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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's irritating that a 7th grade parent, not even in MCPS, not to mention not even accepted at the magnet, comes on here asking specific questions about her child and acting like her child is already in and not revealing her child's situation until many people have taken the time to respond.

Oh come on!

[Anonymous]

Sorry I'm with PP. It's like when people jump into the MCPS thread about their child's experiences and then five posts down they say they are in San Francisco or Denver.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It allows kids to take higher level science and math electives.

You mean they don't have those at college?

Students who are less advanced before college do not have enough time in 4 years to take more advanced classes in college.

Um, no - colleges often make students take their own versions of certain courses anyway. And besides, what is the race headed towards? Higher salary? Grad school (when everyone works at their own pace anyway)? To what extent is speed sacrificing depth and mastery?

It's simple "math". Every course you take before college opens up room in the schedule to take another course deeper into the track or an elective. Colleges often *don't* make students take their own versions, especially students who are highly qualified.
No matter what your student does, some students will spend college time taking courses your student already completed in high school. Maybe calculus, maybe physics, maybe Spanish. And vice versa for other other students.

Some students master material faster than others, and are motivated to spend more hours per week, and more months per year, in study. This is a magnet thread. Some of these kids will go to Harvard and in their first-year take a 2-semester course that packs in 4-semesters worth of Honors curricula in Linear Algebra, Group Theory, Real Analysis, and Complex Analysis.

I would never recommend skimming over a course to rush ahead, but if a student can do well in the material faster, or as an extra elective, then they can open up more opportunity in college.

This is a magnet thread... duh yeah. that's why the question. what's the hurry? better to go in depth than be in a hurry!

Function is more in-depth and faster paced at the same time than pre-calc. And from parent point of view, Blair magnet does sometimes save you $$. A lot of the alumni entering prestigious colleges (e.g., UC Berkley) can finish undergrad courses in 3 years - practically saving parents 50K+ bucks.

That makes some sense. I am still not convinced about this arms race for Math though...and yes I did a lot of Math in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Function is more in-depth and faster paced at the same time than pre-calc. And from parent point of view, Blair magnet does sometimes save you $$. A lot of the alumni entering prestigious colleges (e.g., UC Berkley) can finish undergrad courses in 3 years - practically saving parents 50K+ bucks.

Please, please, don't do this. Pressuring a child to do college in 3 years messes with their head and undermines the college education and development experience you are paying the big bucks for. The kid ends up feeling like they have to choose between getting a full college education and saving their parents' money, creating guilt and anguish. If you are lucky enough to attend an AMAZING university, why would you rush to leave?

College prices are too damn high; it's terrible. But if your student is this advanced, they can get a scholarship/discount at a great school (Do you know about a place called University of Maryland? One of the Google founders went there. They have an honors college embedded in the university, and got 4th place in the 2022 Putnam math contest, behind MIT, Harvard, and Stanford, and ahead of Yale), and get a lot of attention from professors who love working with brilliant students, or get income-based discount/aid at an Ivy. Or if you are rich, just pay the bill to contribute to the education of USA's future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I am confused by the functions class. If magnet precalc is an average of 45 minutes of class and 60 minutes of HW for 270 school days, that’s 472.5 hours of math. Then if functions is 45 minutes of class and 4 hours of HW for 180 days that’s 855 hours. Why so much more time? Is there additional content? Or are 14 year olds just really inefficient at HW? Or are people exaggerating?

For starters, Functions is compacted Precalculus. It covers everything Precalculus covers (supposedly) but in two semesters instead of three semesters. The magnet precalculus class supposedly is compacted Hon. Algebra 2 and Precalculus. So Functions covers two years of honors math in one year.

DC took functions, so I don't know how much time precalculus takes for homework but functions involves a lot of proofs and is a very hard class. It probably does average 15-20 hours of homework per week to get an A for most kids. It's designed to weed out students who aren't very serious about math. Yes, 14-year-olds are inefficient at homework, especially since most have never before had to do proofs like that.

According to DC, more than half of the magnet kids are more interested in biology and chemistry than in math, physics, or computer science. Unless your child is in the latter group there is no reason to put them through the functions class.

Would regular magnet precalc cover the same material like proofs in more time?

PP poster here. When I said precalculus, I was talking about magnet. When DC took the class functions and 1st year magnet precalc had the same teacher (by design), so I think there's a good chance they have very similar content. If you want to know, that should be covered at admitted students night.

