AP Pre-calculus resources/study guides

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you need a tutor to do well in an AP course, you should not be taking an AP course. Have your kid switch out of the AP version and into honors or regular. Make the jump to AP next year with another year of maturity and math foundation under their belt.

That's a dumb take. Kids have tutors in college and graduate. I have a B.S. and Masters in Engineering (EE and also minored in math). I used peer tutoring and had a private tutor sometimes in college. I'm now a successful engineer. And probably, much to your horror, I also used the writing center sometimes.

Kids needing a tutor is not an indication they don't belong in a class. Maybe they need more repitition than the class allows, maybe the teacher sucks, maybe the teacher has a heavy accent, maybe the teacher is great but they need to see the course from different angles/approaches.

They have a point. If a kid needs a tutor just to stay afloat in a college-level class as a high schooler, then it is reasonable to say the kid is not ready to handle college-level material. Of course there can be exceptions and other circumstances like terrible teachers, but it is indeed a red flag that they've been accelerated by their parents' will and not by their own motivation and capacity.

Peer tutoring in real college is fine because college students take age-appropriate classes where they've proven through a math placement exam and prerequisites that they are in the appropriate class.

If a kid took Algebra 1 HN in 7th, Geometry HN in 8th, Algebra 2 HN in 9th and scored over 97% in each class and the school does not have Honors Precalc but only regular and AP, what do you think they should take in 10th grade? Please enlighten me. And which course will help them in AP Calc AB?

NP. I hate to say it, but my guess is the Geometry H and Alg2H were dumbed down a bit. Those classes should be rigorous and they should not be easy As. At our school Alg2H is a weed out class. My kid felt grateful to get a B. Very few students get As. The kids on that track are used to grinding it out.

Wait, the classes were dumbed down, so they weren't rigorous, but your child was grateful to get a B. So your kid got a B in a dumbed down class?

You get a B in dumbed down reading class. Try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you need a tutor to do well in an AP course, you should not be taking an AP course. Have your kid switch out of the AP version and into honors or regular. Make the jump to AP next year with another year of maturity and math foundation under their belt.

That's a dumb take. Kids have tutors in college and graduate. I have a B.S. and Masters in Engineering (EE and also minored in math). I used peer tutoring and had a private tutor sometimes in college. I'm now a successful engineer. And probably, much to your horror, I also used the writing center sometimes.

Kids needing a tutor is not an indication they don't belong in a class. Maybe they need more repitition than the class allows, maybe the teacher sucks, maybe the teacher has a heavy accent, maybe the teacher is great but they need to see the course from different angles/approaches.

They have a point. If a kid needs a tutor just to stay afloat in a college-level class as a high schooler, then it is reasonable to say the kid is not ready to handle college-level material. Of course there can be exceptions and other circumstances like terrible teachers, but it is indeed a red flag that they've been accelerated by their parents' will and not by their own motivation and capacity.

Peer tutoring in real college is fine because college students take age-appropriate classes where they've proven through a math placement exam and prerequisites that they are in the appropriate class.

If a kid took Algebra 1 HN in 7th, Geometry HN in 8th, Algebra 2 HN in 9th and scored over 97% in each class and the school does not have Honors Precalc but only regular and AP, what do you think they should take in 10th grade? Please enlighten me. And which course will help them in AP Calc AB?

NP. I hate to say it, but my guess is the Geometry H and Alg2H were dumbed down a bit. Those classes should be rigorous and they should not be easy As. At our school Alg2H is a weed out class. My kid felt grateful to get a B. Very few students get As. The kids on that track are used to grinding it out.

The previous fcps pre-calculus was dumbed down too. But new AP pre-calculus cannot be as they have to follow college board syllabus. Even though it is only 4 units (only first 3 will be tested), each unit is much more indepth than what had been previously taught in fcps pre-calculus.

It is true that college board came up with a lightweight (4 units only) AP Pre-calculus as an intro level AP math, since Calc AB was too difficult to pursue for many. Now that it's available, some schools are making it as prereq for Calc AB/BC.

Yet, note that AP pre-calculus only teaches 4 out of 10 topics found in standard pre-calculus textbooks, leaving students to learn 6 topics on their own to get ready for Calc AB/BC.

What 6 topics are missing?

Th detailed course description has many more sections than the summary of each unit.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-precalculus-course-and-exam-description.pdf

https://openstax.org/details/books/precalculus-2e

[Anonymous]

CB recommends AP Precalc after Algebra 1 and Geometry, in the "College Algebra" style.

It only looks light if you do an extra whole year of Algebra 2 first, which most districts do.

[Anonymous]

At McLean the only Pre-Calc option is this AP Pre-Calc class; otherwise you have to take Stats. My kid who wasn’t even in honors math classes is now stuck in this class and struggling but from what I understand colleges want to see at least Pre-Calc so he is stuck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Follow-up: If you don't take the AP exam for this class, do you lose the gpa bump?

I know this is the case for other AP classes but since you can't get the college credit anyway, I wondered if it was different here. And I cannot find this information.

