Starting math in spring - count towards 8th or 9th grade?

[2Peanuts]

Hi all,

For various reasons, I had to drop math from my DD's coursework back in the fall. She's currently an 8th grader. She does continue to get math practice through Clover Creek Physics so I'm not overly stressed about her mostly math-less year.

We plan to bring math (specifically, geometry) back into her course work in March, when her schedule frees up. Her math will extend through the summer.

So, my question is, Do I count her geometry as part of her 8th grade or 9th grade work? She'll start the class as an 8th grader and will finish just as her 9th grade year begins. Also, would I include it on her transcript since geometry usually appears in the high school math sequence? How would I justify (or would I even have to justify?) that she took it at a weird time of the academic year?

Thank you for your input!

[crazyforlatin]

I'm facing the same issue, but the subject is possibly bio. We sort of started it in Jan and will continue through the summer with labs at WTMA in 9th grade. 

When we applied for HS, anything done during the summer was counted towards the next grade (or the preceding grade if I saw fit). But that was just a HS app. Here in our area a student is promoted to the next grade a day after the end of school which is around mid-June.

Anyway, that was middle school stuff so not really important, but on a HS transcript, I'm also curious as to what to do with a class which begins in one grade and finishes at the end of summer.

[regentrude]

I listed every course in the school year it was completed. Nobody will require you to "justify" your timing or your transcript.

[Lori D.]

1 hour ago, 2Peanuts said:

...Do I count her geometry as part of her 8th grade or 9th grade work? She'll start the class as an 8th grader and will finish just as her 9th grade year begins. Also, would I include it on her transcript since geometry usually appears in the high school math sequence? How would I justify (or would I even have to justify?) that she took it at a weird time of the academic year?

Yes, include it under 9th grade, even if most of the credit was completed prior to 9th grade. (Similarly, on the transcript, summer school courses are typically placed with the "coming grade" rather than the previous grade -- so a summer school class taken in the summer before 9th is listed with 9th grade classes.)

Yes, include Geometry, as it is a college math requirement, but even more, it is a high school level credit earned by the student. One way to show the sequence is to arrange the transcript by subject rather than by grade-year. (see example below)

No, you don't need to justify the timing of completing the credit.

When listing courses *completed* prior to 9th (like, Algebra 1 in 7th or 8th, or Biology/Chemistry/Physics in 8th), group those credits in their own section, as some colleges *only* count credits completed in the the 4 years just prior to admission as a freshman towards admission requirements. (In other words, they don't count courses "brought up" from 7th or 8th grade, but it helps to see that those typical/expected courses *were* done -- just done early by an advanced student.)

Hypothetical example:

High School Courses Completed Prior to 9th Grade
course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . credit . . . grade 
Algebra 1 . . . . . . . . . . .  1.0  . . . .  X 
Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.0  . . . .  X

MATH
course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . credit . . . grade 
Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . .1.0  . . . .  X
Algebra II . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.0  . . . . X
Pre-Calculus . . . . . . . . . .1.0  . . . . X
Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.0  . . . . X
Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.0  . . . . X
total credits/GPA . . . . . . . . 5.0 . . . . . X.XXX

SCIENCE (* = with labs)
course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . credit . . . grade 
Physics* . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.0  . . . .  X
Biology* . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.0  . . . .  X
Chemistry* . . . . . . . . . . . 1.0  . . . .  X
Advanced Physics*  . . . . 1.0  . . . .  X
Anatomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.5  . . . .  X
Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . .  0.5  . . . .  X
total credits/GPA . . . . . . . . 5.0 . . . . . X.XXX

Edited February 10, 2019 by Lori D.

[2Peanuts]

Thank you, Lori D, for the transcript example! That helps a lot. (And I especially appreciate that you tailored it to the info I gave about my kiddo. Wanna write her transcript for me? 🙂)

Thanks, also, for explaining how summer school credits get counted. DD discovered that she really likes doing math by itself over the summer because she can spend more time on it. (Of course, we've only done that one summer so far....) So, I'll have multiple summer classes to consider going forward.

[Mom0012]

I have been working on my dd’s transcript and have chosen to list her credits by subject, rather than by year, similar to what Lori wrote out.  I’m not segregating the classes taken in middle school, but I have a little asterisk next to them with a footnote on the transcript that they were taken in 6th - 8th grade.

MATH

Algebra I*      A       1.0

Geometry*     A       1.0

Algebra II*      A       1.0

Precalculus     A      1.0

Calculus          A      1.0

etc.

