popcorn

Why not just leave it as algebra 2? Intermediate algebra texts are commonly used for an algebra 2 class.

A lot of med schools are now letting people in with a semester of calc and a semester of stats OR two semesters of calc, and some don't require the calc at all, but if I were a student I would take both calc 1 + 2 + stats unless I were quite bad at mathematics -- admission is competitive enough that I wouldn't want there to be anything for an admissions committee to poke at.

Yeah, there's some argumentation -- for a summary, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia#Reading_order Frankly, when I was a little (like 7-8) I loathed the last two but loved lww, caspian, dawn treader, and horse and his boy (silver chair was iffy). If I had been required to enter with the magician's nephew I don't think I would ever have found Narnia.

Yes, one of my friends did research in environmental science a while ago and had some science-interested elementary students helping her count butterflies -- I would be thinking of something a little more challenging for an older student of course. I'm not sure exactly what that would be as my field is math and not biology.

Sometimes, research can be done in a more ecological manner -- this is something where finding a local mentor would be a brilliant idea if possible.

Trying to work through a book over the summer would be an exercise in futility, but doing the chapter tests from a standard book in order to pinpoint trouble spots would probably work. Even if you don't get all the way through, she'll know more at the end of the summer than at the beginning.

Yes, this is what I was wondering earlier -- if there had possibly been a 'calc 1a' and 'calc 1b' which covered differential and integral single-variable calculus but were together called 'calculus 1'. Otherwise I cannot imagine why one person's experience would be so different from every other person's experience.

Reviewing alg 1 is going to be the biggest help for him. I'd get a standard alg 1 textbook and have him test through with the chapter tests, filling in any gaps in knowledge.

Good idea -- if she hates it it's much better to find out now. There are a lot of different high school pathways and many of them are good. As long as her *math* is up to par, it's going to turn out all right. Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.

I'd love to see a source on this. I see we've already debunked the 'course load was 12 credits a semester' part. I know both my parents went to engineering school in the early 1970s at a decent but not superb school and their calculus coursework was calc 1, calc 2, multivariable calculus, differential equations. It's possible, I guess, that there was a course called 'calculus 1' which covered differential and integral single-variable calculus. I have taught all levels from the lowest level of developmental algebra through junior and senior math major courses. None of them were designed to fail people. Yes, calculus frequently *does* have a high failure rate (although nowhere near as high as the failure rate in college algebra, which usually has the highest failure rate among undergraduate coursework). This is primarily because we have people come in who were bright students in high school and never had to open their books to learn anything (primarily because the high school was so unchallenging), and we are expecting them to not only remember everything from their previous math classes but also apply it in many situations while learning something new. You see, in most previous levels of math (including most high school) much of the previous year is reviewed. This stops at calculus. Yes, we could increase the pass rate by incorporating more review and spreading it over more semesters, if we wanted to *require* a 5-year degree.

If next year is finishing the precalc book and starting calculus, you could transcript it as 'introduction to calculus' which should be familiar to admissions officers.

Omma, I think testing through Algebra 1/2 is a great idea. Your ds doesn't sound like it's failing him. If it takes you until Christmas to work through Algebra 1/2, you can still start Algebra 1 after Christmas and have it finished by the end of the summer. In this case, I would see absolutely no issue with just marking credit for 9th grade for Algebra 1.

Yes, that is correct, but irrelevant. You are completely missing my point. This one student (who was not able to make it into college-level coursework) was the *only* student I have ever had who attended all classes, submitted all homework, and still failed. Every other student I have had who failed the class (and I keep records of this) missed at least 10% of the classes and homework. I realize that I'm not going to convince someone who's utterly convinced of her own worldview, but I really hope that anyone else reading this thread doesn't take your statements at face value. We *do* want these students to succeed. We offer multiple office hours, tutoring, review sessions, and we continually discuss methods of attempting to present the course material in more helpful ways. They are not failing because we are trying to weed them out, and I find it frankly offensive that you continue this assertion. They are failing because despite all of the help we offer, they do not come to class, they do not submit the homework, and they do not come to office hours. Exceptions to this rule are few and far between.

I think changing is definitely a good idea. Do you have anyone that you could borrow TT from to see if he likes the style?

I have had exactly one student fail (well, get a D in) the class after attending every class and doing every problem on every homework assignment. I suspect an undiagnosed learning disability, but at the end of the semester (in developmental algebra) this student was still adding x and x and coming up with x^2. This is the *only* time I have ever seen it happen.

At the college where I teach, the largest enrollment you will see in a freshman STEM class is under 30. Even where I did graduate school, the calculus classes were capped at 30 and attempting to improve pass rates in these classes while not lowering standards was a regular topic of discussion, with many pilot projects tried. Students still frequently left STEM majors for other majors, but this was more due to a) a woeful lack of preparation in high school and b) not knowing what other majors were OUT there -- a lot of times people declare as a math/engineering major because the salary looks good and they don't know what else to declare -- rather than any sort of attempted weed-out.

TI doesn't.

Jacobs is good, but if she *wants* to continue with a more challenging program and has been successful so far (especially the confidence gained) I'd be strongly inclined to let her do it. In other words, if it ain't broke ... FWIW, a lot of people think that the AOPS pre-algebra is more challenging (for its level) than the courses above it. I wouldn't expect it to be *even more* time-consuming in the higher levels. If you do end up switching, Jacobs *is* a good choice, and Foerster is another good choice.

Don't worry, there are loads more subjects that can be done once you pass algebra 1. I'd recommend, if possible, getting to look at a few books (if nothing else, samples) with your son so you can pick something he finds appealing as well.

Yes, the introductory number theory book. :)

Caddie Woodlawn is great and there's a sequel, Magical Melons.

Beginning. Usually beginning algebra comes before advanced in any sequence.

4 years of research is better than 3 which is better than 2. It's unlikely that someone who's just entering would be able to get a professor to sponsor them for research in their first semester, although it's possible, but it takes time to build those relationships and get those letters of recommendation that will be crucial for going to graduate school, which is going to be a requirement if she wants to do research as a career. It's going to be very important to her career to get into the best graduate school that she possibly can, with as much funding as she can possibly get, and really, trying to take everything so that she can graduate in only 2 years would result in her being rather average as a graduate school applicant. The more I read about this the more I think that you really should give up on the idea of her graduating in 2 years. I really think that this would be shortchanging her.

Continuing (because I'm still thinking about this) but another GREAT option would be to take biology as a junior, and then take an *elective* biology course as a senior -- one that will only count for an elective in the major, but will add depth and richness to her background knowledge of biology -- instead of focusing on the core courses.