For the Best Transcript Junior Year

Future Cadet Dave · Jul 28, 2011

My Junior year begins in about a month, but I can make schedule changes in two weeks. As of right now, these are the classes I signed up for:

AP Lang
AP European History
IB Business
Chemistry
Precalculus

I was wondering what everyone thinks about me dropping AP Euro for Psychology and Sociology, semester courses, in order to take Honors Precalc. History is my love ,but I have read that your math score on SAT/ACT is the score that separates canidates. I do not think I could handle both with my other classes. I am open to any suggestions.
Thanks!!

TerryS · Jul 28, 2011

Keep the AP Euro, DS loved history and enjoyed AP Euro a lot. He is finishing up beast now and plans to major in history.

Future Cadet Dave · Jul 28, 2011

TerryS said:
Keep the AP Euro, DS loved history and enjoyed AP Euro a lot. He is finishing up beast now and plans to major in history.

Would you recommend dropping a different course in order to take Honors Precalc?

will60633 · Jul 29, 2011

Future Cadet Dave said:
Would you recommend dropping a different course in order to take Honors Precalc?

In all honesty it depends on how you think you can do. You're already loading up on the AP's which is HUGE so major props to you, bud. If you think you can pull a B at the worst case scenario, I would totally go for it.

Tominator93 · Jul 29, 2011

Future Cadet Dave said:
Would you recommend dropping a different course in order to take Honors Precalc?

I'm not a grad nor a cadet, but I'll offer my two cents here anyway, as a math-tutor who completed Congruent-Enrollment Precalculus, and took the SAT and ACT shortly thereafter.

If your main concern here is that you might need the Precal for the SAT, then don't sweat it. There isn't any material on the SAT beyond Algebra II. The ACT does include some right-angle trigonometry, but no precalculus. Besides, the trig on the ACT counts for maybe 3-5% of the score for the math anyways.

Bottom line, the majority of both the SAT and the ACT math exams will be focused on testing your geometric and algebraic quantitative reasoning skills. For the college exams, you would probably be better served brushing up on and remastering what you learned in your first two years of highschool.

All that being said, I'd still recommend, (in my perhaps under-qualified opinion) that you get Precal in there at some point. From what I hear, the academies like it if a cadet/midshipman hits the ground running on Calculus. So Precal is always a plus.

Future Cadet Dave · Jul 30, 2011

will60633 said:
In all honesty it depends on how you think you can do. You're already loading up on the AP's which is HUGE so major props to you, bud. If you think you can pull a B at the worst case scenario, I would totally go for it.

Now I'm really not sure. Would you put Honors Precalc ahead of AP Euro or IB Business in terms of importance? I think with standardized tests, it would certainly bump up the score more.

Future Cadet Dave · Jul 30, 2011

Tominator93 said:
I'm not a grad nor a cadet, but I'll offer my two cents here anyway, as a math-tutor who completed Congruent-Enrollment Precalculus, and took the SAT and ACT shortly thereafter.

If your main concern here is that you might need the Precal for the SAT, then don't sweat it. There isn't any material on the SAT beyond Algebra II. The ACT does include some right-angle trigonometry, but no precalculus. Besides, the trig on the ACT counts for maybe 3-5% of the score for the math anyways.

Bottom line, the majority of both the SAT and the ACT math exams will be focused on testing your geometric and algebraic quantitative reasoning skills. For the college exams, you would probably be better served brushing up on and remastering what you learned in your first two years of highschool.

All that being said, I'd still recommend, (in my perhaps under-qualified
opinion) that you get Precal in there at some point. From what I hear, the academies like it if a cadet/midshipman hits the ground running on Calculus. So Precal is always a plus.

Wow, thank you. I don't know how I missed your post. Now I know that Honors Precalc won't help me much more on the ACT/SAT than regular Precalc. I was always going to take Precalc though and either Calc or AP Stats Senior year. Thanks again for your help and to everyone who replied.

will60633 · Jul 31, 2011

Future Cadet Dave said:
Now I'm really not sure. Would you put Honors Precalc ahead of AP Euro or IB Business in terms of importance? I think with standardized tests, it would certainly bump up the score more.

My bad, I misunderstood why you wanted to take PreCalc in the first place. The only thing I was saying is that USMA looks favorably on an honors class versus a standard class when they evaluate your transcript.