OP said their child had only taken Geometry in 8th. My DC had Alg 2 in 8th and got an easy A, and functions was very hard for them. If your child hasn't already taken Alg. 2, don't try functions. No matter how talented the child is, it will be extremely difficult for them to do well, and it could make them dislike math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's irritating that a 7th grade parent, not even in MCPS, not to mention not even accepted at the magnet, comes on here asking specific questions about her child and acting like her child is already in and not revealing her child's situation until many people have taken the time to respond.

You don't seem well - You are making too many assumptions and getting irritated unnecessarily. (For example, the 7th grade parent PP may not be the OP, you can always ignore posts and not respond to them, though this poster's kid is not in MCPS now, they may be considering MCPS for HS, etc. etc.)

Try not to be judgmental.

-- DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's irritating that a 7th grade parent, not even in MCPS, not to mention not even accepted at the magnet, comes on here asking specific questions about her child and acting like her child is already in and not revealing her child's situation until many people have taken the time to respond.

You don't seem well - You are making too many assumptions and getting irritated unnecessarily. (For example, the 7th grade parent PP may not be the OP, you can always ignore posts and not respond to them, though this poster's kid is not in MCPS now, they may be considering MCPS for HS, etc. etc.)

Try not to be judgmental.

-- DP

I'm the parent who mentioned precalc in 8th. I'm not the OP. I'm curious about 9th grade options for my kid, and asked a question in a thread in which people were talking about one of the options.

The process of applying if your kid isn't in public school involves expensive testing, so I'm asking questions to help guide the decision. If my kid was in public school, and getting tested for free, I might just go ahead and do it, but from the outside it makes sense to try to figure out if it's an option we'd want.

Since I'm the one choosing my kids' math classes, it also makes sense to think about what the HS options might be when making decisions about courses for the next year and a half. So, I wanted to know, if my kid did or didn't have precalc before starting, how would that impact his placement and experience if he chooses the magnet. I'm asking the same question of other schools that we're considering.

Since no one else has "revealed their child's situation" on this thread, it didn't occur to me that I needed to until someone specifically asked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's irritating that a 7th grade parent, not even in MCPS, not to mention not even accepted at the magnet, comes on here asking specific questions about her child and acting like her child is already in and not revealing her child's situation until many people have taken the time to respond.

You don't seem well - You are making too many assumptions and getting irritated unnecessarily. (For example, the 7th grade parent PP may not be the OP, you can always ignore posts and not respond to them, though this poster's kid is not in MCPS now, they may be considering MCPS for HS, etc. etc.)

Try not to be judgmental.

-- DP

Say what? You are way overreacting to a normal post about people identifying their situation instead of hijacking it and creating confusion. I also think it is thoughtless of that poster to comment without being clear because I am one of the people who responded With advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am confused by the functions class. If magnet precalc is an average of 45 minutes of class and 60 minutes of HW for 270 school days, that’s 472.5 hours of math. Then if functions is 45 minutes of class and 4 hours of HW for 180 days that’s 855 hours. Why so much more time? Is there additional content? Or are 14 year olds just really inefficient at HW? Or are people exaggerating?

For starters, Functions is compacted Precalculus. It covers everything Precalculus covers (supposedly) but in two semesters instead of three semesters. The magnet precalculus class supposedly is compacted Hon. Algebra 2 and Precalculus. So Functions covers two years of honors math in one year.

DC took functions, so I don't know how much time precalculus takes for homework but functions involves a lot of proofs and is a very hard class. It probably does average 15-20 hours of homework per week to get an A for most kids. It's designed to weed out students who aren't very serious about math. Yes, 14-year-olds are inefficient at homework, especially since most have never before had to do proofs like that.

According to DC, more than half of the magnet kids are more interested in biology and chemistry than in math, physics, or computer science. Unless your child is in the latter group there is no reason to put them through the functions class.

Would regular magnet precalc cover the same material like proofs in more time?

PP poster here. When I said precalculus, I was talking about magnet. When DC took the class functions and 1st year magnet precalc had the same teacher (by design), so I think there's a good chance they have very similar content. If you want to know, that should be covered at admitted students night.

OP said their child had only taken Geometry in 8th. My DC had Alg 2 in 8th and got an easy A, and functions was very hard for them. If your child hasn't already taken Alg. 2, don't try functions. No matter how talented the child is, it will be extremely difficult for them to do well, and it could make them dislike math.

1. Couple of years ago the two courses had the exact same content. In fact the teachers used to make it a point to tell the students that there is no extra content in functions that they will not learn in magnet precalc.

