So in the midst of studying for a test I have tomorrow, I realized something really weird about my AP Calculus BC Class. In my district/town/county, the normal way for HS math to go is from Geometry–> Alg2 (Trig)–> Pre Calc H/Math Analysis–> AP Calc AB/BC or AP Stats (although stats is p rare, most people go straight to calc). A couple days ago, I did a head count of all the seniors in my Calc class (myself included), considering I had only been paired with juniors most of the time we switched desks. There were eleven of us. Out of thirty three students.
In the time I spent snooping around College Confidential, I realized a lot of underclassmen are doing the same thing. They aren’t just rushing math, they’re rushing science as well (my school has strict science standards, so this isn’t a problem here). When did people start becoming so obsessed with skipping ahead in various subjects? When I was a freshman, I was actually filtered in a “fall behind”* geometry class, and even in the upper level math classes, older kids were roughly equal to the ones that skipped ahead. Now the entire dynamic has changed. When did skipping ahead start getting so normal?
*“fall behind” is a term used to describe sophomores or higher one or more levels behind in math. My class wasn’t considered “dumb” in any way, it’s just we had an odd number of non-freshman in the class (determined by chance and the admins of the school).
@halcyonheather no, middle school only offered Math 6/7, Pre Algebra, Algebra, and Geometry. The only Algebra 2 classes offered are in HS, either regular Algebra 2 or Algebra 2/Trig. The only overlap in classes is Geometry, which is offered at both the HS and middle school.
In context, many current high-school education systems prioritize memorizing and regurgitating information over actual mental development and initiative, so this supposed anomaly is actually not as egregious as you would initially think.
If you think about it statistically, collegeconfidential is a sample of actual high school students. And a pretty biased sample if I say so myself. Would students that don’t really care about school go online and spend time online to look at which AP course is better for college? No, it’d normally be the top/overachieving students that care more about college and are present on this forum.
However, college does seem to be getting more competitive, which is possibly why more and more people want to seem advanced for their age. For me, I like to be the youngest in a course, which is why I prefer going to junior/senior level courses. I’m actually a big baby.