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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Could sonmeone comment on how hard multi variable calculus is at Blair for a senior year class.  My kid is not a math genius but finds Honors Precalc as a 10th grader quite easy.  That seems to put her on a path for AP Calc BC junior year, right.  If she doesn’t want to look like she’s phoning it in by taking AP Stats senior year, but maybe couldn’t hold her own against magnet kids, what’s a good path for her?[/quote]

At Blair multivariable is definitely a magnet class, so it may be different from the experience at another HS.  Maybe there's an amazing teacher but generally I'd believe the material is better taught in college.  I don't think many non-magnet students take it. The magnet stats electives are more popular with CAP kids, for example.  AP Stats isn't the best class for a senior, but check out other stats elective options since she's at Blair.  Talk to counseling or a math now to plan it out since courses may not run as frequently.

One other point, Blair has reworked pre-calc this year, and that may be why your DC is bored.  The previous pre-calc teacher (no longer at Blair) was also the BC teacher, so the focus was very much on smoothing the transition directly to BC.  Not sure how this will play out for this year's students (I have one, too).[/quote]

Yes, I agree that the change in Honors Precalc this year might be part of the problem.  We were told at BTSN that Honors PreCalc was previously thought to be too hard, and is now geared so that the next step would not necessarily be AP Calc BC, or even AP Calc AB, but Calc with Applications.  I'm not sure why HONORS PreCalc has to serve all three of those classes, instead of regular PreCalc being the normal precursor to Calc with Applications.  But I would say the issue isn't just this year.  She generally finds the math class she is in easy.  Do you have magnet stats electives you recommend?     [/quote]

Well, to over simplify, it used to be honors math at Blair was easy until pre-calc, now it continues to be pretty easy in pre-calc.  I think some correction was necessary, but this is probably too much.  Pre-calc is still a more rigorous class than algebra 2, but it used to be a dramatic step up.  The previous teacher was demanding but the problem sets, notes, and tests were all very well organized.  For now they seem to be using a subset of those materials for honors pre-calc.  The new BC teacher is doing something else.

Although AB and BC have redundancies they are designed to be a two year sequence and most school systems use them that way.  Your DC sounds like someone who could go directly to BC, but then she is more dependent on the quality of the courses.[/quote]

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