Argh. People make these broad generalizations about when students are "ready for algebra," like all students are robots marching in lock step. A quick google search turned up this bit of advice: Linda Gojak from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics says, “My experience, both as a student and as a teacher, leads me to believe that we do more harm than good by placing students in a formal algebra course before they are ready, and few students are truly ready to understand the important concepts of algebra before eighth grade. Many students should wait until ninth grade.” This is because an adolescent’s brain often hasn’t had time to develop in abstract reasoning yet. Few students are ready for algebra in middle school?

C&P is not backwards, but more of a lateral move. It's a completely different topic from calculus, and one that is probably more important for CS than calculus. If he's already familiar with introductory probability theory, then he might learn more from the AoPS Intermediate C&P book. If already knows basic modular arithmetic, then the AoPS intro NT book will probably be too easy. There isn't an intermediate NT book, but there is an online class that will cover more advanced NT topics.

Could you post any important points from the talk for those of us who couldn't attend?

Has your son taken counting and probability or number theory? (Also sometimes called discrete math.) If he's interested in CS, these courses will be a big help. The Math II SAT Subject Test does not cover calculus, so I'm not surprised they wouldn't accept that in lieu of their calculus course. But he scored a 5 on AP calculus BC? That's usually good enough to pass out of college intro calc, though some students opt to retake it anyway.

Another thumbs up for Kernion. My dd started with Lanctot and switched at the semester and was glad she did. For an AoPS student, AP physics C should be no problem. My dd (also an AoPS student) took mech in the fall and e&m in the spring and got 5's on both exams.

I like these resources for planning your future. (Caveat: I'm a big fan of Cal Newport, so much of this is his material.) The Danger of the Dream Job Illusion The Passion Trap Complicated Career Advice Working Right Versus Finding the Right Work It's Not About You So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion (Okay I haven't read this yet, but I've read enough Newport to know what he's getting at here.) Designing Your Life (not CN)

Some thoughts: "BS in computer science, a BFA in music, a BS in math, a BBA in accounting, or a BA in econ, political science, English." There are a number of majors I wish I had studied in college. But you gotta pick one and just be zen with that. There's no reason he can't study English and then work as a musician. Or study music and be an English teacher. Or major in accounting while taking a few CS courses on the side. Heck, he can major in accounting, join a band and do weekend gigs, take a CS class in the summer, and after he graduates and is gainfully employed he can indulge in some Jane Austen during his commute. He doesn't need to pick his favorite activity and major in it. If you try to do that, you will ultimately regret your choice (grass is always greener). I think it's also difficult to to think now as a teenager what kind of life you want to live in 10 years. How many people do you know who want to "travel the world" and then later decide what they really want is a big family farm in Minnesota? I think his goal is to choose one thing (albeit among many for him) that he does like and is reasonably good at. It may end up not being his favorite thing after all, but who cares. Just get really good at it during your 4 years and really explore that field. When you graduate you can change your field believe it or not. Strive for excellence in whatever you choose. It's hard, but I think it's too much pressure to ask him how he envisions his life in the future or what he wants to major in. OTOH, for kids like him a gap year may give him time to focus his interests. I'm wondering if the schools will be willing to put him in touch with graduating seniors in those departments so he can see how happy they are? It's tough and you have my sympathy.

IIRC I stopped at the end of level 5 (US edition) and then moved to AoPS Prealgebra. It was pretty seamless.

dp

That's so interesting because I followed your link out of curiosity, and I am surprised to see it was authored by Henri Picciotto. I attended a fun math workshop he led a couple of years ago. I am surprised I never knew he authored a textbook, or that it was approved for use in a public school district!

Is this to say that you do not recommend the GC algebra class?

A good way to see if you like the class format is to attend one of their Math Jams, which now seem to be scheduled every Wednesday and Friday. They follow the same format with the problem displayed at the top of the screen, the instructor solving line by line, while asking questions of the students and posting appropriate student responses into the text chat. (The archived math jams are also available.) PROS: I am easily distracted by sights and sounds, so I really appreciate being able to attend the lecture in absolute silence so I could focus on the problems. You can't see who is taking the class with you. There is a wide range of ages in each class, from the very very young to oldsters like me. It's disheartening to be outshined by some cute little kid, so I appreciated being shielded from that. You can ask questions in class discretely. If you are lost you can ask a question in the text chat, and it will be answered via a "whisper", that is, a message that goes directly to you unseen by the rest of the class. CONS: The quality of the discussion boards vary. Some teachers are on the ball and respond to questions quickly. Some teachers...not so much. The classes are fast-paced. I was worried if I let my kids take the class on their own, they wouldn't be able to manage their time and complete their homework and really get the material. My big reason for homeschooling was to work at my students' own pace, and I didn't want them rushing through what I considered their most foundational classes. I think there is a real skill to be learned in studying from a book and I wanted to model that for them in preparation for higher level learning in all subjects. I wanted to model proper mathematical documentation and so many other reasons I just didn't want to outsource math. Ultimately, we did the "core" math classes together at home using the textbooks. My students did the fun contest prep classes on line, as they have fewer homework problems and are just more about review and prep than learning new material per se. I never had my kids studying from the textbooks independently. Even my older daughter who studied AoPS calculus wanted me by her side, though I think that's because she's a more social learner. I was probably just slowing her down at that point.

