Saxon Algebra 2 seems so weird to me: to use or not to use?

[Annie N]

Now my daughter loves Saxon, but it has driven me nuts ever since I looked at the k/1 scripts lo these many years ago...

 

My daughter did Foerster's Alg 1 not all the way through. My problem is that Saxon Alg 2 has very little about the quadratic equation and doesn't even start on it til lesson 50 :eek: is this normal? I remember struggling forever with the QE when I took Alg 2, and it seemed to be the majority of the course.

 

Also, I can't believe the word problems! They are still doing very easy ratio problems but they seem to want the students to do them a different way? We had much tougher word problems when I was in school--here they don't get to the coin problems til Lesson 111???? And have they changed the way to solve those problems, now using subscripts? And why?

 

I am sorry to complain, but if it turns out that this is no good, I will tell her ot stop until we can get Foersters. Thanks ever so much for any light you can shed on this!

[kathleen]

First, I wouldn't have a student using Saxon alg. 2 if she had not already used alg. 1. Saxon's program is different because it incorporates geometry in the upper levels. Consequently, things you may see in some alg. 1 or 2 courses may or may not be in Saxon at the same "named" level. All the same topics will be covered if a student finishes Advanced Math, though.

 

I'm not sure what you mean about the way to do the word problems, though! I don't have Saxon alg. 2 anymore. But we used Saxon through Adv. Math and loved it.

[Mary in WA]

Our kids used Saxon all the way through and scored very high grades on their SAT tests. I personally liked it because I had forgotten all of my own high school math and learned it again with them, even to the point of later on being a high school math teacher. The kids did not like the repetition but I loved the course, and the results were just what we had hoped for.

[Anne/Ankara]

We've used Saxon all the way, now in the middle of Alg 2, and personally I really like the word problems. But can't compare it to other Alg 2 books... still, we like it quite a bit!

[Janet in WA]

Now my daughter loves Saxon, but it has driven me nuts ever since I looked at the k/1 scripts lo these many years ago...

 

My daughter did Foerster's Alg 1 not all the way through. My problem is that Saxon Alg 2 has very little about the quadratic equation and doesn't even start on it til lesson 50 :eek: is this normal? I remember struggling forever with the QE when I took Alg 2, and it seemed to be the majority of the course.

 

Also, I can't believe the word problems! They are still doing very easy ratio problems but they seem to want the students to do them a different way? We had much tougher word problems when I was in school--here they don't get to the coin problems til Lesson 111???? And have they changed the way to solve those problems, now using subscripts? And why?

 

I am sorry to complain, but if it turns out that this is no good, I will tell her ot stop until we can get Foersters. Thanks ever so much for any light you can shed on this!

I'm not sure why it matters when the quadratic equation is introduced. I don't think that's a really important issue.

 

We used Saxon all they way through high school, and our sons have done very well with the SAT, ACT, college placement tests and college maths. But I know exactly what you mean about your discomfort with the way Saxon does things. I felt the same way over all the years we used it (first experience was with the 1st grade book). But our sons did well with it. The thing is, if you're going to use Saxon, you need to learn to just trust the method. I didn't manage that until our sons begged me to please stop trying other math programs and just let them stick with Saxon.