Maximizing Math Success: Tips for Skipping High School Math Classes

[BloodyFrozen]

Hello,
I'm about to move to a new school that is probably more rigorous than currently. Next year, I will be entering high school as a freshman. My predicament is that I want to skip a few math classes. The problem is that they don't allow skipping by self study and testing out. I look forward to skipping geometry and pre-calc and moving forward. What should I do? Does anyone have any suggestions or have been in the same jam?

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Pengwuino]

Why would you want to skip courses?

 

[BloodyFrozen]

Why of course to learn more. I already know the topics and have a strong understanding of them.

 

[thegreenlaser]

What makes you so certain that you already completely understand every single piece of information that's going to come out of the teacher's mouth? There's two ways you can approach any given course that will get you an A+ in the course. 1. You can study exactly what you need to know for the test, pass the test, and be done. 2. You can seek to really understand everything, take learning into your own hands and explore the material beyond what is required for the course, and then find the tests/assignments really easy. I highly recommend the second approach. The fact that you have a head start just gives you more opportunity to learn. To me, a good student is one who can find a way to learn something under any given circumstance. I'm sure if you put your mind to it, and maybe add a good sprinkling of humility, you could learn a ton from taking those courses.

 

[mege]

As long as you're 'on track' to take Pre-Calculus or better before leaving High School - I wouldn't worry about attempting to skip classes. Finishing high school with Pre-calc or calc 1/2 under your belt is far better than most.

 

[Ryker]

Why of course to learn more. I already know the topics and have a strong understanding of them.

As attested by?

 

[Leveret]

Hello,
I'm about to move to a new school that is probably more rigorous than currently.

Perhaps I'm misreading this, but you seem to be saying that you're transferring to a more rigorous school, and yet you still want to skip classes due to your purported understanding of the subject material, on the basis of either your previous school or your own self-studying. If you're using your performance in your previous school as your justification, then by your own words, your new school will be more thorough and difficult, negating that justification. If you think you know the material based on your own self-studying, then you may be headed for trouble: it's generally hard to for one to form an accurate, objective assessment of one's own abilities, especially since you have no basis of comparison because you haven't taken any courses at your new school yet. My advice would be to take geometry (assuming that's the course your school wants you to take), and see how that works out. Best-case scenario, you find out your previous background wasn't as thorough as you thought, and the problem gets fixed here and now. Worst-case scenario, you have an easy time of it, and get to spend a year gaining an even deeper understanding of it (which will help you later). You might switch around my definitions of "best" and "worst," but regardless, I don't see any major downsides to such a plan.

 

[eumyang]

My predicament is that I want to skip a few math classes. The problem is that they don't allow skipping by self study and testing out.

What a terrible idea. Instead, look into taking a class in summer school for original credit. At my high school, I've had students who started freshman year with Algebra I (Honors), take Geometry over the summer, and end up with AP Calculus (AB) by senior year.

As long as you're 'on track' to take Pre-Calculus or better before leaving High School - I wouldn't worry about attempting to skip classes. Finishing high school with Pre-calc or calc 1/2 under your belt is far better than most.

Quoted for truth. Better to have a strong foundation in the mathematics before calculus, than to have a weak foundation and then flounder when you reach calculus.

 

[romsofia]

What's in the pre-calc program at your school? If you think you're prepared for calculus, talk to the math coordinator at your school! My best advice is have a strong foundation in trig and algebra, but sometimes people forget that trig is a BIG part in calculus.

 

[Angry Citizen]

sometimes people forget that trig is a BIG part in calculus.

I've only taken calc I-III, but I'd have to say this is pretty false. I studied trig for two weeks in my entire life. I've never regretted skipping trigonometry. You can get by just knowing what the functions are, and a few key identities, and how they relate to right triangles. Intro calc doesn't require the depth of a trig class. Polar coordinates are usually introduced alongside the calculus (and I certainly picked up on it easily), trig substitution just uses an intuition from right-triangle geometry, and the integrals and derivatives of it usually only require you to know sin^2+cos^2=1.

 

[micromass]

I've only taken calc I-III, but I'd have to say this is pretty false. I studied trig for two weeks in my entire life. I've never regretted skipping trigonometry. You can get by just knowing what the functions are, and a few key identities, and how they relate to right triangles. Intro calc doesn't require the depth of a trig class. Polar coordinates are usually introduced alongside the calculus (and I certainly picked up on it easily), trig substitution just uses an intuition from right-triangle geometry, and the integrals and derivatives of it usually only require you to know sin^2+cos^2=1.

Well, that doesn't say that trig isn't important in calculus, what you said only means that trig is easy, which is certainly is