 

*Completed in 6th - 8th grades

 

[JoJosMom]

4 hours ago, 2Peanuts said:

Thank you, Lori D, for the transcript example! That helps a lot. (And I especially appreciate that you tailored it to the info I gave about my kiddo. Wanna write her transcript for me? 🙂)

Thanks, also, for explaining how summer school credits get counted. DD discovered that she really likes doing math by itself over the summer because she can spend more time on it. (Of course, we've only done that one summer so far....) So, I'll have multiple summer classes to consider going forward.

 

Please don't load down Lori with extraneous tasks, 'k?  I am planning on her being very busy constructing my 11th grader's transcript. At least until she's done. Then she's all yours. TIA!

 

(🤭)

[Lori D.]

Mom0012's transcript example also reminded me of another way of laying out a transcript on a spreadsheet (with lines to create columns and boxes), that allows you to list by subject (vertical left column) AND by year/grade (rows across, under the heading for each year/grade). I can't quite create it in a post (no lines), but below is very roughly the kind of thing I mean. And you could add a fifth row heading for "completed pre-9th", and keep each of those courses under their subject heading.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9th grade . . . 10th grade . . . 11th grade . . . 12th grade
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  credit  grade . . . credit  grade . . .  credit  grade . . . credit  grade
ENGLISH
English 9 . . . . . . . .   1.0. . .X
English 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1.0. . .X
English 11  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   1.00. . .X
English 12  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1.00. . .X
total cr. = 4.0

MATH
Geometry. . . . . . . ..  1.0. . .X
Algebra 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   1.0. . .X
Pre-Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.00. . .X
Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .  1.00. . .X
total cr. = 4.0

SCIENCE
Biology. . . . . . . . . . .  1.0. . .X
Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..  1.0. . .X
Adv. Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1.00. . .X
Anatomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . 0.50. . .X
Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .0.50. . .X
total cr. = 4.0

[2Peanuts]

Lori, thanks for the alternate format - especially since I'm sure you had to fiddle lots with spaces & tabs to get the columns to work out!

Your second example and Mom0012's sample got me thinking --- Is there a reason why one would choose to list courses along with the year completed (as in your 2nd example) vs. listing just the courses (as in your 1st example & Mom0012's)? Just wondering what nuances I should consider.... Do colleges care if you list the grade in which your child completed a specific class? I'm assuming if you've got a Little Man Tate genius on your hands and they're completing astrophysics in 6th grade, then yes, you put that on there. But for run-of-the-mill kids like mine...does it make a difference?

[klmama]

Many colleges won't care, but some do want to know when each course was completed.  

[Mom0012]

2 hours ago, 2Peanuts said:

Lori, thanks for the alternate format - especially since I'm sure you had to fiddle lots with spaces & tabs to get the columns to work out!

Your second example and Mom0012's sample got me thinking --- Is there a reason why one would choose to list courses along with the year completed (as in your 2nd example) vs. listing just the courses (as in your 1st example & Mom0012's)? Just wondering what nuances I should consider.... Do colleges care if you list the grade in which your child completed a specific class? I'm assuming if you've got a Little Man Tate genius on your hands and they're completing astrophysics in 6th grade, then yes, you put that on there. But for run-of-the-mill kids like mine...does it make a difference?

 

My main reason for using the format without the grade level information is that I don’t have enough room to list everything the way Lori did in her second example without making the type really small since I’m trying to fit everything onto one page.  My dd’s transcript is much more visually appealing and easy to read when I can use two columns to list her classes rather than one long list.

i actually prefer the 2nd format that Lori showed with the grade level.  The version I had included a column for 8th grade and below. It doesn’t work well for my dd though (she will have 15 foreign language credits).

Edited February 11, 2019 by Mom0012

[Lori D.]

4 hours ago, 2Peanuts said:

... Is there a reason why one would choose to list courses along with the year completed (as in your 2nd example) vs. listing just the courses (as in your 1st example & Mom0012's)? ...

Yes, because some colleges DO require transcripts to be listed by grade/year rather than by subject. That second version I did (it looks much more spread out in that post than if you do a spreadsheet) lists it BOTH ways, so you don't have to make 2 different transcripts to fit the different requirements of different colleges. 😉

 

Edited February 11, 2019 by Lori D.

[BusyMom5]

I had the same situation, and we decided to mark it for 9th grade, since it was completed in October of 9th grade.  We started I think the end of January, and finished sometime in October.