Need Transcript Help re: math credits

[Forgiven]

Hi! My daughter completed Foerster's Algebra 2 and Trigonometry book this year. As I was looking for a pre-calculus book for next year, I found out that many people use this book for Pre-Calculus, and that it should take 1 1/2 to 2 years to complete, as it includes intermediate Algebra, Advanced Algebra, and Trigonometry. My daughter completed it in one year with great grades. I gave her a placement test, and she did well enough to move on to Calculus for the next year.

The problem I'm facing is how to award credits for Foerster's Algebra 2 and Trigonometry. Is it only one credit, as it's one course, or  one credit for Algebra 2 and a half credit for Trigonometry? If giving 1 1/2 credits, do I put them as one course for 1 1/2 credits, or do I separate them as two separate courses, one for one credit, the other for a half credit?

I've tried searching in the forums to see if this has been addressed, but couldn't find anything, so I'm sorry if I missed something. In that case, a link to that thread would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

Angie

[klmama]

It sounds like a single credit, but harder. You could give it honors credit, with higher grade point (4.5 or 5, instead of 4 for an A, 3.5 or 4 instead of 3 for a B).  

[stlily]

We use Saxon and we have a similar situation because the Advanced Mathematics book covers  part two of Geometry as well as  Trig and Pre-Cal. From the  research I've done, It seems that colleges want course names they can recognize, so keep it simple and  familiar. You can list the courses as two separate courses such as:

Course 1 - Algebra II

Course 2 - Trigonometry w/ Advanced Algebra OR Trigonometry & Pre-Calculus

I don't think I would list them as one course and assign 1.5 credits for it because that's not something colleges are used to seeing and it might throw them off.

Give each course a description that briefly summarizes the topics covered that pertain to that math level. Also, what does the publisher say about the course? Usually they'll say something like, "At the end of this course the student will have earned 1 full credit of Algebra II, 1/2 credit of Trigonometry, and 1/2 credit of Pre-Cal. What the publisher says is typically what you want to go with.  Hope this helps.

[katilac]

From the Rainbow Resources description: Paul Foerster taught math beginning in 1961 and puts his teaching expertise to work in this text which is designed as a course in intermediate and advanced algebra and trigonometry. After completing algebra 1 and geometry, this book is the next step before calculus. The presentation emphasizes the role of algebra and trigonometry as the foundation for calculus and should take a student 1 ½ to 2 years for completion. and then the text is divided into 15 chapters, beginning with a brief review. Chapters 1-8 cover topics that are considered intermediate algebra, 9-12 are advanced algebra, and 13-15 cover trigonometry

2 credits: intermediate algebra is algebra 2, advanced algebra is precalc algebra, trig is precalc trig, so algebra 2 and precalc. It is what comes after algebra 1 and geometry and before calculus, thus precalculus. And she tested into calc, so there you go. 

 

 

 

[8filltheheart]

20 hours ago, Forgiven said:

Hi! My daughter completed Foerster's Algebra 2 and Trigonometry book this year. As I was looking for a pre-calculus book for next year, I found out that many people use this book for Pre-Calculus, and that it should take 1 1/2 to 2 years to complete, as it includes intermediate Algebra, Advanced Algebra, and Trigonometry. My daughter completed it in one year with great grades. I gave her a placement test, and she did well enough to move on to Calculus for the next year.

The problem I'm facing is how to award credits for Foerster's Algebra 2 and Trigonometry. Is it only one credit, as it's one course, or  one credit for Algebra 2 and a half credit for Trigonometry? If giving 1 1/2 credits, do I put them as one course for 1 1/2 credits, or do I separate them as two separate courses, one for one credit, the other for a half credit?

I've tried searching in the forums to see if this has been addressed, but couldn't find anything, so I'm sorry if I missed something. In that case, a link to that thread would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

Angie

I have used it with 6 of my kids and have never considered it more than 1 cr.  I simply label it alg2/trig on their transcript, but I do label it honors.

[8filltheheart]

FWIW, I thought I'd add that I have never gone from Foerster's to cal with any of my kids (and I have some gifted math students who completed the text before high school). It could be my own ignorance of math at that level, though. All of them have taken precal prior to cal.

[EKS]

The Math Without Borders courses use Foerster's Algebra and Trigonometry for Algebra 2 and Precalculus with Trigonometry for precalculus.  Here is what the website has to say about skipping precalculus:

If you are wondering whether to skip from Algebra 2 directly to Calculus or whether to take Precalculus first, the answer (almost always) is to take Precalculus first. Gaining depth is more important than racing ahead, and the depth offered through this course is tremendous. Recording this course has been a remarkable experience for me, personally. I have grown in my appreciation for Foerster’s work in the process. In my career I have taught out of several other Precalculus textbooks, but none of them is in the same league with Foerster when it comes to teaching problem solving and real-world applications.

 

My daughter took two years to finish the algebra 2 & trig text.  I have looked at several places that use the text and there doesn’t seem to be one single way to treat it.  MWOB strongly suggests the precalculus book (quoted above).  Veritas Press Online uses the text over two years for a credit of Algebra 2 and a credit of Precalculus.  Kolbe awards a credit of algebra 2 for finishing a portion of the book and a credit of honors algebra 2 for finishing the whole book.  Kolbe also offers a precalculus course, but they do state if you received and A in honors algebra 2 you can skip precalculus.  My very long ago experiences with high school math are blurry, but I did intentionally opt out of honors math (my dad wasn’t a fan of things that were “harder than they needed to be” and he put honors stuff into that category).  I remember about 4 things from precalculus- an exchange student from Barcelona sat next to me, the senior sitting in front of me wanted to be a forensic scientist (this was before CSI and I had never heard of it before), trigonometry was cool, and I didn’t care for the class.  Except for some of the trig, everything was review and since we weren’t allowed to use a calculator and had never even seen a graphing calculator, the class was SO VERY tedious...look up trig functions in the table, plot points by hand for every.single.function...it took forever.  I didn’t like it at the time and then I was super offended when I got to Calculus and realized with not too much effort we could have looked at the equation and sketched the graphs of all those functions that I had spent so much busywork plotting the year before.  It was like reading the instruction manual after doing the work and realizing there was a much easier way.  With a younger kid, I would be very likely to do a year of precalculus.  If a student struggled at all in the Algebra 2 & trig book, I would do a year of precalculus.  If you didn’t actually finish the whole book, I would do a year of precalculus.  If you did the whole book and the student did well and you did it diligently over two years, I think there is enough material there to designate it as algebra 2 and precalculus.

Edited August 3, 2020 by Mom2mthj