Thread: Need Help Preparing!

I am a high school freshman and this year I have taken the following: Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, Algebra II. I want to continue to take two math, and science classes a year. My school is making it so I can't, but I talked to my guidance officer and he said I still could. Now my principle said I could skip
Pre-Calculus next year and go straight to Calculus! I told my schools Calculus teacher and he said in order for that I would have to talk a test next year to see if I was ready, so my question is what parts of Pre-Calculus (And Trigonometry) do I need to know?


I have already taught myself a lot, because my school is slow paced for me *yawn* but I know I don't know everything! Hard Subjects will not be a problem for me if I have questions I'll ask you guys!

Take the test and find out.

Originally Posted by cosmictraveler

Take the test and find out.

Not quite what I was asking! I know for a fact that don't know it all! I study math and science during my summer free time, so I want to know all topics in it I need to know so that I can study them!

Did you ask your guidance counselor about your questions? Or the teacher could also help you as well.

Originally Posted by cosmictraveler

Did you ask your guidance counselor about your questions? Or the teacher could also help you as well.

My guidance counselor is useless, but I never thought to ask my teacher...

In the US there's usually a lot of overlap between algebra II and precalc--the main difference precalc adds trigonometry and sometimes a short introduction to calculus with simple linear equations. Concentrate on the trig and application of algebra to trig.

Originally Posted by MindlessMath

I am a high school freshman and this year I have taken the following: Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, Algebra II. I want to continue to take two math, and science classes a year. My school is making it so I can't, but I talked to my guidance officer and he said I still could. Now my principle said I could skip
Pre-Calculus next year and go straight to Calculus! I told my schools Calculus teacher and he said in order for that I would have to talk a test next year to see if I was ready, so my question is what parts of Pre-Calculus (And Trigonometry) do I need to know?


I have already taught myself a lot, because my school is slow paced for me *yawn* but I know I don't know everything! Hard Subjects will not be a problem for me if I have questions I'll ask you guys!

You need to buy (or have your parents buy) an actual pre-calc book from Amazon. Trig is as essential as it gets, it can't be bypassed. And you need to be firmly grounded in functions, eponential/logarithmic functions. Another thing to beware of is limits: Some paths teach limits in pre-calc and assume you already learned them in calc, others teach it first thing in calc. Ask the calc teacher if he teaches limits, and if not, make DARN sure you know them before starting.

You can try edx or coursera - they are free online courses offered by many different Universities - just check 'em out and search for math or calculus or precalculus or whatever interests you.


Here is a download for a free calc one textbook. https://mooculus.osu.edu/handouts