He is more accurate; it really bugs me to use 3.14. Maybe it made sense when computation would be done on a slide rule. Frankly I much prefer to leave answers in exact form as "38pi" unless it is a word problem.

More aimed at the "professional students" who are in school forever gaming the system. It stinks when it catches legit people -- I had to petition for a waiver myself.

Ya, and sometimes it's a really benign family influence as well -- well, dad does this job, and he's pretty happy, and does these hobbies in his spare time, my hobbies are very hard to make a living at, so maybe I will just do a job I know I can do and not hate.

Ya. I'm a lot less negative about associate's degrees -- there's time to change major, potentially with taking a year or two of part-time classes if the major is extremely sequential -- for example, if you suddenly want to do physics, it'd be much smarter to take a couple more years of part-time full-pay at the CC to get through the first few classes and the calculus sequence, then transfer as a super-junior, but still usually eligible for financial aid for the jr/sr years -- but if you've already gotten a bachelor's, more classes are pricier and you aren't still eligible for financial aid for the last 2 years (which usually need to be done at a 4-year).

Ugh, that would turn me off too. I went for Aikido because it's non-competitive. Competitive things bring out a part of me I really don't like.

I wonder if this has something to do with linking to the community? I know that one of the reasons I go to yoga class (even though it's inconvenient) is because I feel I get so much more out of the class (emotionally/mentally) than I do doing yoga at home with a video.

Makes perfect sense to me. Beating your body up all the time is hard on your body. That being said, if you love running marathons and it makes you happy, the happiness that you gain from it is probably better for your health than quitting it out of worry. But if you don't love it, you sure as heck shouldn't do it.

For this, I agree 100%. When it is something that is really just a tick-the-box (like health) or something that the child is not very interested in and has no desire to pursue further, I see absolutely no issue with completing the book, ticking the box, and going on to a subject of more interest. But for a large percentage of kids, that time saved will be better spent making their other subjects stronger rather than just moving ahead.

This decision is making less and less sense now. Math professor pays peanuts, especially when you add up the opportunity cost of staying in school so long. I'd make a lot more money if I'd stuck with the bachelor's and gone for actuarial certification.

Out of curiosity, would he be interested in taking a few more classes at the CC? Investigate with the school of course, but sometimes they'll accept up to 72, and even if not, a few more advanced classes would give him something to do and let him take higher level classes at the 4-year and/or do better in them. Another option would be seeing if one of the CC profs would be interested in letting him do an independent research project -- I just noticed his intent. A local/public history project would be absolutely amazing and look utterly awesome on his resume when he goes for those incredibly competitive jobs. One of my facebook friends is a public historian and the projects he has his students do are wonderful. Another option -- blacksmith training, tillers international does classes. Possibly welding at the CC as well?

I think that sounds a lot better. I also don't think the situation is as dire as it seemed from your first posts; many PS students are behind in math only, and far behind in that. If she is a brilliant writer and can read and understand, all she really needs is some self-paced math to get caught up. Tutoring sounds ideal.

It's going to depend what kind of school he's transferring to -- a primarily commuter school will have less of that -- but yes, in general all the "welcome new freshies" stuff is in the fall, so spring people are kinda jumping in. If he has difficulties anyways, it might be a good idea to aim for the fall.

Because as traditionally taught, it pairs well with the math sequence. You'd be taking chemistry, which has some algebra in it, when you took algebra 2, and you'd be taking physics, which has more algebra and some trig, when you took pre-calculus. But the only thing you really need to worry about is whether your child will have the math/science prereqs for the curriculum *you* want to use. There's a really good argument for doing chemistry before biology to better understand the biology, or doing conceptual physics first (if you google "physics first" you will find a lot of info) to better understand the chemistry/biology, or doing some of each every year (my preference in a dream world, but oh well).

I agree 100%. One then two if he's done well the first time.

