I am an upcoming Junior from a VERY tight-knit high school in one of California’s few conservative regions. My transition from eighth grade into fresho year was unfortunately drastic. A few family deaths coupled with a huge move from the inner city into an outlying suburb caused my middle school grades to drop immensely, especially my knowledge in the subject of mathematics. This caused a trickle down into the course selection for my 9th grade year.
Instead of placing in “Math 1,” I was placed in “Math 1A,” which takes one semester of Math 1 and bundles it up into a year (2 semesters) in itself. It’s very slow, and I am basically during Freshman algebra :’(. Just having completed sophomore year, I have finished “Math 1B” with an A, and I have tried to ask my academic counselor if I could just take Math 2 over the summer, but she said that the school does not allow for that. Most of the kids from my school end up going to the local community college after high school or enter the CSU system, but I dream (fingers crossed) to hopefully attend Berkeley, UC Davis, Stanford, or HYP.
Do the Math 1A & Math 1B courses look terrible on my high school transcript come college ap. season?
Even though I plan to major somewhere in the Humanities spectrum of academia, will colleges still consider these two courses as a catalyst of whether or not to admit me?
Because I plan to take the SAT during my Junior year, missing out on a large portion of basic Math 2 IS bound to screw me up. What can I do?
After you take the PSAT, you can get a report of your scores on the College Board website detailing your strengths and weaknesses and you can use those results to prepare on Khan Academy for free. You can use it before you take the PSAT as well
Strategically—In regards to starting Math 2, a sophomore algebra class, Junior year—when should I take the SAT/ACT? Do you know which of the two national exams are a bit more lenient (easier, if you will, haha) on mathematics?
“my school will not allow for me to veto Algebra 2 through Math classes at the CC.”
Your HS has no ability to block you from taking courses at the local CC. Your HS may not give you credit, may hassle you about taking courses, may not pay for you to take courses and generally may not like you taking courses at the CC, but they physically can’t stop you.
If it’s important to you (and I think you’re right to be concerned that you will be behind in math unless you do something to step it up), go to the CC and just take the courses you want. Done. After that’s all said and done, go back to your HS and see if they’ll recognize your CC work and place you in higher level math courses. They may or they may be jerks and make you sit through them in HS. Not a huge deal, so you use that class as an extra study hall - quietly doing whatever other class work you want and taking the test which you’ll already know the material for.
IOW, don’t let your HS bureaucrat stop you from taking the math courses you know you need. If they won’t work with you, do what you need to do on your own.
Agree with @milee30 100%. You are obligated to take the 3 years of math in the state of California, but beyond that the school has no control. So chances are you might have to physically take one more bad math class in HS, but you can take additional classes at the CC in the summer or after school or in the evenings during the school year.
Seems like the math track uses integrated math to cover the material in algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2:
integrated math 1
integrated math 2
integrated math 3
precalculus
calculus (if offered)
However, the OP was placed into a two year slow version of integrated math 1 (1A and 1B) based on middle school, so s/he will only complete integrated math 3 in 12th grade.
Completion of integrated math 1, 2, 3 does fulfill minimum UC and CSU math requirements, but it is disadvantageous for two reasons:
A. Not finishing integrated math 3 in 11th grade means that the OP will be at a disadvantage in math-based standardized testing (SAT math section, SAT subject math level 1 (or 2), ACT math section) that probably assumes the content in integrated math 3 (or algebra 2 and geometry in the traditional organization).
B. If the OP needs calculus for his/her major, s/he will need to take precalculus in college first, potentially delaying progress (or even graduation if the major is a highly sequenced one like an engineering major).
C. If the OP does not need calculus for his/her major, s/he will likely have to take some math or similar course like precalculus or statistics to fulfill a math or quantitative reasoning graduation requirement.
One problem with integrated math is that it can be difficult to advance by taking community college math courses in geometry or intermediate algebra, since they distribute the algebra and geometry across the integrated math courses.
If the OP is willing to self-study to catch up any missing topics of algebra 1 not including in integrated math 1, then s/he may be able to take geometry and intermediate algebra at a community college, and then be ready for precalculus afterward.
For scheduling standardized tests, the OP may have to try them at the end of 11th grade, and then again on the last 12th grade test dates, in order to minimize the missing math when taking them.
@ucbalumnus. I do thank you for your explanation. Believe me - it helps more than you think.
What you said is almost entirely true, except my school is far too small to allow a Calculus course to thrive. Since the scheduling system is almost entirely student driven, courses being scheduled for the next academic school year are allowed to do so only if more than eight students, per course, sign up. Essentially, it is very hard for students to access a few of the interesting, yet rigorously challenging courses such as AP Biology and AP Calc or even Calc, for that matter!
Is it possible to self-study the material on the actual SAT and ACT? And, if so, how should one like myself go about doing so? My family is, unfortunately, low income, and so SAT prep classes are pretty much out of the picture for me
If you are reasonably motivated, you can use SAT preparation books in the library to self-study. https://www.khanacademy.org/ is an online resource you can check out as well. But they may expect some knowledge of the actual math involved, so you may have to use actual math textbooks to learn it. You can look for the math textbooks in the library, or online at places like https://bim.easyaccessmaterials.com/index.php or others that you can web search for.
I would get your parents involved…have them start with the Math Department head and work their way up.
They may not OFFER math 2 over the summer, but surely they could have some kind of placement test to see if you understand the concepts such that you will be ready for math 3.
Don’t assume the school won’t accept CC courses, just because they won’t let you take Math 2 during summer school. Many school systems have a policy of only allowing summer school to make up lost (failed) credits. This is because they cannot possibly cover the full curriculum during the summer course, but only review it. The students who are taking it have already taken the class. My daughter’s school system has a similar policy. However, they will allow students to take college classes for credit, with prior approval. Those classes will be listed on their transcript, and allow them to move to the next class in sequence, even if no credit is awarded
Update: I’ve found a Math II course on APEX learning that is UC approved, and I may be able to complete the math II course before January if I start in August (and play my cards right). However, now I have to contact my guidance counselor which, at least for me, is going to be a difficult task. They are oftentimes unruly and aren’t very open to many things. If I told them I had the chance to complete Math II early, on an online platform, they might freak and prohibit me from doing so since we aren’t supposed to “take online courses in lieu of a course offered during school.”
I agree with others who have advised you not to let petty bureaucrats make up rules for their own convenience, when any number of alternatives (including part-time homeschooling should it come to that) are in fact allowed.
Oh, but a school can absolutely block a high schooler from taking a cc class! In our district, community college would only accept a HS student through dual enrollment, and GC must sign off on the form. So if a kid’s GC won’t budge, there is nothing a student can do about it
@spicybiracial it is very important not to get into a spat with your counselor. If you back them into a corner they will reflect that in your recommendation letter for any privates. Kill them with kindness and show that you are serious by your persistence and action. If you hit roadblocks just take supplemental math courses online, get good scores on your SAT and Math II and write your college essay on your experience in having a goal and reaching it. On the UC’s since they don’t take recommendation letters you might need to find a contact at the campuses you are interested in and discuss your situation and ask for guidance. Not sure if that will help, but it would be good to have someone on the inside that knows your challenge. One of the things that colleges really look for is that tenacious passion. Come up with a way to turn this into a positive without burning bridges with your high school along the way. Good luck.
