FAQ: High School College Prep Base Curriculum

happy1
Tue, 30 May 2017 14:46:14 +0000

@“Snowball City” I’m not saying that the top colleges don’t teach calculus – they certainly do. The issue I’ve seen from personal experience is that students who take intro to calculus at top colleges have mostly all had the material already.

My S did not take calculus in 12th grade. When he got to college (a fine college but one which is ranked below 50 in USNWR) and took calculus he found he was one of only 3 students (out of 40 or so) in his class did not have calculus in HS. Needless to say it was very difficult, very time consuming etc. to compete with a classroom of students who had the material before. People retake calculus for many reasons – some to have an easier class, some want to take higher level math and feel it is best to start the sequence from the beginning at the college, some didn’t get AP credit etc. So, yes calculus 1 is taught in even the best of colleges, but from what I have seen students without calculus in HS will be at a competitive disadvantage in the class if they take it at a top college without having it in HS…

Anyway, that is the basis for my comment. I hope your younger S had a different experience. As with everything, YMMV.