<p>mihcal1: I only know of a handful of kids in the past few years who have done more than 2 years of math in middle school. The highest level is usually algebra I in 7th grade and then geometry in 8th (although D2s year had algebra II in 8th grade since the math wiz in her class has already taken algebra I & geometry and was ready for algebra II.) So precalc/trig would be one year, then Calculus. I think they all end up taking AP Stat one year. There are other classes such as Discrete math which I don’t believe are more advanced. Probably a dual enrollment with the community college and/or participation in an online class via e4TN, the TN online class program.</p>
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<p>I’m not completely sure of the distinction. Doesn’t one “mentor” people in lower grades or lower positions in a hierarchy? He just helps his fellow students as needed, many of them his classmates or Math Team members, to work through some of the tougher problems. He doesn’t have any special training, but does he have a knack for devising his own simpler ways to solve problems than those shown in the textbook.</p>
<p>I do think that, on balance, the ability and willingness to tutor your peers is of greater interest to admissions committees than just taking one more math class — especially since a lot of math geeks are not the world’s best communicators.</p>
<p>There is always the fulltime dual enrollment route if you live near a good four year university. Most allow it. The student doesn’t have to worry about trying to fit around a highschool schedule or about running out of courses.</p>
<p>I never heard of fulltime dual enrollment and our high school is near a 4 year college. The kids can sign up for classes at the University, but it is difficult - to get back and forth to take 1 class at the University takes 2 high school class periods. There aren’t a lot of afternoon classes and no evening ones at the University. My sophomore is in Calculus and will probably have to go over the University for mathematics after this. That’s one thing private schools do better; they offer specialized classes to interested students right on their own school grounds. And the students are in small classes, while in the University, they are in large auditoriums with hundreds of students. It’s much better to get that coursework in your high school, I think.</p>
<p>We found that the specialized programs in the public schools offered more post-AP math than the private schools. Some students in the specialized programs went over to the flagship for 300- and 400-level classes, but S1 preferred staying at the HS. They offered a number of post-AP math courses there and he could take them with his friends. Win-win.</p>
<p>Two-three grades ahead is in the eye of the beholder (or how much the school system waters down the curriculum so they can claim all students are succeeding). Third grade Singapore math books covered what our local school taught to the top math groups in 5th grade.</p>
<p>S1 learned a lot more algebra in a real pre-Alg course than S2 did in his Alg I class. I was less concerned about what grade level my kids were in than that they were learning substantive content.</p>
<p>Our large public school district offers Calculus 1 and 2 (each is one semester, like AP Calculus BC) taught by an instructor from the community college but on the high school campus. At my daughters’ school, many of the students in the class are juniors. Before, they would be out of math classes to take their senior year and would take AP Stats. Now, there are enough students for the college to offer Linear Algebra and Discrete Math for the seniors who have finished Calculus. This is a different course than the high school Discrete Math class, which some students take instead of Calculus.<br>
The college classes are offered at the high school, but don’t go on the high school transcript. They are on a separate college transcript. In our community, the private prep schools don’t offer anything past Calculus, and public high schools in certain neighborhoods are able to offer more advanced math classes.</p>
<p>Wow, it’s really interesting to see how different school districts structure their math curriculum.
In my district, the track goes from Pre-Algebra-> AlgebraIA-> AlgebraIB-> Geometry-> AlgebraII-> Trigonometry-> Pre-Calculus-> AP Calculus AB-> AP Calculus BC</p>
<p>The top kids will do all of Algebra I (A+B) in 7th grade, Geometry in 8th, Algebra II in 9th, Trig and Pre-Calc in 10th (block scheduling allows each course to be taken for a semester), and both AP Calc’s in 11th and 12th.
The normal track would end up only reaching Trig by senior year, but most students stop at Algebra II and take consumer math/foundations of math bs classes.
Our district seems to have many more separate math classes than most others, and no one is allowed to skip AB calc to go straight to BC calc.</p>
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<p>What is the stated reason for this policy? I would expect students who are good enough to be two grades ahead in math (reaching calculus by junior year) to be the ones most able to handle BC (including AB) in one year, the same pace that university freshmen who are zero grades ahead in math take calculus at university.</p>
<p>I found a district with another variant of high school Calculus AB/BC policy:</p>
<p>Calculus AB prerequisites: C or better in Precalculus and teacher approval.
Calculus BC prerequisites: either A in Precalculus and teacher approval, or Calculus AB.</p>
<p>(both are full year courses)</p>
<p>Looks like they don’t want to hold back the best-at-math students from taking calculus at the pace of a university level course (one year BC course), but want the merely good-at-math or passing-at-math students (one or two years ahead, but getting B or C grades) to take the more relaxed slower pace version (one year AB course).</p>
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<p>I would disagree as when DD was in high school her private prep school had the most offering of any school in the bay area in many subjects but particularly in Math. It had 8 semester long offering of math electives making it possible for a student to enter high school with a AP Calc BC and still be able to take full 4 years of math.</p>
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<p>What were those math electives?</p>
<p>A student who aced the AP Calculus BC test could take the following math courses (multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, and/or calculus-based statistics) at a community college.</p>
<p>I think that POIH was referring to courses available at the school. Her daughter’s school may offer all of these additional courses but I don’t believe that it’s the norm for private schools. There are a lot of private schools out there that don’t break the bank and their offerings are on the modest size.</p>
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<p>POIH is a fella.</p>
<p>Not that it really matters, I guess.</p>
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<p>Other than what you listed the school had “Numerical Analysis”, “discrete Math”, “Engineering Math” and “Advance topics in Math”.</p>
<p>I only trying to refute the statement that specialized public high school offer more than private high schools in terms of subject offering.</p>
<p>You just need to find the right school with the subject offering.</p>
<p>Thanks bovertine, I’m not sure why the confusion. It seems the parent section is frequently visited by more moms than dads.</p>
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<p>Math courses beyond AP Calculus BC are not the norm for any school, including expensive private schools. Out of the private schools in the area, I could find only two that offer post BC math (their tuition is over $30,000 per year for grades 9-12). May be just as well, though; taking post-BC math courses at a nearby community college or university may be less hassle to get credit and placement for when the student enrolls full time at a university and wants to take advanced math courses (or use the courses taken to fulfill requirements for math-based majors).</p>
<p>One public high-school has dual-enrollment with a local private university (I guess they donate the courses for local goodwill). Another local high-school pays for EPGY courses for students that exhaust their course offerings.</p>
<p>There are lots of high-schools that don’t have access to community colleges and public universities. There are also many community colleges that don’t offer anything more than Calculus II. It seems like a problem that can be a real headache for parents but maybe the numbers are really small. I think that the President spoke about “closing the gap” today and offering more high-level math courses would only widen it.</p>