mooooom Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Please don't slam me for this, we have never quit early on a math book before, but this one has been going on for a really long time. We started Nov last year, and going thru the summer will only have finished chapter 7 by the fall. Kids are all seniors, busy applying to colleges. I'm not even sure we can finish by Christmas (and I'm expecting they will be mentally exhausted by then). They are all doing well (above 90%) but it goes so slow - 2 days per lesson (every 4 problems), 3 days for a review and 2 per test. Is this normal? I doubt anyone will be taking anything other than statistics in college. Are there any sections that are considered extra or extraneous to Precalc? I've tried googling for Lials Precalculus syllabus to see what chapters schools are covering but couldn't come up with anything. TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myra Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 I can't help you on which to skip, but I have heard that this text should take 3 semesters to finish. Myra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 I found the table of contents on the pearson website here: http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/product/Precalculus/9780321528841.page Is this correct for your edition? What are your seniors doing for math after this? Is there a reason that they can't just finish this book (by May) for senior year math, and receive credit for 11th grade algebra 3/college algebra and 12th grade precalculus? If you do need to cut it down, here's what I'd consider as the minimum, going off the TOC I posted above. 8: Law of sines, cosines, vectors, applications of vectors. The complex numbers/polar graphs tend to be taught from scratch in calculus courses, but the law of sines and cosines are expected knowledge. 9: I'd definitely do systems of linear equations and matrix solutions of linear equations. Solving a system of two equations in two unknowns is something the students in our (university) gen ed math course struggle with. Determinants and partial fractions will probably be taught from scratch if they take a course which needs them. 10: At least do parabolas, although it pains me to say it ellipses and hyperbolas are probably less necessary. 11: It's much harder to say here. Since I'm not as familiar with this textbook I'm not sure how the dependencies correlation. Our precalc class (at the university) skips the 'further topics' chapter. If it's possible, though, I'd try to get in the sections on counting/probability, especially if the students will go on to take a statistics class. (Please note that this is strictly my opinion.) If the student might possibly major in business, they may need a course called "Finite Math" (some business-ish majors at some universities require this) -- if this is in their future I'd do the rest of the matrix chapter for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mooooom Posted August 6, 2011 Author Share Posted August 6, 2011 Are you saying that finished the entire book would be worth more than one credit? I had considered skipping the last chapter but I thought that looked like the "fun" part. Maybe I will just skip the Ch 11 review and test. I think psychologically they will just need to be finished by Christmas. I have a personal finance course planned for their last semester. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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