Hi! I’m an international student transferring to a US boarding school. I am reclassing into the 10th grade. I plan to major in STEM in college and want to apply to Ivy+ and other top-tier schools.
This year at my current school, we covered stereometry, derivatives, limits, logarithms (which I struggle with), and using Taylor series to find limits.
According to the boarding school’s website, the common course progression for 10th graders, from most to least common, is: Geometry, Algebra 2, Precalculus, and Algebra 1.
I also need to consider that I will be adapting to a new environment, including taking classes entirely in English and moving to a new country.
What math class should I take in the 10th grade in your opinion? Is it worth the risk to try and take Calculus BC in the 10th grade instead of the 11th?
You should work with your boarding school on placement. They are best versed to help you establish the proper math foundation and will intimately know their curriculum. And if the school doesn’t offer APs, US based colleges will not expect you to take it outside of school/self study.
The answer is that you take whatever course your placement test results and math department recommends. Contrary to what you read on Reddit, in the US, particularly at boarding schools, you don’t really have the choice on what math course to take. Especially when coming from a different system, the goal is to ensure you’re prepared for the right course for you. I have seen many instances where students from an American school are repeating the math class at the boarding school because they weren’t prepared for the rigor.
Boarding school in the US is not a “choose your own adventure” or “all you can eat buffet lunch” arrangement. You will have a lot to adjust to- and the best way to to do that is to allow the professionals (head of the math department, your academic counselor, the Calc instructor) to place you where you belong.
Do not stress over this- and don’t try to override your placements in ANY academic course.
Every student coming into BS is coming from some other system. Even in the US, schools have different approaches to math.
As a result, the schools are very good at math placement AND have good systems in place if they get it wrong at the outset.
You will also have an advisor who will be invested in working with you to ensure that you have the right balance in your schedule. They are familiar with what is involved in transitioning to a new school as well as the challenges for international students.
You’re smart to think about this because both your advisor and the math department will be best able to help you if you can articulate your wishes and concerns. They want to see you thrive!
Based on your description, it sounds like a calculus course would be most appropriate BUT you will need to take a placement test + bring all syllabi/curriculum materials so they make the best decision for you. If they decide you should take Precalculus with their curriculum then that’s what it’ll be.
I would be very cautious about jumping ahead in math. Math is an area where whatever you are learning depends a LOT on whatever you have learned, or were supposed to have learned in the past. Calculus in particular depends a LOT on all its prerequisites.
Also, taking Calculus BC in 11th grade is already ahead of normal. Taking calculus (whether AB or BC) in 12th grade might be normal for someone who is good at math.
Also, the only students who should even think about taking calculus even as early as 11th grade are students who are very good at math. These are specifically the students who are likely to be using calculus a LOT in future classes. Calculus really is useful in a lot of areas. This is something that is worth taking the time to learn very well.
I would say no, unless the boarding school is VERY confident that you are already very strong on every prerequisite for calculus.
I wouldn’t worry about this at all. I know a few people who attended high schools that did not offer any AP classes at all, and they all did fine in university. This really is not a problem.
What everyone else said–your boarding school will determing the correct placement for you. In the rare circumstances they get it wrong to start, they can and will move you.
I note my D30 just went through the Math placement process at her boarding school. Her private K-8 is pretty good at preparing kids for private school Math sequences, and she had taken Algebra 1 in 7th grade and Geometry in 8th grade, so logically should be going into Algebra 2. But the placement exam nonetheless tested this, and in fact since it is a dynamic test, it stopped asking about topics where she clearly knew the answers, and pushed to find the limits.
So afterwards when discussing the test, we joked about how toward the end, it kept asking her Trig subjects. It was like, “Are you sure you don’t know Trig yet? What about this topic? No? How about this one?” No, she does not know Trig yet.
It then spit out her analysis, and sure enough, she was exactly where she should be for placement in Algebra 2. They haven’t actually assigned her yet, but I am pretty confident that will in fact be her assignment.
Anyway, this is just illustrating there is nothing at all haphazard about how they do this. They will do the work up front to determine what you do or don’t know yet, and again if for some reason they think an adjustment is necessary once you get started, they will make that adjustment.
Yeah, a lot of US private schools have gotten away from offering their advanced classes as APs (or never did it in the first place). Long story short, they think teaching to the test is not as good for your education as teaching what their department wants to teach.
And this is not bad in terms of preparation for college classes, if anything it is probably better most of the time, since they ALSO won’t be teaching to some specific standardized test.
The only real “problem” is it may then be harder to get college credit. Placement is usually not an issue, since usually colleges will also have available placement tests. But automatic credit may be harder.
I think the basic calculation is that most of their students won’t actually benefit from much AP credit. Like, they will go to the types of colleges which limit AP credit opportunities anyway, or otherwise they can afford not to care. That might not always be a good assumption, but you can still self-study for tests if you really want to.
A more cynical reason may be that, since AP courses are now widespread in “ordinary” high schools, “elite” high schools wanting to market themselves as “differently better” now claim that AP “is not good enough”, even though AP started as a collaboration between “elite” high schools and “elite” colleges so that students moving between them would not have to repeat what they already learned.
Because calculus is relatively standardized and testable (resulting in AP calculus scores being more widely useful than other AP scores for advanced placement in colleges), some “elite” high schools that have stopped following AP syllabi for most advanced level courses do retain coverage of AP calculus material in their calculus courses (whether or not designated AP).