I can't believe I forgot to mention this earlier: Stanford will be offering their famous CS 106 A class for free. My DH and DD are both signed up to be section leaders. I took the class when I was an undergrad. (Mehran was the best man at our wedding.)

I just so happens that I could find my old programs from the class, though I believe this is the intermediate class projects, not the intro. I'm sure if you contacted them, you could ask about the intro projects. This isn't just a copy-paste assignment. Your student will not be able to complete the homework unless they understand every line of code.

I disagree. I never used the term "opposite" (except maybe maybe coloquially) to mean the negation of a number. We always use additive inverse or the negation or the negative of a number. If you had ever asked me to state the "opposite" of a number I would have no idea what you mean. I would stay away from imprecise terms like "opposite" because I think they only serve to hide what is really going on when we mean additive inverse or negation.

Yes, thank you! I was wondering why the filters didn't seem to work. I only want questions from Unit 1, and I'd get all kids of questions from the whole course. And since I don't trust the filter, I'd err on the side of reviewing too many questions (100+). This isn't a big deal, except the site is so very slow. Like I'm only allowed to view one question at a time, and everytime I hit the Next button, I need to wait like a full 10 seconds for the next question to appear on screen. And then I look at the question and in half a second I know I won't use it, so it's click Next and wait another 10 seconds. In writing this I think I figured out a workaround. Instead of using their online quizzes I just create a pdf exam for my student. I'm thinking now what I ought to do is to create a huge pdf with too many questions, then I can quickly review that and then go back online and remove the questions I don't want. But in this day and age there's no reason for a website to be this slow.

Cramer's Rule is in the AoPS PreCalculus textbook, in chapters 10 and 11. I personally find the matrix problems to be fairly tedious, and really these calculations are designed to be performed by a computer. If your student decides to take a linear algebra class in the future, it will probably take all of 15 minutes to review it again.

I've taken the class and so did my daughters, probably in middle school. It's fast-paced and challenging. My suggestion is to not take the class cold, but have some experience with basic computer programming principles in python or any other language. (Python is easiest for beginners anyway.) There is an online textbook that you can use as a reference. You can probably work through the book on your own first to get a head start. Or you can do what we did and use Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner by Michael Dawson. It's not written for children, but the programs are all games it's kid friendly. Most younger students will need an adult to guide them through the book, but more mature students may be fine on their own. You only need to study the first half of the book, through OOP. After my kids had studied python on their own at a slower pace, they took the AoPS classes and it was still pretty challenging for them. And for me, but well worth it.

FYI, weekly Stanford Medicine COVID Grand Rounds are available online: https://medicine.stanford.edu/education/medicine-grand-rounds.html Here are some notes from this morning: Wednesday, 8 April 2020 13 total COVID patients, 5 in ICU on ventilators 54 open ICU beds Surge Capacity teams are deactivated at this time, not needed. Staffing is full and readily available Employees tested this week - 300, only 1 was positive Total tested 1800, 68 are positive (3.5% positive rate) Deaths in Santa Clara County - 66% male, 79% have comorbidities Peak is expected at approx. April 15th; Stanford has more than enough beds/resources to handle this. "Peak" is going to be quite small at current rate. Very few cases. PCR Testing, Clinical Lab Update Current capacity - 2K tests/day E gene PCR assay, multiple workflows to protect against supply chain issues; TAT is 9hrs mean Cepheid GeneXpert test - 45 min test, TAT 90min; sample goes into cartridge, which goes into instrument. Most of slow down is time for sample to get from draw to lab Limited number of these tests; so using patient priority for this test Evaluating the 15min Abbott test Serology test went live yesterday for early evaluation/testing Elisa against SARS-Cov2 Spike Receptor binding domain protein (RBD) which has low crossreactivity with other coronaviruses

Has anyone tried to create worksheets at the College Board "AP Classroom" from their Question Bank? When I try to use it, it's very very very slow. Also, I'm having a hard time filtering for the just sorts of questions I need. I end up with too many questions that aren't within my scope. So I need to sift through over 100 questions to get the 20 I want. And did I mention that going through each of the 100+ questions is very very very agonizingly slow? Or is it just me?

Poor guy.

I might also pay attention to cancellation policies. It's really hard to predict what will be happening this summer. For example, if a service goes out of business in the meantime, will you get your deposit back? And worse.

You can sign up to be an AP calculus teacher at college board. When you do, the CB will unlock years and years' worth of old FRQs for your student to practice. They have some new tools now that enable to create online quizzes for your daughter in various areas where she needs practice. When you sign up, if you select one of their pre-approved syllabi, your application will be approved pretty much automatically. The best way to prepare for an exam, IMO, is to practice with earlier versions of that exam.

Not exactly what you were asking, but my dd took AP statistics online at edhesive and earned a 5. It's pretty much at your own pace; she basically started the class in March and was able to finish everything before the exam.