I don't think paying for an online class is necessary if you have reasonably good grammar skills, or can learn as you go.

Yes, I totally agree, and I haven't even looked at the AP precalc curriculum, lol. Same for AoPS vs. standard AP calculus.

Thanks for bringing this up @Farrar, as this has been our experience with OHS. In my dd's senior year, the only full time students OHS placed at Stanford were 2 recruited athletes, and my dd who was only part time. That was it. My takeaway is that full time OHS students are at a disadvantage for competitive college admissions, and I routinely recommend parents enroll there part time only. I also agree with @Roadrunner, that OHS was a godsend for us for the coursework they provided was unavailable anywhere else. Ironically we were specifically looking for a high quality AP biology course. It's sad if they are no longer offering it because it was truly a gem. I'm skeptical of courses that claim to be more rigorous than an AP class. I'm sure they exist, and I'll believe it when an AP class is a prerequisite. I'm also generally skeptical of the quality of CC classes based on what I read here and on other online forums.

So, a number of schools are not participating in MathCounts. If your student is homeschooled, that won't affect you because you are supposed to form a homeschool team. If your student will be enrolled in a school that as a policy will not have a MathCounts team, then your student can compete as a non-student competitor. It's more expensive (and risky) this way, so make a little effort to convince them to form one (or go rogue and form a MathCounts team representing your school with some other willing families).

I should add that my daughter is long out of college now, so I don't even know if PAH has the same teacher, or if anything has changed. I have however heard great things about Blue Tent.

When you are accustomed to the rigor and proofs and general depth of AoPS it's hard to come back from that. Still, while many students take AoPS calculus, do some prep in the month before the exam, and earn a 5, we just didn't want to deal with the onerous homework and real analysis required to complete the course. Calculus isn't really all that hard once you wrap your mind about what it means to be infinitely large or small. Earning a 5 in AP calc is kind of a binary thing, and we didn't want to work extra hard to achieve that. She had a busy junior year anyway. She wanted a get-er-done, earn-a-5 AP calculus class and PAH fit the bill perfectly for that. But that doesn't stop her from complaining!

Thanks for this update! We did a bit of pre AoPS class prepping as well for their python classes. I basically had my daughter learn most of the python at home independently, then she turned around the took the AoPS python classes. You are right, once you start with AoPS it's hard to go back. We used it all the way until the derivatives chapter of calculus then switched to AP calculus at PAH to save time and ensure she earned a 5. My "always AoPS" daughter complained a fair bit about the new class and teacher, but it did get the job done.

MOEMS is a great start. When that's no longer challenging you can find old MathCounts test papers at this website: http://mathteamnyc.weebly.com/mathcounts.html You'll want to start with the "School" level, which is the easiest, then Chapter which is the first level competition round. You can also try old AMC 8s, which are also freely available at the AoPS website: https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/AMC_8_Problems_and_Solutions AMC 8 is about the same difficulty as Chapter level MathCounts.

I generally like the Tests and the Rest podcast for information about college admissions. This recent episode is specifically about preparing for the digital SAT: https://gettestbright.com/resources-for-the-digital-sat/ What materials do you recommend that your students use for the Digital SAT? When and how should you use the official Blue Book practice tests? What have your students tried already and what did they think? Should you trust 3rd party scoring algorithms? What are the best free materials to use?

If you complete the College Board audit (very easy, just select one of their sample syllabi), you will have access to their Question Bank where you can filter by problem type to create PDF worksheets and solutions. It's a great resource for AP calculus specifically, but also calculus generally.

I'm wondering what you mean by "hands-on"? Sometimes there's no substitute for pencil and paper practice with worksheets. She might forget less if she solves more practice problems, i.e., more "hands on." Singapore Math is also a solid option for elementary.

This role is being played by AP exams and specialized contests like AMC and USACO.

I agree. If you could detect the second half problems are too easy, it would be so demoralizing to know that you are going to get a low score. Why continue?

He probably can't participate with a different school, and it probably isn't worth the effort anyway. You will likely have better success convincing your own school to host it next year. Bookmark this URL and check it over the summer for when registration goes live. https://moems.org/online-register/ I can't find the current team registration fee, but it's in the ball park of around $100 per team per school. You can also read more about it here: https://moems.org/general/ In the meantime, your student does not need to wait to gain problem solving experience. You can purchase this book: https://www.amazon.com/Contest-Problems-Division-Richard-Kalman/dp/1882144120/ of old contest problems that provides excellent practice. Start with the contests in Level E (for elementary). When your student is routinely earning 4-5 problems correct on each contest, level up to M (for middle school level). After that you can post here or DM me for more challenging problems. If you are unable to officially participate in MOEMS next year, I would nonetheless work through the problems in the book until your student has mastered them. Good luck!

I actually only use Desmos for graphing functions. When I try to enter in an equation, it doesn't really work. Where are you entering equations?