I’m a freshman rn just taking all honors but can I get a quick overview of how hard AP courses are, and a pretty controversial question here but I wanna just skip pre-calculus and just read the textbook throughout the current year. You might ask I want to skip pre-calc and its because I’m not sure if this is just me but I don’t find precalculus topics to be as tedious as Calculus topics and I wanna dedicate more time for math and see if I can go anywhere cool with it. yeah
Depends on the school----best person to ask is your counselor for how reasonable your schedule is and upperclassmen for how hard (though it’ll be opinions) the courses were for them + average coursework/week etc.
I skipped pre-calc and wouldn’t recommend it—IMO it’s much easier to skip lower-level math classes than pre-calc, since a lot of the concepts (polar coordinates, algebra etc.) are utilized in calc and it can be hard to handle the pace of the course without a strong foundation.
dang
Skipping pre-Calc would be a very bad idea, IMO. Math is probably the topic area where courses build upon one another the most.
AP class difficulty is very dependent on the student. If you do well on the prerequisite honors classes, you should be fine, though they are a step up in workload.
Fwiw, my D has had three AP courses previously, and now four as a Junior and I don’t think she’s had below a 97 in any grading period for any of them. Other students have struggled and dropped to core/honors classes due to the workload. Other students would never think of taking an AP class. It varies.
Take pre-calc. Having the right background is very helpful in math.
In fact, our HS does not allow students to skip pre-calc.
dang alright
Yes. It sucks.
Don’t skip precalc. You get no brownie points for taking calc as a sophomore, and a solid foundation is more beneficial than racing through the curriculum.
yea but then its not that hard to get the foundations, the only math thats really insanely hard is combinatorics and im not trying to do this for no reason. I want to do this so I can take a stanford online course with some interesting math, that is probably most interesting than gaining my so called “foundations”. That’s what they told me about skipping geometry and how I would basically fail algebra 2 because I had bad foundations, but im here with an A in the class
No correlation. Geometry stands on its own and it’s relevance to calc is minimal compared to algebra and trig. Of course geometry is needed for topology and other advanced concepts, but that’s well beyond the HS curriculum.
I notice that this is the second time you’ve asked this question. The first time, everybody said that it was a bad idea. Nobody here will ever say your strategy is sound, except maybe other young teens who, as a group, don’t yet know how much they don’t yet know. Don’t let your hubris show.
I’m assuming that since you skipped geometry that you’re crossing UCs off your potential college list.
no?
wait really? u sure that ucs dont accept
I’m sure.
“NOTE: All students must complete a geometry course or integrated math with geometry content. One transferable college course will not satisfy the full three-year math requirement.”
Terrible idea to skip precalc. Having a strong foundation is important in math as the coursework is sequential. You have asked basically the same question (and got the same answers) on two threads which have been merged.
I want to skip precalculus over the summer of 9th grade because I want to be able to take AP Calc BC and then take a course called advanced calculus which my school offers, but after that there is another course called “Stanford Pre-Colliegate university level online math” which offers a bunch of cool math courses I want to take. Any opinions on this pathing?
@skieurope lol your wrong :)) I just emailed the UC admissions and they said its fine
me taking geometry over the summer
I just need to show the transcript :))))
Actually, I am not wrong. Any advice given is predicated on the poster giving accurate information. You said you were skipping geometry, but in reality you are taking a summer course. It will behoove you to learn the definition of words in advance of the PSAT.
From your writing style and your weakness in articulating clearly, you might benefit from putting effort in your English courses rather than racing through the math curriculum.
I agree with others that skipping precalculus is a bad idea. In my experience if you are very solid in the prerequisites calculus is quite straightforward. If you are shaky on the prerequisites, I have heard that calculus can be tough.
The only students who would even think of skipping ahead in math are ones who are very strong in math. However, these are specifically the students who are likely to need to use calculus quite a bit in future classes, and possibly (depending upon your career path) when working. Calculus for example is used in physics, and I have personally used it multiple times on the job. This would suggest that calculus is something that you will want to learn very well, which in turn suggests that you should go into it well prepared.
Personally I never skipped ahead in math. I did not take calculus until I was a freshman at university. This did not stop me from getting a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from MIT.
“the only math thats really insanely hard is combinatorics”
“…see if I can go anywhere cool with it”
Actually there is a lot of math that is insanely hard. I did not run into any of it until after my sophomore year in university. However, quite a bit of the hard math is also IMHO pretty cool :-).
Don’t skip Precalculus!!!
My D is very strong in math. She took Algebra 2 and even represented her school to compete in State’s math in 8th grade. However, she took her counselor’s and HS math Dept. advice and took Precalculus in 9th grade. She then took Calculus BC instead of Calculus AB in 10th grade. From her experience, it was not an easy class and without the PreCalc, it would be much harder.
So maybe you should take Precalc. and go straight to Calc BC.