GinaPagnato Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 (edited) I'd never even heard of this program, but now I can't stop researching it. Blame it on the hive! :glare: Okay, ds is finishing up Saxon 7/6, and of course I had assumed he would start Saxon Algebra 1/2. But now...not so sure. Can anyone compare the two programs, and give some advice? He's mathy, but wouldn't choose to do math problems for fun, kwim? TIA! Edited January 14, 2012 by forgetmenot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GinaPagnato Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 :bigear: bump. Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matilda Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 I have seen both programs, but I have not used either to completion. But here are my observations. Saxon is very incremental. They will introduce something about exponents and then do a few problems and then the rest of the problems in the chapter review concepts that they have already taught. Then a few chapters later, you will have another step on doing exponents. Has that been your experience? In AoPS, they will present 4-5 problems at the beginning of the exponent chapter that the student is expected to be able to work through without explanation. Then the text of the chapter is the proof of those problems. There are fewer problems to work at the end of each section than in Saxon, but they are all about exponents and there is very little review of previous sections. Part of working through these problems is not just knowing the concept that they taught in the text, but using the concept and then jumping off to figure out a trick or the next logical step in solving problems with exponents. Our experience was that the AoPS pre-test was not really a good indicator of readiness. My dd passed it easily, but she wasn't really ready for the program. People say that AoPS is a program for mathy students, and once we tried it, I definitely agree. We are using Lial's now, and she is much happier. I have another student coming up, and math is more intuitive for him, rather than just being good at it like dd. I think that he will do better with AoPS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GinaPagnato Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 Thanks for your responses. Yes, that has been the experience with Saxon, and I think it's served my son well so far. He could definitely breeze through the AoPS pre-alg pre-test, even though he's about 20 lessons from finishing Saxon 7/6. Good to know the pre-test isn't necessarily an indicator of readiness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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