If your kid is in SMACS how much HW do they get a night?

[Anonymous]

Homework is way less since the pandemic, Functions not withstanding.

[Anonymous]

Other than HW, do they also study? Or that ‘s included in HW time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is a freshman in smacs, they Are hardworking, organized, and smart. It takes 4 hours a night maybe more…depending on their other classes.it works out that when they dohave a lot of hw it’s bc all the teachers assign stuff due on the same night. It’s crazy. Those posters who say there Child has no or very to little homework must be either lying or their kid is crazy smart and doesn’t even need to attend school.
For an average smart kid it will be a LOT of hw….extracurriculars take a back seat big time big! Don’t be fooled. Last year, when I talked to people everyone said the same thing only a little hw…so I wanted to come on here and tell people the truth. It’s a lot of work, it’s stressful and the teachers don’t really do there jobs in terms of teaching and giving massive amounts of material/hw…..leaving the burden to learn on the students.

Teachers do their job fine. You do the work, you get better. Kids adjust over time and find their place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So should a freshman/9th grader even consider functions? My kid loves math and is good at it but terrible with time management. We are still working on that. How do parents help with time management? Do you all micromanagement and how much of it is too much?

At best, you can encourage them to be organized. No other micromanagement is possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So should a freshman/9th grader even consider functions? My kid loves math and is good at it but terrible with time management. We are still working on that. How do parents help with time management? Do you all micromanagement and how much of it is too much?

At best, you can encourage them to be organized. No other micromanagement is possible.

True. Really the best answer to this OP is that the parents have no idea because the kid comes home and just does the homework and we don't normally monitor how long it takes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is a freshman in smacs, they Are hardworking, organized, and smart. It takes 4 hours a night maybe more…depending on their other classes.it works out that when they dohave a lot of hw it’s bc all the teachers assign stuff due on the same night. It’s crazy. Those posters who say there Child has no or very to little homework must be either lying or their kid is crazy smart and doesn’t even need to attend school.
For an average smart kid it will be a LOT of hw….extracurriculars take a back seat big time big! Don’t be fooled. Last year, when I talked to people everyone said the same thing only a little hw…so I wanted to come on here and tell people the truth. It’s a lot of work, it’s stressful and the teachers don’t really do there jobs in terms of teaching and giving massive amounts of material/hw…..leaving the burden to learn on the students.

+1

Thanks…totally agree. Nice there are some honest people on this forum.

[Anonymous]

It's a harder adjustment for the kids who aren't coming from TPMS, but things settle down after about 6 months.

[Anonymous]

Parent of a senior here. It has varied but definitely manageable and not 4 hours a night. I'd say averaging maybe 2 hours? Kid is a quick worker though and natural math student (was on the functions track). Schoolwork and long day did get in way of some things like being able to commit to a sport at the highest level. Finish with 13 AP and currently has 4.0.

Above is the truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a senior here. It has varied but definitely manageable and not 4 hours a night. I'd say averaging maybe 2 hours? Kid is a quick worker though and natural math student (was on the functions track). Schoolwork and long day did get in way of some things like being able to commit to a sport at the highest level. Finish with 13 AP and currently has 4.0.

Above is the truth.

What math are the kids in Functions coming from? How do they decide what math to put kids in? Do kids who have already taken precalc ever go straight into calculus?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is a freshman in smacs, they Are hardworking, organized, and smart. It takes 4 hours a night maybe more…depending on their other classes.it works out that when they dohave a lot of hw it’s bc all the teachers assign stuff due on the same night. It’s crazy. Those posters who say there Child has no or very to little homework must be either lying or their kid is crazy smart and doesn’t even need to attend school.
For an average smart kid it will be a LOT of hw….extracurriculars take a back seat big time big! Don’t be fooled. Last year, when I talked to people everyone said the same thing only a little hw…so I wanted to come on here and tell people the truth. It’s a lot of work, it’s stressful and the teachers don’t really do there jobs in terms of teaching and giving massive amounts of material/hw…..leaving the burden to learn on the students.

More likely those kids are doing their homework in other classes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a senior here. It has varied but definitely manageable and not 4 hours a night. I'd say averaging maybe 2 hours? Kid is a quick worker though and natural math student (was on the functions track). Schoolwork and long day did get in way of some things like being able to commit to a sport at the highest level. Finish with 13 AP and currently has 4.0.

Above is the truth.

What math are the kids in Functions coming from? How do they decide what math to put kids in? Do kids who have already taken precalc ever go straight into calculus?

My son came from Geometry in 8th grade. Despite a 260-ish MAP-M score in 3rd grade, never managed to get any acceleration.

SMACs program tested the kids during the first few weeks of 9th grade. Kids that already took Alg 2 in 8th were in the same class as those coming from Geometry if they met whatever score cutoff they had. All kind of worked out and my son never had the logistical issues those kids did getting to their math class in 5th and 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

1/4 of kids in Functions drop it every year and go back to Magnet PreCal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1/4 of kids in Functions drop it every year and go back to Magnet PreCal.

What is the point of Functions? What do you get to do later in the SMCS program that non-functions kids don’t?

[Anonymous]

Nothing, but the kids in that class need the challenge. Regular magnet math is too easy for them. These are the math olympiad kids. DC really looks up to them. They are beyond normal smart kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing, but the kids in that class need the challenge. Regular magnet math is too easy for them. These are the math olympiad kids. DC really looks up to them. They are beyond normal smart kids.

Thank you. I suspect DC will test into that class, but DC is not a math olympiad kind of kid and I’m not sure whether or not to encourage taking Functions.