For pre-med, you can major in what you want to as long as you satisfy the pre-med requirements. So she should be looking at stuff that will apply as general education requirements for whatever major she's potentially interested in. Many pre-medical students do choose to major in biology or chemistry because there is a large amount of overlap, but one of my friends did Art with minors in Biology and Chemistry. All of the classes that Collins lists as requirements are very general and should apply to general education almost any place. If she's not looking at getting an AA but just some DE, many schools in other states do not require two semesters each of us history/government.

Well yeah, future me might hate present me, but present me doesn't care much about future me sometimes ;)

I also kinda wonder how it would work to just keep working, but slow way down -- intend on going through at half pace -- pull problems on the same topics from a different text to basically do twice as much or even more per topic. I mean, there's no rule you have to do one single curriculum without deviation. There are a fair number of decent free pre-algebra/algebra texts in ebook (so you could print out problems on only what you wanted) or an older edition of a developmental college text (lial/bittinger/martin-gay/aufmann/larson/many others) is pretty cheap, and they're great sources of "more practice needed".

So I guess my personal choice here would be to go with something where she could do individually paced math/english (if behind there) and very, very light git-r-done classes in the rest. It's most important to get caught up in the core classes; a student who can read, understand what they read, write a coherent paragraph, and do algebra and geometry can do just fine in college (they would be in lower-level classes, but probably not developmental). I would work on math twice a day if possible, but two shorter sessions (like, 40 minutes), widely separated; once for learning, once for practice/review. I think this is much better than one long period as the brain tends to get overloaded. I would also work through the summer if at all possible.

I would start looking for calculus when you're partway through precalculus. That'll give you more info on your child's best learning style. Possible options: Online, dual enrollment, any standard calculus textbook such as thomas, foerster, stewart, strang, larson, edwards/penney, rogawski, and more that I can't be bothered to list, or a video-based class such as thinkwell. Lial's precalculus would prepare just fine for any of those and any of those would be fine for a STEM career. Some are more rigorous than others but I would wait to make a final choice until later on; by then you'll have a better idea about how likely a STEM career is. Another potential option would be to do a calculus with applications course such as lial/bittinger at home, with the plan to re-take calculus at university; this might especially be a good idea if considering something like medicine or engineering; for the first a great GPA is essential, for the second a rock-solid foundation in calculus is essential. A lot of students end up number-crunching their way through calculus and not having any idea what it's for (I'm reminded of the student my mother saw in senior year engineering class raise his hand and ask "Professor, I don't understand. Are we integrating or are we finding the area under the curve?") and the applications-oriented class coming first can be really beneficial for that. The only reason I've listed all of these off is to say that -- there are so incredibly many options; wait to finalize choice.

Forgetting algebra 2 skills during geometry is much easier than forgetting algebra 1 skills during geometry. Most geometry programs integrate algebra review as well. Another option some people use with good success is to do them both at half-pace, either alternating days or alternating chapters.

Forgetting algebra 2 skills during geometry is much easier than forgetting algebra 1 skills during geometry. Most geometry programs integrate algebra review as well. Another option some people use with good success is to do them both at half-pace, either alternating days or alternating chapters.

Imo the geometry from a standard pre-algebra would be enough for lial's intermediate algebra, but not for pre-calculus. If you put geometry after intermediate algebra, bear in mind you'll need to guard against "brain drain"; the latest learned skills tend to fall out of a student's head after a year off. Is there a specific reason for going to algebra next? if you share that, it'll probably get you better advice.

What if you go back to smaller numbers? How about 31 and 50?

I want to append to what I said before: The only time I'd be really concerned about increasing rigor is with a child who is over a year ahead of "grade level", that is, aimed at algebra in 7th or earlier. But even then, I still probably would not switch away from something they actually loved, but rather supplement the higher-order problem-solving skills with something that was designed as a supplement.

Heh ... yeah, 23 is not very impressive, but it really isn't horrible either. For what it's worth, at the local high school the average act is 17 (and less than 20% even take that) and <5% score as proficient in the state test for algebra.