Blair Magnet: what level of math do most 9th graders enter at?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Can't speak to Blair but I assume Poolesville similar and most enter having taken Geometry in 8th grade. There are a handful of kids that took Algebra 2 in 8th (not sure how, this was never an option for my kid). They do a placement test for the "Functions" class. Anyone scoring high enough on that ends up in the same class, regardless of whether they took Alg 2 or not.

But you have gone to one of those wealthy W feeders that accelerate math to get to Alg 2 in 8th.

It's mostly kids from the Takoma Magnet Middle that take it.

No, most TPMS take Geometry in 8th. The TP schools (at least several years ago, may have changed) did not accelerate students beyond this level. A few came into TPMS from other schools that did. Seems to be a per school basis.

But, there is a small group entering Blair (many former TPMS kids) tgat take a class which essentially combines Alg 2/Trig and Pre Calc into one year. Those students finish Calc BC as sophomores.

The majority finish up Calc BC as 1st sem juniors. Some students in Blair magnet take Geom in 9th and go from there. So, there are several math tracks in the magnet.

Then, after Calc BC, as a PP said, they often take Multivar, Linear Alg, Complex, Discrete, Ligic, etc. There's plenty of math to go around!

My kid graduated in 2020. There was 1 Functions class (mostly from TPMS). 2 Pre-Calcs and 1 Geometry (that had non magnet kids too). The Functions class was the smallest and a chunk usually drop it in the first quarter.

What is functions? I keep hearing people talking about it.

I described it on the 1st page of this thread. It's a class that combines Alg2 Trig and pre calc in 1 year. Deep and intense

How does it go deeper if they are combining two classes in one? That seems kinda strange to do all that in one year.

It's that much work. The Calc classes are too. Much deeper than AP Calc BC.

There is no way they can add 1/3 more material and go deeper. Its just faster.

And yet they manage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't speak to Blair but I assume Poolesville similar and most enter having taken Geometry in 8th grade. There are a handful of kids that took Algebra 2 in 8th (not sure how, this was never an option for my kid). They do a placement test for the "Functions" class. Anyone scoring high enough on that ends up in the same class, regardless of whether they took Alg 2 or not.

But you have gone to one of those wealthy W feeders that accelerate math to get to Alg 2 in 8th.

It's mostly kids from the Takoma Magnet Middle that take it.

No, most TPMS take Geometry in 8th. The TP schools (at least several years ago, may have changed) did not accelerate students beyond this level. A few came into TPMS from other schools that did. Seems to be a per school basis.

But, there is a small group entering Blair (many former TPMS kids) tgat take a class which essentially combines Alg 2/Trig and Pre Calc into one year. Those students finish Calc BC as sophomores.

The majority finish up Calc BC as 1st sem juniors. Some students in Blair magnet take Geom in 9th and go from there. So, there are several math tracks in the magnet.

Then, after Calc BC, as a PP said, they often take Multivar, Linear Alg, Complex, Discrete, Ligic, etc. There's plenty of math to go around!

My kid graduated in 2020. There was 1 Functions class (mostly from TPMS). 2 Pre-Calcs and 1 Geometry (that had non magnet kids too). The Functions class was the smallest and a chunk usually drop it in the first quarter.

What is functions? I keep hearing people talking about it.

I described it on the 1st page of this thread. It's a class that combines Alg2 Trig and pre calc in 1 year. Deep and intense

How does it go deeper if they are combining two classes in one? That seems kinda strange to do all that in one year.

It's that much work. The Calc classes are too. Much deeper than AP Calc BC.

There is no way they can add 1/3 more material and go deeper. Its just faster.

No, it’s deeper. For example, they’ll teach something in class, and then the homework will require them to apply it in a way that wasn’t explicitly taught. And then the test will include a novel application that wasn’t on the homework. Magnet Pre-Calc is 3 semesters and is much more typical in that if you understand the classwork you’ll be able to do well on the homework and tests.

They say to think of Functions as a class plus 2 extracurriculars.

IMHO, this is not entirely correct. Magnet precal does go deeper and faster (three semesters instead of four) than regular (algebra 2 + precal). But generally speaking, because it is cohorted, students in the program are usually capable of handling this (with some exceptions I am sure) and it LOOKS typical. (I think this applies to most subjects; if you are teaching only a small group of motivated students, IMHO it is not that big a deal to take content that is covered in four semesters of regular coursework elsewhere and cover it in three semesters while going a bit deeper.)

