What is normal for 9th grade math
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Anonymous
There’s no rule that colleges have to care about that box on the common app, or that schools have to answer that question for any of their students. UVA seems to care a lot, at least for public school students applying from NOVA, but it’s not a universal law. It’s just a box on a third-party form. Colleges can even pick and choose which questions they download, and may never see your counselor’s answer (or non-answer) to that question. |
Anonymous
They really don't. How many sections are there of MVC/DIFFEQ in your school? And how many kids per section? And how many in the whole senior class? Because even if I assume that there are 3 sections (which I doubt) with 30 kids in each (which I also doubt), and maybe 400 in the whole class, that's still less than 1/4 of seniors who are on this track, and I guarantee that there are at least 150-200 kids out of those 400 who consider themselves STEM kids. And I really can't even envision more than 30 kids being on that track, unless you're specifically talking about TJ or a magnet school, in which case, I will point you to the thread title of "normal for 9th grade math." |
Anonymous
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I think we are wasting too much time arguing with one mom who wants to flex and start an irrelevant public vs private school debate.
My DD is transitioning from a MD public school to a private school in 9th. She is pretty math-oriented and does mathcounts, math club, etc. I know what a lot of her peers are up to at both private and public school, which appears to be similar. There is the standard track: 8th grade algebra I 9th grade geometry 10th grade algebra II 11th grade precalc 12th grade calc There is a honors/GT/advanced track: 8th grade geometry 9th grade algebra II 10th grade precalc 11th grade calc And of course, there are always some kids who are ahead of this schedule. And there are some private schools which like to do algebra I as the normal 9th grade math class. My impression is that this is more common in Catholic schools which like to pride themselves on tradition and old fashioned rigor, but I could be wrong. Schools and districts seem to vary on whether they have kids jump right into calc BC from precalc, or whether they make kids take calc AB before taking calc BC. Our public school system does not offer multivariable and beyond, so these kids who finish calc before 12th grade would have to take additional classes at a community college for credit unless they are satisfied with AP stats as the only other option. Our private school does offer courses beyond calc bc and AP stats. I do not think it really matters if you finish calc in your 11th or 12 grade year. This will not make you a better mathematician in college. In fact, some colleges strongly suggest you take their own calc classes instead of using AP credit to skip them. See this opinion piece on why its not good to rush through the math curriculum towards calculus: https://phys.org/news/2015-11-calculus-bad-students-futures-stem.html |
Anonymous
As the linked article shows, high school calculus is not "standard", but it is at the high end of "common". Only 15% of students take AP calculus. Throw in some more who do IB or private non-AP, or public non-honors calculus (almost always a mistake). |
Anonymous
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Skipped all the fighting so say I'm not sure what's "normal" but my DS just wrapped Geometry Honors in 9th grade.
Algebra II will be next year and he plans to take Pre-Calc/Trig the summer between 10/11 to knock that out of the way. |
Anonymous
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what an eye rolling thread.
my DD is coming to a non Big 3 private from DCPS middle school, and will be in Algebra I in 9th grade. the only bummer of her math level for her is that she is very into science but the science classes are closely tied to math, so she may not be able to fit all of the science electives she wants to take before graduating. |
Anonymous
Perhaps it should not be standard, but calc has become standard in our area for MC/UMC college-bound kids for the reasons mentioned in that article. Quote from the article: "In a typical section of engineering calculus, up to 90% of my students have taken it in high school. While there are some positive aspects to retaking the course, there are downsides, the most notable of which is overconfidence and a student's misplaced certainty that he or she already knows the material.... So this is the crux of the problem: students lacking the requisite foundational abilities may not succeed because the college faculty member expects them to be at ease with these more basic ideas, freeing them to absorb and understand the new, more conceptual material. The rush to AP Calculus has instructed students in the techniques for solving large classes of standard calculus problems rather than prepare them for success in higher mathematics." |
Anonymous
Which electives would she be missing out on? If she's really motivated and determined to get the prerequisites done, many places offer summer courses. |
Anonymous
NP but in many schools, public and private, physics has math prereqs. |
Anonymous
Physics AP/2 usually requires calculus as a co-requisite. Bio/Chem don't. Doubling up on Geom with Algebra 1/2 in parallel is usually a good way to speed up if the kid can handle the load. Takes up a course slot, though. Or if the kid is very strong in math, try pushing enrichment throughout Algebra 1 year, study Algebra 2 over sunmmer, and then jump into Precalculus. |
Anonymous
What's the plan for 11 and 12? |
Anonymous
Calc AB (11) Calc BC (12) May double up one or both years as an elective (AP Macroeconomics and AP Statistics) |
Anonymous
That weird. Calc BC is designed to be taken after precalc. Calc AB is for students who need to slow down or stop. Why rush through precalc in 6 weeks (lessing to weaker understanding of material) only to slow down a whole year to catch up for calc? Take a year of precalc and use the time to read ahead into calc a bit, and then a year of calc BC per the normal schedule. |
Anonymous
I toes not make sense as the summer classes are rushed and not inclusive of material. I don’t get starting algebra so late except if you are not a math person. |
Anonymous
Some schools don't design the classes so that Calc BC is a stand alone class, so you can't just jump into calc BC because you would be missing the A part. This was how it was at my daughter's previous school. |