Is honors Allebra II really difficult?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I agree it’s too soon but just wanted to get a sense of whether this was really as “impossible” as he predicts.
I think his teacher is brand new and told the class it would be one of the hardest classes they’d ever take. My son doesn’t have a lot of confidence so that’s surely affecting his outlook.

He has support at home but has always relied on really good math teachers for help. No way to know how it will go with a new teacher so I can’t get too caught up in that yet.

He had an excellent tutor 2 years ago and I’ll try that. He will need help in chemistry too I’m sure.

You didn’t say what grade he is, but if he’s 9th or 10th grade, if he drops down to regular, he will likely be with older students who are very weak in math. As others have suggested, get a tutor and use supplemental resources (I like KhanAcademy). However, I would also discuss with your son that this is an opportunity to work with the tutor and learn study skills and planning. Learning how to be successful in a course that you are unsure about is a good skill to have before college.

Also, Honors Precalc is the hardest in the math sequence (general DCUM thoughts over the years) . If he still feels like needing a slower pace at the end of the year, a switch to Precalc is more common and he’ll be with similar age students.

Do you think it’s harder than Honors Calc or AP Calc?

No of course not, Pre-Calc is the hardest math by far. Honors especially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I agree it’s too soon but just wanted to get a sense of whether this was really as “impossible” as he predicts.
I think his teacher is brand new and told the class it would be one of the hardest classes they’d ever take. My son doesn’t have a lot of confidence so that’s surely affecting his outlook.

He has support at home but has always relied on really good math teachers for help. No way to know how it will go with a new teacher so I can’t get too caught up in that yet.

He had an excellent tutor 2 years ago and I’ll try that. He will need help in chemistry too I’m sure.

You didn’t say what grade he is, but if he’s 9th or 10th grade, if he drops down to regular, he will likely be with older students who are very weak in math. As others have suggested, get a tutor and use supplemental resources (I like KhanAcademy). However, I would also discuss with your son that this is an opportunity to work with the tutor and learn study skills and planning. Learning how to be successful in a course that you are unsure about is a good skill to have before college.

Also, Honors Precalc is the hardest in the math sequence (general DCUM thoughts over the years) . If he still feels like needing a slower pace at the end of the year, a switch to Precalc is more common and he’ll be with similar age students.

Do you think it’s harder than Honors Calc or AP Calc?

PP here. You can't really compare them - Pre-calculus leads in to Calculus. Honors Precalc is hard for students because it is the first course that really requires a lot of abstract reasoning. It ends up being a filter for placing students into the correct level of Calculus. Strong As go in to AP BC Calculus; solid As/Bs but not really quick thinkers go into AP AB Calculus; students that struggled in Honors or took regular Precalc go into Calculus with Applications or don't take Calculus at all. In my experience at my HS, students that follow the recommended placement from their math teacher do well in the next course because it is targeted at their pace of learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please ignore the pro-textbook posters. They're clearly in the employ of the textbook lobby and wish to drag our children back to the 19th century.

Please ignore the poster who continually tells us to join the 21st century. They clearly haven't read any educational or memory research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I agree it’s too soon but just wanted to get a sense of whether this was really as “impossible” as he predicts.
I think his teacher is brand new and told the class it would be one of the hardest classes they’d ever take. My son doesn’t have a lot of confidence so that’s surely affecting his outlook.

He has support at home but has always relied on really good math teachers for help. No way to know how it will go with a new teacher so I can’t get too caught up in that yet.

He had an excellent tutor 2 years ago and I’ll try that. He will need help in chemistry too I’m sure.

You didn’t say what grade he is, but if he’s 9th or 10th grade, if he drops down to regular, he will likely be with older students who are very weak in math. As others have suggested, get a tutor and use supplemental resources (I like KhanAcademy). However, I would also discuss with your son that this is an opportunity to work with the tutor and learn study skills and planning. Learning how to be successful in a course that you are unsure about is a good skill to have before college.

Also, Honors Precalc is the hardest in the math sequence (general DCUM thoughts over the years) . If he still feels like needing a slower pace at the end of the year, a switch to Precalc is more common and he’ll be with similar age students.

Do you think it’s harder than Honors Calc or AP Calc?

No of course not, Pre-Calc is the hardest math by far. Honors especially.

Many posters have said the hardest class by far was Alg II.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I agree it’s too soon but just wanted to get a sense of whether this was really as “impossible” as he predicts.
I think his teacher is brand new and told the class it would be one of the hardest classes they’d ever take. My son doesn’t have a lot of confidence so that’s surely affecting his outlook.

He has support at home but has always relied on really good math teachers for help. No way to know how it will go with a new teacher so I can’t get too caught up in that yet.

He had an excellent tutor 2 years ago and I’ll try that. He will need help in chemistry too I’m sure.

You didn’t say what grade he is, but if he’s 9th or 10th grade, if he drops down to regular, he will likely be with older students who are very weak in math. As others have suggested, get a tutor and use supplemental resources (I like KhanAcademy). However, I would also discuss with your son that this is an opportunity to work with the tutor and learn study skills and planning. Learning how to be successful in a course that you are unsure about is a good skill to have before college.