But it is a whole new ballgame when you take that same content and compress it even more into two semesters - which is the case with magnet functions. Compared to magnet precal, the students in magnet functions do not learn anything new. In fact the teachers and/or the coordinator used to emphasize that students taking magnet precal would not miss any content by not taking magnet functions, and advise that if a kid is very into some extracurricular activities, or does not want to spend hours and hours on homework on one single subject, etc. it is fine to take magnet precal.

Bottomline - magnet precal and magnet functions have the same deeper content, but one compresses it into three semesters and the other compresses it into two semesters.

- DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't speak to Blair but I assume Poolesville similar and most enter having taken Geometry in 8th grade. There are a handful of kids that took Algebra 2 in 8th (not sure how, this was never an option for my kid). They do a placement test for the "Functions" class. Anyone scoring high enough on that ends up in the same class, regardless of whether they took Alg 2 or not.

But you have gone to one of those wealthy W feeders that accelerate math to get to Alg 2 in 8th.

First rule of Ws is you do not talk about Ws!

The original question was about Blair magnet, and the similar magnet at Poolesville is the Poolesville SMCS magnet. Ws do not feed this magnet. So, yes, you should not be talking about Ws because it does not make any sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't speak to Blair but I assume Poolesville similar and most enter having taken Geometry in 8th grade. There are a handful of kids that took Algebra 2 in 8th (not sure how, this was never an option for my kid). They do a placement test for the "Functions" class. Anyone scoring high enough on that ends up in the same class, regardless of whether they took Alg 2 or not.

But you have gone to one of those wealthy W feeders that accelerate math to get to Alg 2 in 8th.

It's mostly kids from the Takoma Magnet Middle that take it.

No, most TPMS take Geometry in 8th. The TP schools (at least several years ago, may have changed) did not accelerate students beyond this level. A few came into TPMS from other schools that did. Seems to be a per school basis.

But, there is a small group entering Blair (many former TPMS kids) tgat take a class which essentially combines Alg 2/Trig and Pre Calc into one year. Those students finish Calc BC as sophomores.

The majority finish up Calc BC as 1st sem juniors. Some students in Blair magnet take Geom in 9th and go from there. So, there are several math tracks in the magnet.

Then, after Calc BC, as a PP said, they often take Multivar, Linear Alg, Complex, Discrete, Ligic, etc. There's plenty of math to go around!

My kid graduated in 2020. There was 1 Functions class (mostly from TPMS). 2 Pre-Calcs and 1 Geometry (that had non magnet kids too). The Functions class was the smallest and a chunk usually drop it in the first quarter.

What is functions? I keep hearing people talking about it.

I described it on the 1st page of this thread. It's a class that combines Alg2 Trig and pre calc in 1 year. Deep and intense

How does it go deeper if they are combining two classes in one? That seems kinda strange to do all that in one year.

It's that much work. The Calc classes are too. Much deeper than AP Calc BC.

There is no way they can add 1/3 more material and go deeper. Its just faster.

No, it’s deeper. For example, they’ll teach something in class, and then the homework will require them to apply it in a way that wasn’t explicitly taught. And then the test will include a novel application that wasn’t on the homework. Magnet Pre-Calc is 3 semesters and is much more typical in that if you understand the classwork you’ll be able to do well on the homework and tests.

They say to think of Functions as a class plus 2 extracurriculars.

IMHO, this is not entirely correct. Magnet precal does go deeper and faster (three semesters instead of four) than regular (algebra 2 + precal). But generally speaking, because it is cohorted, students in the program are usually capable of handling this (with some exceptions I am sure) and it LOOKS typical. (I think this applies to most subjects; if you are teaching only a small group of motivated students, IMHO it is not that big a deal to take content that is covered in four semesters of regular coursework elsewhere and cover it in three semesters while going a bit deeper.)

But it is a whole new ballgame when you take that same content and compress it even more into two semesters - which is the case with magnet functions. Compared to magnet precal, the students in magnet functions do not learn anything new. In fact the teachers and/or the coordinator used to emphasize that students taking magnet precal would not miss any content by not taking magnet functions, and advise that if a kid is very into some extracurricular activities, or does not want to spend hours and hours on homework on one single subject, etc. it is fine to take magnet precal.

