How hard will Blair's Functions class be for a kid who currently finds Algebra 2 "easy"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have a kids take it who fits that profile? Just trying to gauge what to expect and whether we should have DC forego APUSH. TIA!

It's not "hard" if you haven't found math hard so far, but it is more interesting and challenging, and the homework is tedious. Think doing a dozen copies of the same problem, but with the numbers changed.

If your kid a perfectionist, shows their work, and writes slowly, a nightly homework assignment can take an hour or more.
If your kid writes quickly, doesn't care about having beautifully written work, and does half the assigned problems, stopping when it feels tedious and not educational, (it's graded based on "putting in effort", not scoring every problem like an exam), it can be done in 20 minutes.

Regardless, it's not a reason to forgo AP USH. If a class is sucking up all of your time, and you can't figure out ho to cut that time down by making adjustments, then you should cut that class, not a different class you are interested in.

Precalculus is the same class as Functions but a slower pace (3 semesters vs 2), so if Functions is taking too much time, you can trade away an elective semester to make more time for learning Precalculus, and still time for have 3 semesters of math electives after Analysis 1 A/B and 2 A/B (enriched Calc BC, Multivariable Calc and Differential Equations).

On the other hand, you won't have a chance to spend a semester elective taking AP USH after Honors History. (Maybe you could take a whole year of AP USH after Honors).
Drop AP USH if the reading and writing and studying is too much to keep you engaged and on track. Honors history is Civil War to current events, with less demanding writing, while AP USH starts pre-colonial time (so it's easier first semester, which repeats and deepens 8th grade US History, before doing modern history for the first time at a fast pace 2nd semester).