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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, you seem to go for some very specific classes, like applied math at the local college (I assume community college). The options are not going to be too deep or wide. Genuinely interested on what the prerequisites for your sons class are.

I think your son would be better served by general education classes, instead of some narrow class that likely isn’t even for credit and sounds more like a hobby class. Something along the lines for typical math sequence from algebra to differential equations. There are also general science and programming classes that are needed for a solid foundation for stem majors.

I don’t know if you intended this as a brag fest, but I’ll play along. 5th grade, precalculus and statistics.[/quote]

If people are being serious in this thread, what are your kids doing to get to precalc by the time they are 10? Study for 4 hours a day? Or is "getting" to precalc mean being exposed to all the math between arithmetic and precalc, but not really mastering anything?[/quote]

It’s about1 hour a day, but done very consistently, and it includes weekends, school breaks etc.

Many community college courses can be very light on the topics covered and their depth, plus the exam grading policy is very forgiving, eg everyone taking Algebra got an A if sticking till the end, but also many students dropped so it’s somewhat self selecting.

For precalculus, this year College Board introduced a new AP Precalculus exam, which he’ll take, and that would be a better indicator of mastery. There the next level of mastery for math competitions, but he’s not really interested in that for now.[/quote]

The fear /concern that many folks have is that accelerated kids do not have a deep understanding of the subjects and that recitations of memorized facts is substituting for real understanding. For example, many kids (both accelerated and nonaccelerated ) can tell you what 5! Is, or what 10C3 is, but if you ask them how many different types of pizzas can you make with 10 toppings, they are at a loss.  That's why many top math educators suggest lots of time and practice with foundational subjects like algebra, geometry, and number theory (for brilliant young math students).  It's tough to spend the time on those subjects while also getting to trig and calc at such a young age.[/quote]

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