Skipping a Few Years in Math

johnshade
Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:08:39 +0000

This is doable but difficult. Given your track record, there is no reason to think you can’t do it. The challenge will be to be sure you have truly internalized the material. I would see if your teachers will write you some practice tests that you can take while you are doing this. It would be even better if they will grade them for you. At my daughters’ school, there is a well-defined path for self-study of pre-calc over the summer. The student has to get hold of their own copy of the textbook, but they are given a syllabus containing week-by-week assignments (including problem sets) to take home. At the end of the summer, they must take a placement test and score 90% or better to be allowed to place into BC Calculus. It’s rigorous and in a school full of nerds, only a few actually succeed, but those that do can be assured that they have gained enough command of the pre-calc material that they will not get bogged down in calculus for lack of adequate preparation.