At BTSN, at JMHS, the AP precalc teachers specifically said that they would be discouraging all of their students from taking the AP Precalc exam. I was already thinking my kid wouldn't be taking it b/c it would have no college-credit-value. But, that sealed the deal for sure. My kid is not taking the AP exam and they will still get the 1.0 gpa bump.

Thx. I was able to speak to someone at the school who confirmed.
Kid will be opting out of the test for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At McLean the only Pre-Calc option is this AP Pre-Calc class; otherwise you have to take Stats. My kid who wasn’t even in honors math classes is now stuck in this class and struggling but from what I understand colleges want to see at least Pre-Calc so he is stuck

Stats is a fine alternative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At McLean the only Pre-Calc option is this AP Pre-Calc class; otherwise you have to take Stats. My kid who wasn’t even in honors math classes is now stuck in this class and struggling but from what I understand colleges want to see at least Pre-Calc so he is stuck

the mclean version of this class is a nightmare. they misadministered the unit test last week, didn't scaffold up to it properly, let some students have more time than others on one of the sections, didn't give an appropriate amount of material for the time for the test. if you didn't know about this, ask your child about the credit recovery task and the pass back of the FRQs tomorrow.

they wouldn't be doing (or need to do) all this if the teachers & administrator were minimally competent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you need a tutor to do well in an AP course, you should not be taking an AP course. Have your kid switch out of the AP version and into honors or regular. Make the jump to AP next year with another year of maturity and math foundation under their belt.

What are you even saying? This may be the dumbest thing I've read on here in awhile. My kid has had a math tutor since Alg. 1 HN (during Covid) for enrichment and to fill gaps. Math is hard to teach, imo, and the extra explanation and work is helpful as sometimes it's not explained well in class (or the kid is not understanding what the teacher is saying).

DC never needed a tutor for math remediation but for these other things. And it is super helpful to be able to ask the questions and stuff 1:1. Lots of kids in college are tutored.

You can believe that if you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you need a tutor to do well in an AP course, you should not be taking an AP course. Have your kid switch out of the AP version and into honors or regular. Make the jump to AP next year with another year of maturity and math foundation under their belt.

What are you even saying? This may be the dumbest thing I've read on here in awhile. My kid has had a math tutor since Alg. 1 HN (during Covid) for enrichment and to fill gaps. Math is hard to teach, imo, and the extra explanation and work is helpful as sometimes it's not explained well in class (or the kid is not understanding what the teacher is saying).

DC never needed a tutor for math remediation but for these other things. And it is super helpful to be able to ask the questions and stuff 1:1. Lots of kids in college are tutored.

You can believe that if you want.

I tutor lots of college kids and was a peer tutor when I was on college. I don't know a 1 (when I was in college) who didn't pass the class and then go on to graduate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At McLean the only Pre-Calc option is this AP Pre-Calc class; otherwise you have to take Stats. My kid who wasn’t even in honors math classes is now stuck in this class and struggling but from what I understand colleges want to see at least Pre-Calc so he is stuck

Stats is a fine alternative.

Nope. If applying to business, stem and bunch of other majors, having atleast precalculus makes college app somewhat competitive. Most apps to these majors at t50 have calc ab/bc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At McLean the only Pre-Calc option is this AP Pre-Calc class; otherwise you have to take Stats. My kid who wasn’t even in honors math classes is now stuck in this class and struggling but from what I understand colleges want to see at least Pre-Calc so he is stuck

Stats is a fine alternative.

Nope. If applying to business, stem and bunch of other majors, having atleast precalculus makes college app somewhat competitive. Most apps to these majors at t50 have calc ab/bc

Stats is usually required college course for business and CS majors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At McLean the only Pre-Calc option is this AP Pre-Calc class; otherwise you have to take Stats. My kid who wasn’t even in honors math classes is now stuck in this class and struggling but from what I understand colleges want to see at least Pre-Calc so he is stuck

Stats is a fine alternative.

Nope. If applying to business, stem and bunch of other majors, having atleast precalculus makes college app somewhat competitive. Most apps to these majors at t50 have calc ab/bc

Stats is usually required college course for business and CS majors

Of course, stats is in addition to precalculus and calculus, not instead of.

Compared to calculus, Stats is easy peasy.

[Anonymous]

In order to take calculus, kids need pre calc. It sucks that they are forced into his ridiculous AP pre calc. Bring back pre calc honors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you need a tutor to do well in an AP course, you should not be taking an AP course. Have your kid switch out of the AP version and into honors or regular. Make the jump to AP next year with another year of maturity and math foundation under their belt.

What are you even saying? This may be the dumbest thing I've read on here in awhile. My kid has had a math tutor since Alg. 1 HN (during Covid) for enrichment and to fill gaps. Math is hard to teach, imo, and the extra explanation and work is helpful as sometimes it's not explained well in class (or the kid is not understanding what the teacher is saying).

DC never needed a tutor for math remediation but for these other things. And it is super helpful to be able to ask the questions and stuff 1:1. Lots of kids in college are tutored.

You can believe that if you want.

Oh well thank you for your permission. I believe it b/c it is true. This is my and many other's experiences as well.

[Anonymous]

Why is it that the math teachers are the one group that does not use Schoology for their assignments? I feel like it causes more confusion to keep up in the class.