Bottomline - magnet precal and magnet functions have the same deeper content, but one compresses it into three semesters and the other compresses it into two semesters.

- DP

Another DP.
That may be more accurate now than when my kid went through Functions. Then, it was deeper than pre calc just because of the difference in teacher. Not extensively and not advertised as such, but I saw the depth of problems, and some were beyond what pre calc kids encountered.

So I agree with PP's experience, but also don't disagree with you that things may be different now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After AP BC Calculus, there is Multi-variable Calculus and Linear Algebra. (At schools with and IB program, the top HL math class explores a variety of topics.)

In college, it will depend on the college what level students are placed in for math. UMD accepts AP BC Calculus credit with a 4 or 5 score. There is also a process (at least there was in 2019) where students in MVC can take the UMD MVC final in order to earn credit for MVC if they attend UMD. At other colleges, I would just retake whatever the last level you were in as a freshman. It should be an easy A, might fill in any gaps, and have the student better prepared for the next math course at that college.

https://www.transfercredit.umd.edu/plc/APGenEd.pdf
(non-STEM majors take note - AP AB or BC Calculus credit will satisfy your gen ed math requirements, so it is worth taking the test!)

At the school where I teach, we separate credit and placement. Typically kids from TJ (I've seen several of those, none from Blair) who are far ahead in math get credit from the AP exam for Calc (1 year) and then place into the math class that suits their level. So to meet a math requirement say for engineering (true for all schools for accreditation) they may need to take some other types of math, but as several PPs have mentioned there are many, many options (lin alg, Diff eq, probability, stats, optimization). If the student is a math major, of course this allows them to take lots more math, and if he/she does humanities they may place out of math altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After AP BC Calculus, there is Multi-variable Calculus and Linear Algebra. (At schools with and IB program, the top HL math class explores a variety of topics.)

In college, it will depend on the college what level students are placed in for math. UMD accepts AP BC Calculus credit with a 4 or 5 score. There is also a process (at least there was in 2019) where students in MVC can take the UMD MVC final in order to earn credit for MVC if they attend UMD. At other colleges, I would just retake whatever the last level you were in as a freshman. It should be an easy A, might fill in any gaps, and have the student better prepared for the next math course at that college.

https://www.transfercredit.umd.edu/plc/APGenEd.pdf
(non-STEM majors take note - AP AB or BC Calculus credit will satisfy your gen ed math requirements, so it is worth taking the test!)

At the school where I teach, we separate credit and placement. Typically kids from TJ (I've seen several of those, none from Blair) who are far ahead in math get credit from the AP exam for Calc (1 year) and then place into the math class that suits their level. So to meet a math requirement say for engineering (true for all schools for accreditation) they may need to take some other types of math, but as several PPs have mentioned there are many, many options (lin alg, Diff eq, probability, stats, optimization). If the student is a math major, of course this allows them to take lots more math, and if he/she does humanities they may place out of math altogether.

Some colleges have math majors structured with calc, Multivar and linear Algebra as pre reqs, so students can place out with a similar effect to earning credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't speak to Blair but I assume Poolesville similar and most enter having taken Geometry in 8th grade. There are a handful of kids that took Algebra 2 in 8th (not sure how, this was never an option for my kid). They do a placement test for the "Functions" class. Anyone scoring high enough on that ends up in the same class, regardless of whether they took Alg 2 or not.

But you have gone to one of those wealthy W feeders that accelerate math to get to Alg 2 in 8th.

It's mostly kids from the Takoma Magnet Middle that take it.

No, most TPMS take Geometry in 8th. The TP schools (at least several years ago, may have changed) did not accelerate students beyond this level. A few came into TPMS from other schools that did. Seems to be a per school basis.

But, there is a small group entering Blair (many former TPMS kids) tgat take a class which essentially combines Alg 2/Trig and Pre Calc into one year. Those students finish Calc BC as sophomores.

The majority finish up Calc BC as 1st sem juniors. Some students in Blair magnet take Geom in 9th and go from there. So, there are several math tracks in the magnet.

Then, after Calc BC, as a PP said, they often take Multivar, Linear Alg, Complex, Discrete, Ligic, etc. There's plenty of math to go around!

