yellowfellow,
Not only should you get the extra help, but continue to study up until I day. USAFA is known as the little engineering school in the rockies. You are stating that this is only PRE calc, not Calc or AP Calc. Many of your peers will have Calc or AP Calc under their belt before they show up at CoS. Profs know this and just like a traditional Ivy League college classes are going to move at a much faster pace. Profs care, but unlike your HS teacher they are not going to slow down the class because you are struggling....that's what office hours and tutors are for, If that foundation is not there than you are going to see this problem continue next fall. It will only be that much harder to get in front of it when you are there because you will have additional stressors.
Time to place your priorities in the right order and as a parent I would say that means it is time to get off this forum, your xbox, etc., and instead do some math problems. If the teacher only assigns the odd numbers for HW, do the even numbers too. If you have done all of those problems go online and google pre-calc study guides.
~ My kids during mid-terms and finals with classes that they were struggling would go online and see published practice tests.
I am not trying to be Janie Raincloud, but give you a glimpse of what life might be like next year if you just do it until the end of the school year and think puling a C or D is going to be enough, and than take the last few weeks of being home before reporting to USAFA to decompress and have fun.
~ If you said to me that this class was AP Calc, or AP Stats and Differentials and you pulled a C in the end, I would have a different opinion, but pre-calc in the 3 different HS that my kids (AF Brats) attended was not considered the hardest class for curriculum. My DS1 (AFROTC) and DD were not going to a STEM college and they graduated with not only pre-calc, but also either AP Calc or Stats.
Just saying at college those will be your peers. I get maybe your HS ends with pre-calc, but your HS is a pond where you are the big fish, next year you will be in a lake as the small fish again. Think back to when you made that jump from 8th grade middle to 9th grade HS and how those teachers expected more from you because you were no longer in middle school. That jump is nothing compared to the next one when it comes to academic foundations. Say what you want about the SAT and ACT when it comes to weighing it for admissions, scholarships, etc., but the reason why they use it as a bar has two reasons.
1. It tests the academic foundation you have acquired through HS.
2. It equals the playing field nationally. Everybody takes the same test regardless if they live in Elmore County Idaho or Fairfax County Virginia.
Good luck. You can do it, but it will take a lot of committment.
