Anonymous wrote:I’ve been following this thread and saw the post on the McLean High end of quarter debacle. The same happened at Madison—sounds like the end of quarter tests are coming from the AP curriculum which the teachers are not following/not yet familiar with. I hope the Madison teachers do some sort of credit recovery as well for the kids.

i am PP and in addition to school-level consistency - they also need to work on district level consistency.

I see another PP mention a curve - they could have totally done it in this class (although that does not fix some students getting more time than others on portions of the test). i do not understand why this isn't utilized more heavily at the high school level. I think the teachers are actually quite bad at setting up grading (over many classes/subjects and in middle and high school alike). a test that's a huge portion of the grade that's literally a zero or a 100%? GTFO.

anyways, yes, precalc at mclean is a debacle. i also hate the fill in the notes style of class - i have just provided my child with the link to the openstax book so they can have a textbook. i do not think t teachers are assigning problem sets of any length or variation. and if they miss a class oh well i guess - there's literally zero reference material except these silly empty notes pages.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I might need your tutor. We got DD a tutor but she got an 85 on her Unit 1B test. Sigh!

An 85 in AP Pre Calc is not bad. I think some of you have really unrealistic expectations tbh

I'm OP and this is the discussion we are having. It's OK to not get an A in the class. Everyone hits the wall of what is hard. Sometimes there is a class we struggle with. It's ok to set the goal as something other than an A in the class. So we talked about aiming for a B. Maybe you'll get an A but a B is perfectly acceptable.

DC has gotten A's in all honors math up until now. DC has A's in all other classes (at the end of the quarter, that is, we'll see how it goes) which are all AP/DE. So to me, a B in AP precalc is acceptable, maintains everyone's sanity, etc. I'd be so happy for DC if a B is attained.

We also opted out of the AP exam for this class.

It’s a good talk to have. I get a lot of kids never got below an A in an honors class but AP moves at an accelerated pace and pre Calc isn’t easy. It would be like adding 25 lbs to your previous max weight lift in the gym and being mad you couldn't get as many reps as before. Even 1-2 reps of a much heavier weight is good but if you expected to crank out the same reps as before, you might think you’re doing bad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I might need your tutor. We got DD a tutor but she got an 85 on her Unit 1B test. Sigh!

An 85 in AP Pre Calc is not bad. I think some of you have really unrealistic expectations tbh

I'm OP and this is the discussion we are having. It's OK to not get an A in the class. Everyone hits the wall of what is hard. Sometimes there is a class we struggle with. It's ok to set the goal as something other than an A in the class. So we talked about aiming for a B. Maybe you'll get an A but a B is perfectly acceptable.

DC has gotten A's in all honors math up until now. DC has A's in all other classes (at the end of the quarter, that is, we'll see how it goes) which are all AP/DE. So to me, a B in AP precalc is acceptable, maintains everyone's sanity, etc. I'd be so happy for DC if a B is attained.

We also opted out of the AP exam for this class.

Anonymous wrote:https://i.redd.it/lt3g7mqpdopb1.png

I highly doubt poor grades are in any way due to the rigor or depth of the material, but instead likely poor teaching and the growing pains of using a new curriculum for the first time

According to this it's just a repeat of Alg 2 but that is not what my son is seeing in his class. He has the same teacher in AP Precalc that he had for Algebra 2 (as do many of his classmates) and he did very well in Alg 2 (A) and is doing ok in AP Precalc (B). The teacher keeps having to curve every test because the kids keep doing so poorly and the school year just started.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I might need your tutor. We got DD a tutor but she got an 85 on her Unit 1B test. Sigh!

An 85 in AP Pre Calc is not bad. I think some of you have really unrealistic expectations tbh

Maybe. It's hard though to know what my expectations should be. DD never got below a 90 in a math class before (on a test or quiz). So the 85, after getting a tutor we never thought she'd need, was a shock. We hoped the tutor could get her back in the 90+ realm. Although 85 was better than the 80 she got on the prior unit test. But DD has also never taken an AP class in math before. She's only taken honors so I'm not sure what my expectations should be.

Anonymous wrote:I might need your tutor. We got DD a tutor but she got an 85 on her Unit 1B test. Sigh!

An 85 in AP Pre Calc is not bad. I think some of you have really unrealistic expectations tbh

Anonymous wrote:I don't know what to do about this class. My son is really struggling even with a tutor. We've never experienced this before. He barely has a B- right now and it's only October. This is a kid we thought would jump to AP Calc BC next year based on past math aptitude. No way!

I was thrilled mine eked out a B- for the semester.

https://i.redd.it/lt3g7mqpdopb1.png

I highly doubt poor grades are in any way due to the rigor or depth of the material, but instead likely poor teaching and the growing pains of using a new curriculum for the first time

I don't know what to do about this class. My son is really struggling even with a tutor. We've never experienced this before. He barely has a B- right now and it's only October. This is a kid we thought would jump to AP Calc BC next year based on past math aptitude. No way!

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been following this thread and saw the post on the McLean High end of quarter debacle. The same happened at Madison—sounds like the end of quarter tests are coming from the AP curriculum which the teachers are not following/not yet familiar with. I hope the Madison teachers do some sort of credit recovery as well for the kids.

If teachers are not following the AP curriculum, why would they use AP tests? Why wouldn't they use a test that follows the curriculum they are teaching?

I might need your tutor. We got DD a tutor but she got an 85 on her Unit 1B test. Sigh!

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, nothing beats a tutor. I think my kid is like many on here. Had As in Alg 1 HN, Geometry HN, and Alg 2 HN. Took unit test 1A and scored 69. The whole class did terribly so the teacher curbed the test. We got a tutor and unit 1B test came back - 97 (no curve). I don't know if it was all the tutor or if unit 1B is easier or what, but we're keeping the tutor.

^ PP. I forgot to add that the class struggled again so teacher did end up curving the test AGAIN. Since kid got 97 originally, the curve grade was 100.

Honestly, nothing beats a tutor. I think my kid is like many on here. Had As in Alg 1 HN, Geometry HN, and Alg 2 HN. Took unit test 1A and scored 69. The whole class did terribly so the teacher curbed the test. We got a tutor and unit 1B test came back - 97 (no curve). I don't know if it was all the tutor or if unit 1B is easier or what, but we're keeping the tutor.

Anonymous wrote:At McLean the only Pre-Calc option is this AP Pre-Calc class; otherwise you have to take Stats. My kid who wasn’t even in honors math classes is now stuck in this class and struggling but from what I understand colleges want to see at least Pre-Calc so he is stuck

Except there are also 2 “versions” of AP Pre Calc at Mclean
AP Pre Calc 3( supposedly a bit easier-whatever that means) you qualify to take Calc AB next year. APPre Calc 4 ( supposedly harder)You qualify to take APPre Calc BC next year.

I’ve been following this thread and saw the post on the McLean High end of quarter debacle. The same happened at Madison—sounds like the end of quarter tests are coming from the AP curriculum which the teachers are not following/not yet familiar with. I hope the Madison teachers do some sort of credit recovery as well for the kids.