Struggling in Hon Precalculus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a syllabus for Hon Precalculus so that my son can start studying early for it?

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/math/high/precalculus/

[Anonymous]

We're encountering a similar issue with my daughter in another MCPS school, where she's facing difficulties with quizzes and tests. She did well on the practices but the questions on quizzes and tests seem entirely different from what she's practiced.

If we decide to get her a tutor, what advice should I give to the tutor to assist her? She's not interested in revisiting her MCPS exercises and homework as she already understands those. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're encountering a similar issue with my daughter in another MCPS school, where she's facing difficulties with quizzes and tests. She did well on the practices but the questions on quizzes and tests seem entirely different from what she's practiced.

If we decide to get her a tutor, what advice should I give to the tutor to assist her? She's not interested in revisiting her MCPS exercises and homework as she already understands those. Thanks!

If she hasn't done the Khan Academy pre-calc modules yet, have her do that first. Use the table of contents to peruse topics to prioritize. Then, try those problems. Talk to the teacher about the disconnect between practices and quizzes. Get their advice too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:It's kind of ridiculous that MCPS can't point to a standard example test and say "a student with a grade of X in math course Y would score about Z% on this test."

It does. It’s called syllabus, curriculum, and grading policy.

Usually homework is a good indication of what will be on the test.

What’s ridiculous about this?

It's not true. The syllabus is general, and does not mean the tests are standardized across the classes. Even simple things could vary, like 20minutes vs 40minutes for the same test, and also what questions and how many questions the teacher chooses to put on the test, and how they weight the questions. Kids in the same school sometimes report that different teachers assign and score differently.

Homework may or may not be a good indication of what's on the test.

For some courses you can look at past year exams. The information is there in the course materials, most students don’t even bother to look them up.

You want the same questions, time allocation, grading policy, etc for all precalculus courses at the same school in every year? Now that’s being ridiculous! Teachers need the flexibility to teach the materials, emphasize certain topics, and grade based on the students in the class and the course goals.

Read the class materials, they are available the first day of the class or even earlier since they don’t vary much, then decide if the course is for you. Don’t complain that the hard teacher allowed 20 mins for the test while the easy one allows 40 minutes with unlimited retakes. That’s what you’re signing for, a rigorous course so you really master the material.

Where would you look for these? Do you mean the teacher might post them on the class canvas page, or they are available through MCPS somehow?

PP was just speculating. Most courses don't directly provide test archives.
But many courses do provide practice tests as homework.
It's mostly standard though, so Khan Academy or IXL is fine.

[Anonymous]

My daughter had an A in this class the entire quarter and now failed the final test (60%). She still managed the get a final grade B for the class, but how can this be? She did very well in all other graded work and did not struggle with homework. How could we have known that she was not mastering the content and needed extra help? Maybe it was just a bad test day for her, but not really sure where to go from here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter had an A in this class the entire quarter and now failed the final test (60%). She still managed the get a final grade B for the class, but how can this be? She did very well in all other graded work and did not struggle with homework. How could we have known that she was not mastering the content and needed extra help? Maybe it was just a bad test day for her, but not really sure where to go from here.

I would meet with the teacher to get his or her take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter had an A in this class the entire quarter and now failed the final test (60%). She still managed the get a final grade B for the class, but how can this be? She did very well in all other graded work and did not struggle with homework. How could we have known that she was not mastering the content and needed extra help? Maybe it was just a bad test day for her, but not really sure where to go from here.

It sounds like she's doing weekly exit cards or quizzes? If so I think your DD may have trouble putting things together. She can do the individual straightforward problems which shows a basic grasp of the content but she's not understanding things deeply enough. DD had this issue at the beginning too and failed some tests. Her teacher's tests are not at all like the problems they had on the homework or quizzes. She had to work on math every day for 1-2 hours. It was tough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is taking Hon Precalculus and is struggling massively. He has always had straight As in math without much effort up to now. Right now he has a D average. He is up every night for an hour or two doing math homework, he gets on average 15-20 problems each night. He tried Kahn Academy but it’s very basic and he says he understands the concepts but there is not enough time on the assessments and he is anxious and rushing. WWYD? Ask to be moved down to regular precalculus? Get him a tutor?

Have him talk to the teacher, but also tutoring or after-school help at school - he probably is just sticking on a concept or two and once he has it it will be fine - Hon Precalculus well known across the county for being the most difficult math class with exception of AP Calc B/C. My math kid struggled a bit as well - and we got a tutor for the first time ever for a couple monts, but now he's doing great in AP Calc. So, just to give you a bit of the light at the end of the tunnel support.