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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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?[/quote]

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.

[/quote]

Would regular magnet precalc cover the same material like proofs in more time?[/quote]

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.

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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 :))[/quote]

Why would it be strange (or even inaccurate) to assume that a 3content-in-2semesters class would have 3content-in-2days homework?

Why would Functions have artificially shortened test times for an equivalent test? That's terrible teaching.
I had college math tests that had 4 questions in 1 hour.  Speed is not a virtue in  advanced/deep mathematics. [/quote]

THere's that but I've also always thought this is a course for those who want the hardest possible challenge. It's more than just 3 semesters in 2 homework.[/quote]

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