Alg A after Beast?

[mrhmhy]

DS9 just finished 5th grade beast so trying to plan for next year.  I had him take the “Do You Need This” for PreAlg1 and he got every question right except greatest common divisor.  Then had him take the “Are you ready” for Intro to Alg A and he got them all right too.  But confused because he didn’t do anything besides Beast for the last 2 yrs and they say after you finish Beast you should do PreAlg1.  Thoughts?

[SoCal_Bear]

I personally don't think you should skip PA. There is a lot of really deep math in there. It goes way beyong other PA programs. You do have the option now to do their self-paced course. My son just finished it this past year at the same age. It took him about 10 months. I think others have said they have taken 18 months or longer. My son grew a lot this year and had really taken the driver seat with his math and self-taught through the text. It really helped him (or rather forced him) to organize his work neatly, write out solutions, think more thoughtfully and deeply about maths, and develop more stamina. It is most definitely not a waste of time to do it. 

While we could have moved right on to Algebra, we are taking a side journey into Jacobs' MHE which has been great fun for him. I like that he is enjoying the side journeys that we are taking along the way since we have time on our side.

 

Edited June 8, 2019 by calbear

[Jackie]

We moved directly from Beast to Intro to Algebra. When DD was finishing Beast, I looked at the Pre-A book and found that while the topics do go a bit deeper than Beast, there was very little new. I saw on one Facebook post that someone from AOPS said that one reason why they wouldn’t consider doing a version of Pre-A with the Beasts is that there was so much overlap already between BA and PreA. DD is halfway through the Intro to Algebra book, and has had no notable problems with the material. 

[mrhmhy]

2 hours ago, Jackie said:

We moved directly from Beast to Intro to Algebra. When DD was finishing Beast, I looked at the Pre-A book and found that while the topics do go a bit deeper than Beast, there was very little new. I saw on one Facebook post that someone from AOPS said that one reason why they wouldn’t consider doing a version of Pre-A with the Beasts is that there was so much overlap already between BA and PreA. DD is halfway through the Intro to Algebra book, and has had no notable problems with the material. 

 

Thats kind of how I was feeling, and he doesn’t like repetitive stuff. My one concern is there’s no self directed option for Alg and I’m afraid the regular class would be too fast.  But although I thought I was good at math, I wasn’t able to help him with some of the 5th grade problems!  Suggestions on that?

[Cake and Pi]

For some kids doing both BA 5 and AoPS PreA will be too redundant, but for others it is necessary. I guess it depends on the kid and interest, drive, and level of math maturity (handwriting, ease at showing/explaining work, how readily they transition to a more text-booky presentation, those kinds of things).

My DS#1 also finished BA 5 at 9yo, and he benefited greatly from completing AoPS PreA. He spent about a year and a half on a mix of AoPS PA, Jacob's MHE, and Picciotto's A:TTC. He wouldn't have enjoyed Intro to Algebra without that extra time to mature, practice foundational skills, and play with ideas, even though he is a child who, in general, despises repetition and busy work. It didn't feel like either of those things to him because the problems were new and different and went deeper to the extent that they still required him to think. He also needed time to work on emotional regulation, frustration tolerance, and written communication challenges.

My DS#3, otoh, easily and comfortably jumped from BA 4 right to AoPS PreA at 6yo. Different kid, different personality and needs. Doing both BA 5 and AoPS PreA in succession would have been overkill. The thing to note here is that *he* was driving the bus. He asked for an Alcumus account and took off.

10 hours ago, mrhmhy said:

 

Thats kind of how I was feeling, and he doesn’t like repetitive stuff. My one concern is there’s no self directed option for Alg and I’m afraid the regular class would be too fast.  But although I thought I was good at math, I wasn’t able to help him with some of the 5th grade problems!  Suggestions on that?

 

You can let him try out a class and drop it within 14 days if it's not a good fit. The message boards are helpful for puzzling out problems they get stuck on in a collaborative way, and they have "office hours" where AoPS staff step to help guide students on the message boards for the classes. The live PreA classes + homework are less of a time commitment and slower pace than Algebra A. They also give the kid a chance to learn a good deal of LaTeX (for writing proof solutions), which could theoretically make the Algebra A class easier. My DS#3 could solve pretty much all of the PreA 2 writing problems in his head, but actually explaining his solutions was new and challenging for him. It was much less frustrating for him to be able to have the math down and just focus on the writing.

Did you have your DS take the "Do you need this?" assessment for PreA 2 also?

ETA: PreA went slow enough that DS#3 was able to actually go back and complete BA 5 (just the starred problems and high-interest puzzles) in between PreA assignments. So I guess he *did* do both, but they were done concurrently, not one after the other, and he skipped all the easy problems.

Edited June 9, 2019 by Cake and Pi

[Jackie]

11 hours ago, mrhmhy said:

 

Thats kind of how I was feeling, and he doesn’t like repetitive stuff. My one concern is there’s no self directed option for Alg and I’m afraid the regular class would be too fast.  But although I thought I was good at math, I wasn’t able to help him with some of the 5th grade problems!  Suggestions on that?

 

My daughter did the Algebra A class, but hates the format of the online classes, so she’ll continue self-directed. (Not self-directed online classes, just self-directed fully independent.) I am strong in math and can help her, but the AOPS solutions manuals are beyond fabulous. Just like the solutions in BA, every single problem has a complete explanation fully written out. When we have gotten stuck, the solutions manual has been wonderfully useful.