2. It used to be the case that most of the kids who took functions had not already taken algebra 2. This may have changed within the last couple of years, because after metis-report initiated change in MS magnet admissions, MCPS became more flexible in allowing sixth graders to take algebra 1.

3. I am confused as to why anyone would think there is a linear (inverse?) relationship ("If magnet precalc requires 1 hour of homework every two days, shouldn't functions only take 1.5 hours of homework every two days?"). We are talking about fourteen year olds. And the course, because it is fast paced, requires more self study than they are used to. Also, the tests are shorter - for example, for the same test, if magnet precalc students got one hour, functions students would get, say, 40 or 45 minutes. The shortened tests made it imperative that the student is lot more fluent with the content. But if a student has to be that fluent, homework becomes lot more important.
So it all adds up - homework becomes a lot more important and more challenging since some self study is involved. And you slip one week, it is a lot more challenging to catch up.

4. It is absolutely not essential to do functions just for the sake of college admissions, etc. It is intended for certain types of students, and unfortunately, just because it is there, other students get sucked in too sometimes )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Function is more in-depth and faster paced at the same time than pre-calc. And from parent point of view, Blair magnet does sometimes save you $$. A lot of the alumni entering prestigious colleges (e.g., UC Berkley) can finish undergrad courses in 3 years - practically saving parents 50K+ bucks.

Please, please, don't do this. Pressuring a child to do college in 3 years messes with their head and undermines the college education and development experience you are paying the big bucks for. The kid ends up feeling like they have to choose between getting a full college education and saving their parents' money, creating guilt and anguish. If you are lucky enough to attend an AMAZING university, why would you rush to leave?

College prices are too damn high; it's terrible. But if your student is this advanced, they can get a scholarship/discount at a great school (Do you know about a place called University of Maryland? One of the Google founders went there. They have an honors college embedded in the university, and got 4th place in the 2022 Putnam math contest, behind MIT, Harvard, and Stanford, and ahead of Yale), and get a lot of attention from professors who love working with brilliant students, or get income-based discount/aid at an Ivy. Or if you are rich, just pay the bill to contribute to the education of USA's future.

Aren’t you lucky that $50k a year is so little that you don’t have to consider ways to save it!

[Anonymous]

I don’t know why people are getting so hostile and trying to gatekeep the discussion. The wide variety of posters is a strength of DCUM.

I wish the parent with the younger child had identified him as such, not to be excluded from the discussion, but that responses could have more directly addressed their situation. There is a lot of discussion in this thread that looks ahead at how current decisions might affect college. I don’t think that’s any different than the parent with the younger child wondering how their current decisions might affect high school.

We’re all trying to make sense of the murky and confusing educational system our kids have to navigate. I appreciate that DCUM has helped me when I’ve had questions and think it only fair that I try to help others. Incidentally, I’m a parent whose kids have gone through Functions and have tried to provide what insight I could. My answers certainly aren’t definitive, but I hope that combined with other parents of older kids, we can help those whose kids are younger get a better understanding about what Functions entails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's irritating that a 7th grade parent, not even in MCPS, not to mention not even accepted at the magnet, comes on here asking specific questions about her child and acting like her child is already in and not revealing her child's situation until many people have taken the time to respond.

You don't seem well - You are making too many assumptions and getting irritated unnecessarily. (For example, the 7th grade parent PP may not be the OP, you can always ignore posts and not respond to them, though this poster's kid is not in MCPS now, they may be considering MCPS for HS, etc. etc.)

Try not to be judgmental.

-- DP

Say what? You are way overreacting to a normal post about people identifying their situation instead of hijacking it and creating confusion. I also think it is thoughtless of that poster to comment without being clear because I am one of the people who responded With advice.

I’m a different poster but I’m pretty sure that PP directly above is also the PP who got bent out of shape about the 7th grade parent. Really, calm down and be a little less uptight and more welcoming. It’s ok if people want to get info and also prudent to look at options ahead of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I wish the parent with the younger child had identified him as such, not to be excluded from the discussion, but that responses could have more directly addressed their situation.

The only response I got before I identified him as a 7th grader was the one that asked what track he is on. I then answered, and every other response came after I identified him as a 7th grader.

[Anonymous]

DP. Many parents on these magnet threads sound nuts. Why are people going back and forth about this 7th grade poster? She should have identified her situation. That should not be up for debate. She is welcome to read and post. Again, should not be up for debate. Are we done now and can we stop this thread and can we get back to discussing other things?

[Anonymous]

+1
makes me not want to send my child here. is that the point?