Looks like schools are all over the place. At my daughters school this is the plan:
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Regular , Accelerated
Grade 7 pre Algebra 1, Algebra 1
Grade 8 Algebra 1, Algebra 2
Grade 9 Algebra 2 , Honors or Regular Geometry
Grade 10 Geometry , Pre Calc
Grade 11 Pre or Regular Cal, Some form of AP Calc
Grade 12 Ap Calc, Statistics, AP Stats, or another post calc course
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My D’s school does Algebra 1 followed by Algebra 2, then followed by geometry.
7th: Algebra
8th: Advanced Algebra
9th: Geometry
10th: Algebra 2
11th: Trig/Precalculus
12th: AP Calc AB or BC.
There are several tracks with regular, college prep and honors in grades 9-11. In 12th a few students opt for AP Calc BC which is a tough class. Other nearby districts teach what they call “BC” but urge the kids to take the “AB” test as their kids don’t do well enough on the BC test to place out.
The very few highly gifted students are accelerated by a year, finishing algebra in 7th, taking geometry in 8th and finishing senior year with a math topics class.
9th - Pre-AP Geometry
10th - Pre-AP Algebra 2
11th - Pre-AP Pre-Calculus
12th - AP Calc AB or BC
That is the norm, but it is possible to get even further ahead. D’s acceleration looks like this after getting permission to double up freshman year:
9th - Pre-AP Geometry and Pre-AP Algebra 2
10th - Pre-AP Pre-calculus
11th - AP Calc BC
12th - MV and Differential Equations or Linear Algebra at the local CC
More and more kids are doing what my D did. And there is even 1 kid this year that is doing MV and DE as an 11th grader.
My DD attends an Independent Catholic School. The accelerated track is as follows:
7: Algebra I
8: Geometry with Analysis
9: Algebra II with Precalculus – Honors
10: Precalculus and Differential Calculus – Honors
11: AP Calculus BC
12: Multivariable Calculus
AP Computer Science and AP Statistics also count as math classes.
I have a question (sorry to hijack), for those with MV 12th grade, is it one semester or full year? D is taking MV at the local CC, so its only 1 semester and then she’ll take one of the next classes in the sequence for the spring or be done if she’s feeling senioritis.
For any HS classes beyond AP Calc BC, I think it would be important to know the accreditation of the classes. Is it administered with a local college for college credit? Or are the classes taught with the assumption the student will attempt proficiency for credit beyond HS?
I am sure there are prodigy/outlier students that take classes outside the normal school day at a vastly accelerated schedule, but to the OP’s original question, what does your HS offer as a standard sequence? What is the enrollemnt of the HS and the number of students following that sequence?
One other quirk in the IL HS math requirement of 3 years of study is that although there are minimums on the level of classes to be completed (algebra and some geometry), there is no maximum level that automatically fulfills the requirement. It’s three years of time served in a HS math class, no matter the level where the sequence starts or classes completed before HS.
It does not make sense to force the strongest students in math who are two grade levels ahead to take calculus at a slow pace. These students are the ones best able to take calculus at college pace (i.e. all of BC including the AB stuff in one year).
9th Honors Geometry
10th Honors Algebra 2
11th Honors Pre-Calculus (and AP Statistics)
12 AP Calculus (AB)
If you’re in the district prior to high school, you are made aware that some kids double up freshmen year, taking both Geom & Algebra 2, so then can do both AP Calc AB and BC if they want (although in most cases, they’re taking other APs instead). We weren’t in-district and didn’t know, but it’s worked out just fine. Plenty of time to take more calculus in college…
@ucbalumnus I’ve never understood the schools who let their kids start algebra earlier than our system does, but then slows them down by dragging out calculus over two years.
Our school progress is like @glennu (post #21) and @Ldoponce#24. It’s a school of 2000+ – that’s the advanced level progression (although once every few years there’s a kid beyond that)
7th Algebra
8th Geometry
9th Honors Algebra 2
10th Honors Pre Calc
11th AP Calc BC
12 Multivariable Calc
HOWEVER, we noticed on my daughter’s ACT test, she was scoring the lowest in the beginning algebra and geometry questions because it had been so long. Anyone else notice this? (a little tutoring was a great help!)
@thumper1 – in post #16 you said you didnt have your kid take the accelerated path. I get why people chose that. But, will this choice harm them with admissions/merit scholarships as they are not taking the hardest classes offered at their school? We are going back and forth about that for our 9th/6th graders.
we had S1 take AB calc as a junior & BC as a senior. He whizzed right through Calc 3 his freshman year in college.
Someone asked a similar question in another section (reply #3 is a brief look at how calculus in high school may affect admission to a small number of colleges):
Seems to me that the best math placement in middle school is the student’s “natural” placement. I.e. a strong in math student who likes math is likely to do best and stay interested starting algebra 1 before 9th grade. But there is no need to “push” math acceleration for a student for whom math is not obviously a strength at that stage. And there is no need to “push” more math acceleration than what seems “natural” for the student, especially since math acceleration beyond one year ahead (one year ahead reaches precalculus in 11th grade and calculus in 12th grade) has diminishing returns for most students other than students who are obviously outliers or prodigies.
Something we learned - my engineer bound daughter did AP Calc BC as a junior and because she was CS major we initially thought, and were advised, to take AP Computer Science as her math class senior year, rather than Multi-variable calculus. Made sense to see if she actually liked CS before she went to college. However, during summer before senior year we discovered that while her high school categorized AP CS as a math class, many colleges did not, and some colleges didn’t see it as an accredited course yet since it was a new offering from our hs, that was still in process of approval at many institutions. (In CA if a class is UC accredited, it generally means it is by most other private or public universities as well, the UC accreditation is the big blessing needed.)
So we had to scramble to get her schedule changed and she dropped another class to get Multi-variable to fit, and was able to keep AP CS. Otherwise, with just AP CS, to some schools, it would have appeared that she didn’t take a math class senior year, not good for engineering applicant! AP Stats could have counted as another senior math, just less rigorous for what her intended major was, and given the availability of multi-variable calc.
Like many the advanced track is:
7- Algebra 1
8- Geometry
9- Algebra 2 + pre-Cal (extended class time)
10- Calc AB
11- Calc BC
12- Multivariable Calc - most popular but, other advanced math classes are offered (see below)
DS- bumped it up a year & started this track in 6th grade. There are a few students every year that are able to follow this track with approval-
So in 11th he took Multivariable (full year), Ordinary Diff. Equations (1/2 semester), Linear Algebra (1/2 semester) & Calc. based statistics-These can be spread out and taken in year 12 too- he just wanted to take them all together.
12- took classes at local university