My kid graduated in 2020. There was 1 Functions class (mostly from TPMS). 2 Pre-Calcs and 1 Geometry (that had non magnet kids too). The Functions class was the smallest and a chunk usually drop it in the first quarter.

What is functions? I keep hearing people talking about it.

Functions is basically Alg II and Precal compacted into one year. It was a challenging class even for TPMS class, similar to a weeding out class in college. The teacher sent many emails sent globally to all parents since so many kids were having difficulty and had Cs in the class, reminding them of the deadline to drop down into Precal. Your child shouldn't take it unless they are really into math and willing to risk getting a B in the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Functions is basically Alg II and Precal compacted into one year. It was a challenging class even for TPMS class, similar to a weeding out class in college. The teacher sent many emails sent globally to all parents since so many kids were having difficulty and had Cs in the class, reminding them of the deadline to drop down into Precal. Your child shouldn't take it unless they are really into math and willing to risk getting a B in the class.

I think this was what VMPI was calling precalculus-focus on functions, and would be the path to calculus in high school. They would pretend to teach algebra 2 in 10th, and anyone who wanted calculus would take this class first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't speak to Blair but I assume Poolesville similar and most enter having taken Geometry in 8th grade. There are a handful of kids that took Algebra 2 in 8th (not sure how, this was never an option for my kid). They do a placement test for the "Functions" class. Anyone scoring high enough on that ends up in the same class, regardless of whether they took Alg 2 or not.

But you have gone to one of those wealthy W feeders that accelerate math to get to Alg 2 in 8th.

It's mostly kids from the Takoma Magnet Middle that take it.

No, most TPMS take Geometry in 8th. The TP schools (at least several years ago, may have changed) did not accelerate students beyond this level. A few came into TPMS from other schools that did. Seems to be a per school basis.

But, there is a small group entering Blair (many former TPMS kids) tgat take a class which essentially combines Alg 2/Trig and Pre Calc into one year. Those students finish Calc BC as sophomores.

The majority finish up Calc BC as 1st sem juniors. Some students in Blair magnet take Geom in 9th and go from there. So, there are several math tracks in the magnet.

Then, after Calc BC, as a PP said, they often take Multivar, Linear Alg, Complex, Discrete, Ligic, etc. There's plenty of math to go around!

My kid graduated in 2020. There was 1 Functions class (mostly from TPMS). 2 Pre-Calcs and 1 Geometry (that had non magnet kids too). The Functions class was the smallest and a chunk usually drop it in the first quarter.

What is functions? I keep hearing people talking about it.

Functions is basically Alg II and Precal compacted into one year. It was a challenging class even for TPMS class, similar to a weeding out class in college. The teacher sent many emails sent globally to all parents since so many kids were having difficulty and had Cs in the class, reminding them of the deadline to drop down into Precal. Your child shouldn't take it unless they are really into math and willing to risk getting a B in the class.

Thanks. Mine takes Algebra 2 as a 8th grader. No need to speed things up that much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't speak to Blair but I assume Poolesville similar and most enter having taken Geometry in 8th grade. There are a handful of kids that took Algebra 2 in 8th (not sure how, this was never an option for my kid). They do a placement test for the "Functions" class. Anyone scoring high enough on that ends up in the same class, regardless of whether they took Alg 2 or not.

But you have gone to one of those wealthy W feeders that accelerate math to get to Alg 2 in 8th.

It's mostly kids from the Takoma Magnet Middle that take it.

No, most TPMS take Geometry in 8th. The TP schools (at least several years ago, may have changed) did not accelerate students beyond this level. A few came into TPMS from other schools that did. Seems to be a per school basis.

But, there is a small group entering Blair (many former TPMS kids) tgat take a class which essentially combines Alg 2/Trig and Pre Calc into one year. Those students finish Calc BC as sophomores.

The majority finish up Calc BC as 1st sem juniors. Some students in Blair magnet take Geom in 9th and go from there. So, there are several math tracks in the magnet.

Then, after Calc BC, as a PP said, they often take Multivar, Linear Alg, Complex, Discrete, Ligic, etc. There's plenty of math to go around!

My kid graduated in 2020. There was 1 Functions class (mostly from TPMS). 2 Pre-Calcs and 1 Geometry (that had non magnet kids too). The Functions class was the smallest and a chunk usually drop it in the first quarter.

