<p>I’m going to go bring up my previous posts in this thread and reiterate them. Actually I’m going to say this: we fail at creating a uniform standard in this country for math education. Our model is very flawed. So flawed it needs to change. For the record, I took Calc as a senior in HS. I didn’t score high enough on my IB Exam to get credit. In college however, I didn’t have to take either as I did well on my Calc placement to place out of Calc I and Calc II. You’re not behind if you don’t take Calc in HS. If you did, and everyone received a passing and credit-granting score, there would be no purpose to offer the Calculus Sequence in college, starting with single-variable calc.</p>
<p>“Smart”
Freshman: Geometry Pre-AP
Sophomore: Algebra II Pre-AP
Junior: PreCalculus Pre-AP
Senior: AB Calculus AP, BC Calculus AP, or AP Statistics</p>
<p>Of course there were students who double up on science or math classes…</p>
<p>^ same. </p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6400L using CC</p>
<p>Over 30 people in my class are going to take calculus next year</p>
<p>We don’t even have AP Calculus in my school. Just regular, which barely gets to integration.</p>
<p>Nobody skips precalc in my school; I honestly can’t think of a single person. The calculus classes are always filled with seniors, and we don’t offer a higher level of math than Calc AB (BC can be done for credit through an independent study, however).</p>
<p>Calculus at my school is only for seniors. We have a requirement that a student must take Algebra II and Geometry during their high school career. Most kids do this in 9th/10th but some start out in Algebra I. Most people make it to Pre-Calc but some choose not to take it, opting for a statistics class or taking Law or something instead. There are only 2 calculus classes, CP and AP and there are only about 35 students enrolled between the two. So basically, at my school, you are still smart if you take calc senior year.</p>
<p>Here it’s normal to start calculus in junior year, as in everyone who does maths at this stage does it. Some people also do it the year before, but we’re a lot more restricted in what level of classes we can take.</p>
<p>my public school is a bit of an anomaly… we have the option to take classes up to multivariate calc and linear algebra. This is so mainly because we have an awesome math department head who petitioned for the classes to happen. As a senior I’m finishing discrete math and starting diff. eq. as independent studies under said teacher. This has been extremely convenient, as I’ve been allowed all the math I’ve needed without having to pay for the classes at the local U.</p>
<p>I’m a freshman and this year I’m taking Algebra 2 at my school. I think our freshman are the most advanced currently at my school. I have no clue about the seniors at my school, however, my school is an IB school, but Algebra 2 is offered to juniors here as well as sophomores and the 30 freshman (including me).</p>
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<p>This is still completely true at my school. I’m 2 years ahead and there will be so few people in Calc BC that we will have a class of only 20. Only 2 people in our school are higher than BC and are required to take online classes at our state university if they want to continue math. I’m guessing that the schools that are offering Calc III are private/boarding schools.</p>
<p>Another way the site brings down my confidence ;)</p>
<p>@egelloc80:</p>
<p>Your hypothesis is correct. My friend studies at a STEM magnet boarding high school, and she knows several kids taking Calculus III, which shouldn’t be a surprise as that school’s average M+V SAT is about a 1350/1600. But at my ordinary high school, very few kids actually managed to place in AP Calculus AB, much less pass it and move on to BC, which is why my school lacks a proper Calculus III course. Though I plan on taking MVC during the summer at a local CC.</p>
<p>Ahhh the fine public schools we attend (and mine is very good compared to some less than an hour from where I live)</p>
<p>@egelloc80</p>
<p>It’s not a case of being a “bad public school.” My school ranks the top in the district, but the student body at my high school is dismal. Very few kids actually take Calculus I at ordinary schools, much less Calculus II. But if you take a look at schools such as TJSSM or NCSSM, then you’ll see that the majority of kids there take Calculus I and II, sometimes even III.</p>
<p>At my kids school the top kids take Alg.2/Trig & Geometry Honors as freshman,Pre- Calc as Soph,Ap Calc as Jr. and Ap Stats as Sr.</p>
<p>Our school has three different math ‘tracks’. One is just standard (Algebra I freshman year), the second track is one year ahead (Geometry freshman year), and the third track is two years ahead (Algebra II freshman year), meaning calculus would be taken junior year.</p>
<p>I don’t know why the school even has a math track that’s two years ahead, though, because they encouraged us to take AP Stats junior year and Calc senior year anyway.</p>
<p>AP Calc is going to be terrible next year, I’ve forgotten everything from last year’s precalc.</p>
<p>Wow it was impressive to see freshmen just taking Pr-Calc…and they all ended up dropping down to Algebra III “its like the mid-way between Algebra II and Pr-Calc here…mostly for kids who aren’t ready for Pr-Calc or juniors who are lazy and need their last math credit”</p>
<p>I go to a highly, highly competitive public school. We send about 12 kids to the Ivies each year, about two to each (except for Brown and Princeton, two kids years ago back out of their ED contracts and since then its been impossible to get into those schools if you go to my high school). Anyway, the smartest of the kids in my school take AP Calc senior year. Most of the “smartest” kids take BC but there are quite a few Ivy Leaguers who took AB. Honestly, its all about what school you go to and the classes they offer, not what classes you are actually taking.</p>
<p>At my school, most of the “average” kids take Math Analysis (Between Precalculus and Calculus), AP Statistics, or AP Calculus AB. The “below average” kids take a lower level or remedial level of math such as Precalculus or Advanced Topics. Those who are “above average” take AP Statistics, AP Calculus BC, or Multivariable Calculus at a community college. </p>
<p>However, there is a freshmen not at my high school, but at a different high school who went to one of my school’s “feeder” middle schools. She came to my school each day to take Precalculus in 8th grade, and already took AP Statistics in 7th grade. As an 8th grader, she beat every (then) freshmen and sophomore on the AMC 10 with a score of 117. Our high school is non-IB, but the school she is now at is an IB school. She is probably taking either AP Calculus BC or IB Math HL as a freshmen. But that is probably the most extreme case that I’ve heard of at my high school or any of those in this area.</p>