Reply to Struggling in Hon Precalculus

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Many students go from an A in Alg. 2 to doing poorly in Pre-cal and also in the transition from Geometry to Alg. 2.

Your child sounds like he's talented in math probably used to being able to do all the work until now without working too hard. I was just speaking with a colleague who has a Ph.D. in MATH and he was telling me how hard it was for him in high school when he moved to Alg. 2/Precal for this reason. He's a young guy, probably in his 30s. Everything had been easy so he did not learn how to work his way through more complex problems. He got bad grades that year but he became a stronger math student by working through it. He's now in a job where he uses math every day.

Side note to OP: I think he's great your son already knows he wanst to be a physicist![/quote]

Advice from someone with a PhD in Physics (MIT), not someone who knows someone with a PhD in math.

For a career in Physics you need a strong math foundation, no way around it.

OP needs to figure out why the D is happening, and if her son can turn it around. I get that repeating Algebra 2 is going through the same material, but if he didn’t master it despite an A, what’s the alternative? The kid needs to take a diagnostic test, try Khan Academy full course test, not just browsing through a few questions, he should do at least 90% without breaking a sweat. He could also try the AOPS, ‘Do you need it?’, and ‘Are you ready’ tests, again, he should show mastery. If he doesn't, he’ll need to catch up while not being able to afford a B.

The parent can hire a tutor for precalculus, but given how advanced the student is, she’ll need to find tutors for Calculus BC, Multivariable, Differential Equations and Linear algebra. Not ideal, the kid needs to buckle down and figure it out in his own or look into another major he can handle independently.

Given his intended major, he will also take AP Physics C, two of the hardest AP classes, the difficulty will only go up from here.[/quote]
OP, listen to the above. You need to diagnose the specific problem, because something tells me a D was not just a fluke. Unfortunately, it's not easy without knowing some math yourself. You could potentially hire a tutor to do the diagnosis but most may not have enough knowledge to tell where the holes are. If you want crowdsourcing , you can post specific math examples here and we will help.[/quote]

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