Anyone done AoPS prealg => AoPS Intro to Counting ?

[AEC]

Hello-

 

  DS13 is finishing AoPS prealg. He's competent, but not excited about, math.  Most of the book he viewed as stuff you just have to learn.  Chapter 14, which starts down the road of counting, has got him excited though.  He's really into it.

 

  I had planned on starting up w/ AoPS Intro to Alg next, but am now considering doing the Counting&Probability first.  They claim that after their PreAlg book you're prepared to go into any of the 'Intro To' series, in any order....but ??

 

  Have any of you actually done this?  How'd it go?

 

 

-andy

 

Edited to correct the title. Spellcheck changed 'prealg' into 'prelaw', which is funny but potentially confusing. :D

[go_go_gadget]

Lots of people on here have worked Intro. to Counting and Intro. to Alg. concurrently, which is what my son will be doing.

[Arcadia]

My oldest started the intro to C&P during summertime before he finish prealg but he likes C&P a lot more than me. He usually figure it out before I do on the hard questions. The intermediate C&P book was hard enough to slow my oldest down.

My youngest started intro to NT before he finished his prealg so the NT book is possible too if your son likes NT.

[quark]

Hee hee, title typo caused a double take! My son did Intro CP concurrently with Dolciani's algebra I and did algebra I again with half of the AoPS Intro Algebra book after completing Dolciani.

[Mike in SA]

The main requirement that I have seen is maturity. ICP requires more patience than PreAlgebra. It involves a lot of casework and diligence, but is very interesting.

 

I'd say go for it, if he's ready. If not, set the book aside until the middle of Intro to Algebra, as recommended by AoPS.

[Mozwo]

DD12 is just finishing up C&P course with AOPS. He has done Pre-algebra and Algebra A before this. The C&P course does not involve much algebra concepts at all and can be done right after pre-algebra. However as someone said before, it does require patience on case work and in our case a bit of challenge around geometric probability. Personally I would do Algebra or/and NT before C&P though as we are planning for DD10 who is currently in Pre Algebra with AOPS.

[daijobu]

I also view the counting and number theory courses as math electives, that are completed concurrently with core math classes.  

[Roadrunner]

I was told Algebra was an easier choice than both counting and number theory.

[wapiti]

My mathy-but-not-well-math-educated relative took the C&P online course in high school for a taste of AoPS and thought it was very difficult, toward the end especially, though she enjoyed it (the first half of the course she absolutely loved though eventually other priorities may have gotten in the way of getting the book work done, which is probably why it felt very difficult)

 

My ds12 is trying to decide on a summer course, Algebra B or Intro to C&P, mostly because the Intro to Python courses are all full.  I think he wants to choose C&P because it looks like more fun and the little blurb on the website suggests taking C&P before Alg B.  He realizes that's just advertising but he's influenced LOL.  (I don't care which he chooses but he needs to choose today!  I tried to tell him that he can take both if he really, really wants  :D)

[Julie of KY]

I'd give him the choice to do either Counting and Probability or Algebra. I'd also ofter the option to do one chapter then decide if want to continue in that book or move to the other.

In other words, if he's doing math that's great - If C&P is getting hard then might want to switch. C&P needs some algebra (and occasional problems require quadratics), but my son did most of the C&P book before algebra. We just skipped the occasional problem that required quadratics.

[Julie of KY]

My mathy-but-not-well-math-educated relative took the C&P online course in high school for a taste of AoPS and thought it was very difficult, toward the end especially, though she enjoyed it (the first half of the course she absolutely loved though eventually other priorities may have gotten in the way of getting the book work done, which is probably why it felt very difficult)

 

My ds12 is trying to decide on a summer course, Algebra B or Intro to C&P, mostly because the Intro to Python courses are all full.  I think he wants to choose C&P because it looks like more fun and the little blurb on the website suggests taking C&P before Alg B.  He realizes that's just advertising but he's influenced LOL.  (I don't care which he chooses but he needs to choose today!  I tried to tell him that he can take both if he really, really wants  :D)

 

The end of the C&P book is hard - more theoretical.

 

I'd vote C&P over Algebra B if you have the time because "I" think it's fun - not everyone likes it though.

 

 

[Mike in SA]

I was told Algebra was an easier choice than both counting and number theory.

 

Very much so for C&P.  Number theory is a bit more theoretical than algebra, so is easier for some, harder for others.