What is functions? I keep hearing people talking about it.

Functions is basically Alg II and Precal compacted into one year. It was a challenging class even for TPMS class, similar to a weeding out class in college. The teacher sent many emails sent globally to all parents since so many kids were having difficulty and had Cs in the class, reminding them of the deadline to drop down into Precal. Your child shouldn't take it unless they are really into math and willing to risk getting a B in the class.

Thanks. Mine takes Algebra 2 as a 8th grader. No need to speed things up that much.

Mine took Algebra 2 in 8th and still dropped back from Functions to Magnet PreCalc. They wanted time to do things other than math.

[Anonymous]

Because we're not at one of the wealthy schools, DC wasn't able to take Algebra in 6th grade, but they still took functions in 9th and finished CalcBC by the end of 10th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because we're not at one of the wealthy schools, DC wasn't able to take Algebra in 6th grade, but they still took functions in 9th and finished CalcBC by the end of 10th grade.

This is nonsense. See the post in this thread at 09/19/2022 22:26 https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1082936.page#23427900

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we're not at one of the wealthy schools, DC wasn't able to take Algebra in 6th grade, but they still took functions in 9th and finished CalcBC by the end of 10th grade.

This is nonsense. See the post in this thread at 09/19/2022 22:26 https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1082936.page#23427900

I did. Everyone knows that only a few wealthy schools in Potomac offer this kind of acceleration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we're not at one of the wealthy schools, DC wasn't able to take Algebra in 6th grade, but they still took functions in 9th and finished CalcBC by the end of 10th grade.

This is nonsense. See the post in this thread at 09/19/2022 22:26 https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1082936.page#23427900

I did. Everyone knows that only a few wealthy schools in Potomac offer this kind of acceleration.

I don't know about wealthy schools or not, but our down county ESs would not accelerate anyone past compacted, and TPMS would not bump anyone up but would serve kids coming in already ahead. So the most advanced track for most kids is Alg 1 in 7th. Mine did this and went from Geom in 8th to Functions at Blair. It was a tough year of math. Kid had doubts about loving math after that year, but it came back and was good in the end (partly because that meant they had 2 amazing teachers and bypassed the not-great teacher for core math classes).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't speak to Blair but I assume Poolesville similar and most enter having taken Geometry in 8th grade. There are a handful of kids that took Algebra 2 in 8th (not sure how, this was never an option for my kid). They do a placement test for the "Functions" class. Anyone scoring high enough on that ends up in the same class, regardless of whether they took Alg 2 or not.

But you have gone to one of those wealthy W feeders that accelerate math to get to Alg 2 in 8th.

It's mostly kids from the Takoma Magnet Middle that take it.

No, most TPMS take Geometry in 8th. The TP schools (at least several years ago, may have changed) did not accelerate students beyond this level. A few came into TPMS from other schools that did. Seems to be a per school basis.

But, there is a small group entering Blair (many former TPMS kids) tgat take a class which essentially combines Alg 2/Trig and Pre Calc into one year. Those students finish Calc BC as sophomores.

The majority finish up Calc BC as 1st sem juniors. Some students in Blair magnet take Geom in 9th and go from there. So, there are several math tracks in the magnet.

Then, after Calc BC, as a PP said, they often take Multivar, Linear Alg, Complex, Discrete, Ligic, etc. There's plenty of math to go around!

My kid graduated in 2020. There was 1 Functions class (mostly from TPMS). 2 Pre-Calcs and 1 Geometry (that had non magnet kids too). The Functions class was the smallest and a chunk usually drop it in the first quarter.

What is functions? I keep hearing people talking about it.

Functions is basically Alg II and Precal compacted into one year. It was a challenging class even for TPMS class, similar to a weeding out class in college. The teacher sent many emails sent globally to all parents since so many kids were having difficulty and had Cs in the class, reminding them of the deadline to drop down into Precal. Your child shouldn't take it unless they are really into math and willing to risk getting a B in the class.

Thanks. Mine takes Algebra 2 as a 8th grader. No need to speed things up that much.

Mine took Algebra 2 in 8th and still dropped back from Functions to Magnet PreCalc. They wanted time to do things other than math.

That seems like a sound choice.