Also, Honors Precalc is the hardest in the math sequence (general DCUM thoughts over the years) . If he still feels like needing a slower pace at the end of the year, a switch to Precalc is more common and he’ll be with similar age students.

Do you think it’s harder than Honors Calc or AP Calc?

No of course not, Pre-Calc is the hardest math by far. Honors especially.

I heard calc BC is even harder!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please ignore the pro-textbook posters. They're clearly in the employ of the textbook lobby and wish to drag our children back to the 19th century.

Please ignore the poster who continually tells us to join the 21st century. They clearly haven't read any educational or memory research.

Please ignore the Luddites attempting to turn time backward. They fail to grasp that the world has changed and that new and better ways of doing things are now possible than was true 100+ years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I agree it’s too soon but just wanted to get a sense of whether this was really as “impossible” as he predicts.
I think his teacher is brand new and told the class it would be one of the hardest classes they’d ever take. My son doesn’t have a lot of confidence so that’s surely affecting his outlook.

He has support at home but has always relied on really good math teachers for help. No way to know how it will go with a new teacher so I can’t get too caught up in that yet.

He had an excellent tutor 2 years ago and I’ll try that. He will need help in chemistry too I’m sure.

You didn’t say what grade he is, but if he’s 9th or 10th grade, if he drops down to regular, he will likely be with older students who are very weak in math. As others have suggested, get a tutor and use supplemental resources (I like KhanAcademy). However, I would also discuss with your son that this is an opportunity to work with the tutor and learn study skills and planning. Learning how to be successful in a course that you are unsure about is a good skill to have before college.

Also, Honors Precalc is the hardest in the math sequence (general DCUM thoughts over the years) . If he still feels like needing a slower pace at the end of the year, a switch to Precalc is more common and he’ll be with similar age students.

Do you think it’s harder than Honors Calc or AP Calc?

PP here. You can't really compare them - Pre-calculus leads in to Calculus. Honors Precalc is hard for students because it is the first course that really requires a lot of abstract reasoning. It ends up being a filter for placing students into the correct level of Calculus. Strong As go in to AP BC Calculus; solid As/Bs but not really quick thinkers go into AP AB Calculus; students that struggled in Honors or took regular Precalc go into Calculus with Applications or don't take Calculus at all. In my experience at my HS, students that follow the recommended placement from their math teacher do well in the next course because it is targeted at their pace of learning.

Correction: Students who take regular pre-calc and get A grades are eligible for AP Calc AB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I agree it’s too soon but just wanted to get a sense of whether this was really as “impossible” as he predicts.
I think his teacher is brand new and told the class it would be one of the hardest classes they’d ever take. My son doesn’t have a lot of confidence so that’s surely affecting his outlook.

He has support at home but has always relied on really good math teachers for help. No way to know how it will go with a new teacher so I can’t get too caught up in that yet.

He had an excellent tutor 2 years ago and I’ll try that. He will need help in chemistry too I’m sure.

You didn’t say what grade he is, but if he’s 9th or 10th grade, if he drops down to regular, he will likely be with older students who are very weak in math. As others have suggested, get a tutor and use supplemental resources (I like KhanAcademy). However, I would also discuss with your son that this is an opportunity to work with the tutor and learn study skills and planning. Learning how to be successful in a course that you are unsure about is a good skill to have before college.

Also, Honors Precalc is the hardest in the math sequence (general DCUM thoughts over the years) . If he still feels like needing a slower pace at the end of the year, a switch to Precalc is more common and he’ll be with similar age students.

Do you think it’s harder than Honors Calc or AP Calc?

No of course not, Pre-Calc is the hardest math by far. Honors especially.

Many posters have said the hardest class by far was Alg II.

How many of those posters are HS Math teachers? Zero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please ignore the pro-textbook posters. They're clearly in the employ of the textbook lobby and wish to drag our children back to the 19th century.

Please ignore the poster who continually tells us to join the 21st century. They clearly haven't read any educational or memory research.

If they want to be in teh 21st century, they should do virtual school.

[Anonymous]

My child's counselor told him to drop honors Algebra II for regular Algebra II and focus on other subjects. I'm not upset by her suggestion - just trying to see if it's the right decision.

He was there for an unrelated matter but I'm sure he answered that it was very tough. He has a lot on his plate and would like to lessen the load I'm sure.

We want him to hang in there a bit but won't make him stay if it's really too hard.

I hear people say that colleges don't care if he's in regular Math but I have two concerns:

1) His weighted GPA and how colleges perceive him taking the easier math
2) Will he then be in a class that is too slow and get bored or put in a class with kids who are not as focused on academics

Open to criticism about my comments. Just trying to figure it all out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please ignore the pro-textbook posters. They're clearly in the employ of the textbook lobby and wish to drag our children back to the 19th century.

Please ignore the poster who continually tells us to join the 21st century. They clearly haven't read any educational or memory research.

If they want to be in teh 21st century, they should do virtual school.

Or at least avail themselves of these new-fangled computery thingamabobs.