
<p>The typical math flow as far as I can tell is:
Algebra 1
Geometry (order of these two is often interchangeable)
Algebra 2
Trig is usually stuck somewhere around here, frequently but not always with Alg2
Pre-calc
Calculus</p>
<p>What’s the different between Algebra2/trig one and two at your school? If you’ve already done algebra 2 then you may want to consider teaching yourself trig.</p>
<p>Take Algebra II/Trig before Precalculus. If you don’t know trig before you start Calculus it will be a rough road ahead. I would take this course as soon as possible.</p>
<p>this was my schedule </p>
<p>algebra 1
algebra 2
geometry
trig
calc
ap calc </p>
<p>ezpz </p>
<p>From my experience, pre-calculus doesn’t include that many new topics if you’ve already learned algebra/trig (new topics might include matrices, parametric/polar equations, more trig). If you are taking calculus, definitely learn trig. </p>
<p>Pre-Calculus has trig and algebra in it, with limits from calculus if time is leftover (at least for me). So pre-calculus is the same thing honestly as Algebra 2 and Trig, just a faster pace, maybe. My friend at another school took Algebra 2/Trig and she’s taking AP Calculus AB as a junior and she said she’s doing fine (of course commit to it though).</p>
<p>Chemistry you have to take up to Calculus III at most universities/colleges. So, Calculus (and whatever level they offer) would look competitive on the transcript, assuming you don’t barely pass or fail.</p>
<p>To give you an idea, here’s my secondary school’s flow:</p>
<p>Algebra I → Geometry → Algebra II and then one of these pathways:</p>
<p>Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry or Finite Math → AP Statistics
Pre Calculus or Pre Calculus Honors → AP Calculus AB (or AP Stats, but they expect you to take AP Calc).</p>
<p>Idk how Pre Calc is at your school but the only Trig I knew going into Pre Calc was the Unit Circle and the basic
Sin, Cos, Tan stuff with a triangle. (So-Cah-Toah) Basically 2nd Semester Pre Calc for me was all Trig except we did some Linear Algebra stuff (Not like the really hard stuff in college) and then Numerical Sequences. But 2nd Semester Pre Calc we did stuff with Trig Graphs, Polar Coordinates, Parametric Equations, Static Equalibriums, Trig Identities, Proofs of Trig Identities, Law of Sin, Law of Cosine, Rotation of Conics and enough Trig to make you want to puke. I don’t know if that would be at your school, I would recommend asking other students who have taken Pre Calc what they thought.</p>
<p>The way I took it - </p>
<p>Algebra I
Geometry
Algebra II
College Algebra
Trigonometry
Calculus I
etc.</p>
<p>We didn’t actually have a pre-calc course. Pre-calc basically condenses some of the material from both college algebra and trigonometry into one course. I feel like having these two courses individually made for a much better preparation for calculus. I’ve excelled in both Calc I and Calc II, and I’m sitting at about a 97% in my differential equations class right now, so a dedicated ‘pre-calc’ class is by no means necessary. </p>
<p>How much math have you already taken? What courses do you have the prerequisites for? What is the difference between Trig I and Trig II?
You should take Algebra I, plane geometry, Algebra II, trigonometry, and pre-calculus before taking calculus. The specific arrangement of these subjects depends on your school (for example, some high schools combine trigonometry with Algebra II and some combine it with pre-calculus), so talking to your guidance counselor would probably be a good idea.</p>
<p>Only advanced people take the calculus track at my school.
It goes:
8th grade: Algebra I/Math I
9th grade: Honors Geometry and Honors Algebra II/Honors Math II/III
10th grade: Pre-calc(It’s weighted.) and then Calculus
11th grade: AP Calc AB first semester/BC second semester.
12th grade: It depends. Linear Algebra/Multi-variable Calculus/Whatever else.</p>
<p>At my school the order is:</p>
<p>Algebra II
Geometry
Pre-calculus
Calculus</p>
<p>Personally I didn’t find taking geometry beforehand too helpful (literally the only thing it taught me was SOH CAH TOA, everything else related to trig was knew to me). If you’re naturally gifted at math, you might be able to skip the supplemental trig class. I would talk to a teacher at your school to find out what specific topics will be covered in precalc that you have not been introduced to yet.</p>