<p>Alright, so I self studied precalculus so I could take AP Calculus AB this year at my school. Turns out I can’t skip precalculus (which my math teach encouraged me to do) unless I get a signature from the principle, my math teacher, my parents, my consular, and myself. I then had to fax the signatures to a country representative. Now the county representative is going to come to my school at a date that hasn’t been decided yet, give me a test (my guidance consular isn’t allowed to administer the test) without me knowing the format, time limit, question amount, or anything about the test other than I have to score a 80+ and that it is precalculus. (hopefully I’ll know more about the test when a date is given to me)</p>
<p>I’m very confident of my ability to pass the test easily (unless they give me something that was all rotation of conics problems… I hate those and they take forever), but I’ve had memorize pretty much all the trig identities and nearly all the equations in the textbook, because I have no idea what equations/identities I’ll be given or what will be tested. </p>
<p>If one wants to skip a math class is this normal or do you guys think that the school board in my county (or who ever comes up with the rules) has made this ridiculous? I’ve read threads on cc where it seems students in other areas do not have to fill out any paper work or take any tests to skip precalculus, and none have had to have a county employee come to their school to administer the test. </p>
<p>I apologize for the rant, but this is beyond frustrating and I was ready to take the test a month ago, and I’ve went through my textbook three times.</p>
<p>Wow, that seems pretty elaborate. In our public school, you have to give notice at the end of the school year, study during the summer, and take the final exam for the class on a specific date right before school starts. If you pass, you get credit, but not a grade.</p>
<p>Same here, my school didn’t specify what test, but they said it would be two tests. The class is A and B so it would be logical to think they’re are giving me the finals for both semesters. I haven’t gotten to trig identities and they look pretty hard. Any tips?</p>
<p>Headed2great, they are actually fairly simple to remember for the most part. I don’t really have any special way to remember them but, alot of them are similar. Do a bunch of trig puzzles involving the fundamental trig equations, and you’ll remember those. Memorize the sum and difference formulas, because they are important (I think) and you can use them to make double angle, triple angle… formulas. The power reducing formulas and half angle formulas look similar and well thats about all I got for you. The sum and difference formula for Tan is later used to find the angle between two lines, so make sure you get that one too.</p>
<p>At my school, kids who move to my county from different counties, states, countries, etc., are given a placement test (which I think is the final from the past year), and if they score above a B, then they can skip the class. They don’t get GPA credit for it though. My friend from England moved this year, and was put in Algebra 1, but took a placement exam to skip geometry next year. She told me she could have skipped Algebra 1 as well since she knew the basics, but it was too late to take the exam. Like you said, I think at my school, skipping a class, especially math, is as hard because they really want to make sure you know it. However, I think the guidance counselors proctor the exam.</p>
<p>At my school you don’t even have to test out. I told them I knew Pre-Calculus and Calculus AB while in Honors Algebra II, took the AP Calc exam, and they just assumed I knew Pre-Calc.</p>
<p>To be honest in our county it is VERY difficult to skip out of any class. With my son (who was home schooled two years) we were told he needed to test out of the courses in May prior to enrolling. In June we got notification he wouldn’t need to test. In September he was skipped from Algebra I, but not Geometry. At the end of October, we were told he needed to test out of both. It was a very long and frustrating situation for us. My daughter will be re-entering the public school system this year and I fear a similar situation. </p>
<p>The truth is, any time you do something outside of the norm, you will have to go through whatever is in place. At least they allow you to skip courses, we have found there are a few classes you can test out of, but other courses it is impossible. </p>
<p>Wow, that’s crazy, Patton370. Our school is nothing like that. I took Trigonometry my sophomore year. I asked my guidance counselor if I could skip AP Calculus AB and go straight to BC if I took Calculus I at Harvard over the summer and he said yes. So, I did. I just finished BC Calculus; easy as pie (I’m referring to skipping, not calculus; calculus gave me a hard time.).</p>
<p>Wow. At my school you can basically sign up for whatever you want, take as many honors classes as you want, take as many AP’s as you want. If you want to skip an entire class, all you have to do is take an approved online/summer course and pass it. They’re not going to hinder your education.</p>
<p>I think the perspective here is that if you are going to skip a lower level class and then move on to a higher level class and do well in it, then that is a positive for our school (improves their numbers in the higher level classes). Not that many students really even give it a try here. Maybe in more competitive schools, all of the kids would be taking the test-out and no one would take the class anymore. That could be a problem.</p>
<p>I just took the test and I’m 99% sure I got a 80+. It was a 40 question multiple choice test. A little less than half the test was advanced algebra 2 (synthetic division, graphs, asymptotes, one question on composition of functions, and…), then 1/4 of it was simple trig and trig functions, and the rest of the test was vectors, conics, and sequences. </p>
<p>The county employee (I forget what her title is) decided to fax the test to my school and allow me to take it there, but my counselor was not given an answer key, and has to fax my answers back to the county employee. I was given unlimited time, so I worked through the test 3 times, and there was only 1 or 2 questions I know I most likely got wrong. (They had a power reducing question, and I mixed up the formula with another…)</p>
<p>Movetoome, kids testing out wouldn’t be much of a problem at my school. A 30+ on the ACT is rare here. (The top 2 ACT scores in my graduating class so far is a 31 (my friend) and my 30). A lot people in my school don’t want to end up in AP calculus and end up in AP stats instead. I came from a school system where precalculus is the highest math offered, so thats why I’m a year behind.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s insane, but at least they care about you being prepared. In my school you have t have a high math average (around 96+) and take a placement test and bam, you’re in Calc BC.</p>