Heyo! I’m a rising freshman and this summer I decided to take Algebra II online through Northwestern’s Gifted and Talented CTD Program. While I’m still passing the class with a 95, I’m not very confident with what I’ve done. It was a completely independent course - There was a teacher but basically all she did was grade and occasionally answer questions. Unfortunately, by the time responded (normally a day or two later), I would already have struggled through it and be 4-5 sections ahead thanks to the intense pace.
Now, what I’m deciding is whether or not I should count this course for credit or not. My school agreed to accept it, but here’s the thing- I don’t want to take precalculus and completely struggle through it because I didn’t have a good foundation in Algebra II. If I retake the class, I’ll fly through it and probably pass with a very high A thanks to already knowing most of the material. The advantage to this would also be learning the basics of what I failed to learn in my online course.
The disadvantage, of course, is that I basically wasted my entire summer when I could have been taking biology at a camp in person, or actually been able to relax when I was on vacation and stuff haha. On top of that, my ego would obviously be hurt 
Another option I have is I could take AP Stats online (Not through CTD this time! Probably through GAVS [Georgia Virtual School] or JHU’s CTY Online since I hear there is actually student-teacher interaction) concurrently with Algebra II while using the proof of Algebra II (which is a prerequisite for the course) from this summer course. Since Algebra II will become an easy course for me in school, I could probably handle squeezing in another math class.
Overall, I would of course prefer going to precalculus. However, I also feel like I’ve forgotten half of what I’ve done and I know that’s not good. I could grasp the material while I was doing it, but it didn’t stick. I didn’t have much time to process, after all. But I also hear that precalculus is basically a review of Algebra II so maybe that’ll be good for me? I’m confused. Help!
Unless my school is an outlier, Pre-Calculus is a review of Algebra I and Algebra II. I would take Precalculus. If you are overwhelmed, you can always switch back to Algebra II.
Take PreCalc. All it does is review parts of Algebra 2 and teaches you trig, with an intro to Calc towards the end. You should be fine.
Thanks guys! Your comments have motivated to study hard for my last test 
Echoing what other people have said, I think Pre-Calc will be fine. I did a shaky flex credit for Algebra II (the syllabus my class followed was very different from the syllabus that my school’s class followed, and the school refused to give supplementary materials…) and took Pre-Calc two years after, and I was able to rock Pre-Calc and fill in some holes from Algebra II. A lot of what happens in P-C is introducing new concepts that build directly on top of Algebra II, just basic extensions of ideas, so those ideas are revisited.
Best of luck!
How will you be taking the course through Georgia Virtual School?
How much will you be paying?
The course is online. I have to talk to my school about payment, because if the online course is a part of your school day (meaning it’s on your schedule), the school pays the fees. Haven’t looked into details yet, just considering it as an option. I assume my school would be flexible about it.
Bump, haha sorry, could use a couple more responses
At my school pre-calc has no review from algebra…
I did the same you did and took algebra 2 over the summer. I did really well in the class (97 in class 94 on final) but the school made me take their final. I passed, but barely, as did everyone else who took the class. It was on ALEKs and was independent but at a CC… Was not prepared for the final at all. I am taking algebra in sophomore year, and hey, I’ll do well in it since I know a lot of the concepts (the final was on the two chapters we didn’t do on ALEKS…) and it taught me some stuff.
Any questions, feel free to ask me,
Yep, turns out I had to retake the class anyway because they couldn’t allow it to count for credit. Ah well. I wasted my whole summer, but at least I have an easy class.