Please help me think through Senior Year Math

[Liza Q]

for my daughter. She has (and really wants to hold onto) a part time job that takes about 12-18 hours per week.

 

First, she has a few NY required courses -

English

Economics (only a semester)

Science (we are doing Chemistry)

 

Then she has some courses that she wants to take -

German 3

World History 1600-2000

 

And there is a course I really want her to take -

Consumer Math/Life Skills (1 semester is enough)

 

Now I am wondering about more advanced math. I don't think that she will have the time for it, considering her other courses, job and college applications. She wants to major in Psych and minor in German. This may change but I do not think it likely that she will go into Engineering or another field that requires more math.

 

My oldest did not do any advanced math (beyond Alg 1, 2 and Geometry) and is doing fine in college. But I can see that an extra year of math would have made things easier...she forgot so much!

 

So, is there something that she can do for a semester? I can cut the World History course to bare bones and make it a 1-semester course to give her the time. It would need to be more than review (I can't see giving her credit for a class that is just a review) but I am wondering how much she could really learn in a semester?

 

I have no problem creating courses in other subjects but I just do not know advanced math myself so I can't figure this one out on my own. Help - and thanks!

[Alyce]

My son wants to be a psy major and I know that he will only need to take College Algebra and Statistics but our state schools require a progression of math so a consumer math would have to count as an elective. Don't know about your state schools there. That's the first thing I'd look into. Secondly if you dd is only working 3 hours a night for 4 nights she could do a Pre-Calculus course. Something easy like Lial, TT, MUS. If the colleges you dd might attend don't have the progressive math status then your plan might work very well. If it were me I'd still try to get in Pre-Calculus but use and easy program like I mentioned above. Not anything hard like Chalkdust. Just something to give her the basics.

[74Heaven]

I think "rigorous courses" look better on the transcript for those students who might need that "sway" to gain acceptance to some private or high end secular universities. Thus, precalculus "looks good" on the transcript and I think precalc and overall (generally) more rigorous course load (4 yrs of all core high school courses: science, math, Lit/Eng, Latin and 3 yrs of Spanish and history) is helping my dd get into some colleges that might not be so impressed if she took easier courses. If college "acceptance" is not a concern, than I would say go ahead with the consumer math. Personally, I think consumer math is incredibly helpful and worthwhile.

 

Btw, I can't see any reason why your dd couldn't take precalculus just for a semester. Either do it the whole year at a reduced pace (completing only half) and give her 1 sem credit or do it at a regular pace (completing half the course) the first semester and quit halfway thru the year and give her 1/2 credit. ???

 

Lisaj

[hoosiermom]

When I first started teaching high school math 20+ years ago, the course after Alg 2 was called Senior Math, then Precalculus. Eventually that full-year course was divided into College Algebra/Trigonometry, each being taught for one semester. If you just have time for one semester, why not just do one of these? Either one would work after Alg 2. If she had a strong Alg 2 class, you might go w/ Trig. If she did a lot of Trig with Geometry, you might go with College Alg. Hope this helps.

 

Cathy

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[Liza Q]

Thanks for all the ideas. I spoke to her and we have a plan! She won't do a 1-semester Life Skills/Consumer Math class but she will read a few books and go over a few things (like our budget, income taxes, etc.) on her own time. These are things she needs to know but they do not need to be a class! We cut back World History to just a 1-semester overview and now we have room for TT Pre-Calc without driving ourselves crazy. She has always used TT and we both know that it will not go to far too fast but will still prepare her for college much better than a year of little to no math.

 

July-December

Chemistry

German

Pre-Calc

World History

English - Literature and Writing to go with History

 

January-June

Chemistry

German

Pre-Calc

Economics

English - Grammar review and Kitchen Sink/Last Chance Lit and Writing

 

{breathing a sigh of relief!}