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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are a good couple of hundred fcps kids who graduate having done Multivariable/Linear algebra in senior year.  So their math progression is:
12: Multivariable Calc + Linear algebra
11: AP Calc AB/BC
10: Precalc/Trig or AP Calc AB
09: Algebra 2

https://insys.fcps.edu/CourseCatOnline/courselist/415/10/0/0/0/1[/quote]

And, mine is in precal in 9th.  Who cares?   Not all people are good at math.   Op child will be fine and get into a good school for them.  I would not have wanted to take precal or cal and never needed it.  [/quote]

I’m guessing you did take the subject covered in today’s precalc class, it just had a different name. I took algebra in 9th grade, which was typical, and it included many topics that my kids didn’t see until precalc.

If people want to rehash the need for calc, proceed, but the course OP wants to avoid is material most our grandparents had access to in HS. [/quote]

NP. I have to disagree with you. I find today’s math curriculum more challenging than what I had in high school in NJ. I did on-level also, but my kid is getting a fantastic math education that is extremely rigorous. There are also so many resources for students now. Khan, YouTube, free tutoring, math honors society. I think the country’s math education has improved while history and literature classes have gotten worse in quality. [/quote]

It's subtle. Because of the push to calculus, functional concepts are now introduced very early, algebra is a much more qualitative class than it was when parents took it. So in that sense things are more advanced. [b]However, the flip side of that is that symbolic algebra is very much downplayed early on and really isn't introduced in full until pre-calc. So they'll see the graph of a log earlier, but pre-calc is when they learn that log(A+B) = (log A)(log B). They learn that trig functions are periodic earlier, but they deal with trig identities in pre-calc. Most kids can't do things like simplify a fraction containing variables until they take pre-calc. They certainly aren't seeing a symbolic proof of the quadratic formula (which my 9th grade teacher presented).[/b] So younger kids are taking these classes, and being exposed to concepts, but symbolic abstraction hits at about the same age/maturity.

So given the way courses are now taught, if a student doesn't take calculus, they sure miss the punch line--so much of what they learned throughout middle and high school was chosen specifically to support calculus. But that's not OP's issue. If a student doesn't get through pre-calc, they never learn concepts that have been key to being high school educated for several generations. You can't go by course titles, content has been rearranged. Statistics may be the goal, but knowing something like (e^x)(e^y) = e^(xy) will only help with that, again pre-calc.[/quote]

This isn’t true. I can’t speak to what your child is or isn’t learning (maybe they got the “easy” teachers?), but it sounds like there are major gaps in their education that should be addressed. Luckily we have not experienced what you described.  [/quote]

No worries, my kid took pre-calc in 9th, now a sophomore in college studying math.

Go to the MCPS curriculum, look at the notes in italics that limit scope. IME teaching followed these restrictions. E.g. from algebra 2, first unit:

[quote]Note: The focus of this unit does not include composite functions. Composite functions will be used to further study inverse functions
in future courses. In developing an understanding of the meaning of inverse functions, it is not acceptable for students to use a
strategy to “switch” the x and y variables and then solve for y to determine an inverse function as this strategy promotes misconceptions. [/quote]

[quote]Note: The focus of this unit does not include simplifying radicals. For example, sqrt (27)
is an acceptable answer, and does not need to be expressed as 3 sqrt (3) .[/quote]

[quote]. Note: Students are not expected to utilize the properties of logarithms
to evaluate expressions or solve equations in this course. [/quote]

These are all concepts being put off to pre-calc that once were stumbling blocks in algebra 1.  That's fine, but it means pre-calc is the heart of HS math, this is important for parents like OP to understand.

[/quote]

This isn’t the MCPS forum so not all posters have experience with this district, including myself.
I will note that your child bypassed these classes so your child doesn’t have experience either? Where did your child take Geometry & Alg 2H?[/quote]

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