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Algebra directly to calculus? No trigonometry, geometry or statistics?

by fma 9y ago

chrisseaton 9y ago
Do you need statistics in order to do calculus? They seem independent. I didn't do much statistics at high school because it didn't interest me as much, but I did calculus. In fact you'll find more applications of calculus in statistics than statistics in calculus won't you? Seems the wrong way around to do statistics first.
- analog31 9y ago
  As I recall, my statistics class used calculus, at least for some of the proofs and derivations.
- fma 9y ago
  I think they are independent, I never took stats but took calculus in high school :) Just seemed surprised that OP seemed to imply his high school offered only two courses... Algebra and calculus. Mine offered algebra 1,2, stats 1,2 geometry, trigonometry, Calc 1 and 2. Of course also pre algebra if you didnt take that in middle school...
megaman22 9y ago
Most of geometry and trig was covered in that algebra textbook. The rest, I picked up more from shop and programming classes than I did from my high school mathematics courses; trig is incredibly useful for e.g. planning out rafter designs for building construction, and when the programming environment you are using for graphics consists primarily of poking pixels, and doing collision tests by hand, you become very familiar with geometric equations. Stats remained something of a blind spot.
txcwpalpha 9y ago
When I went through middle/high school about a decade ago, the curriculum for honors students in Texas was: algebra in 7th/8th grade, geometry/trigonometry in 9th grade, pre-calculus (aka calculus lite) in 10th grade, advanced algebra 11th grade, and in 12th grade you had the option to take calculus or statistics (or both). From my experience, at least, my math education was astoundingly good. I went to a top 50 US university and immediately went into advanced math classes my freshman year and felt fine. The problem, though, is that I followed the "honors student" curriculum. The "regulars students" curriculum didn't include advanced algebra, calc, or stats, and the quality of geom/trig/algebra education that was included wasn't that great. Another problem is that this was just my experience in Texas. Other states have different curriculums, which makes the whole exercise of saying "education in the US is ____" very difficult.

Algebra directly to calculus? No trigonometry, geometry or statistics?

by fma 9y ago

Algebra directly to calculus? No trigonometry, geometry or statistics?

Do you need statistics in order to do calculus? They seem independent. I didn't do much statistics at high school because it didn't interest me as much, but I did calculus. In fact you'll find more applications of calculus in statistics than statistics in calculus won't you? Seems the wrong way around to do statistics first.

analog31 9y ago
As I recall, my statistics class used calculus, at least for some of the proofs and derivations.
fma 9y ago
I think they are independent, I never took stats but took calculus in high school :) Just seemed surprised that OP seemed to imply his high school offered only two courses... Algebra and calculus. Mine offered algebra 1,2, stats 1,2 geometry, trigonometry, Calc 1 and 2. Of course also pre algebra if you didnt take that in middle school...

megaman22 9y ago

Most of geometry and trig was covered in that algebra textbook. The rest, I picked up more from shop and programming classes than I did from my high school mathematics courses; trig is incredibly useful for e.g. planning out rafter designs for building construction, and when the programming environment you are using for graphics consists primarily of poking pixels, and doing collision tests by hand, you become very familiar with geometric equations. Stats remained something of a blind spot.

txcwpalpha 9y ago

When I went through middle/high school about a decade ago, the curriculum for honors students in Texas was: algebra in 7th/8th grade, geometry/trigonometry in 9th grade, pre-calculus (aka calculus lite) in 10th grade, advanced algebra 11th grade, and in 12th grade you had the option to take calculus or statistics (or both). From my experience, at least, my math education was astoundingly good. I went to a top 50 US university and immediately went into advanced math classes my freshman year and felt fine. The problem, though, is that I followed the "honors student" curriculum. The "regulars students" curriculum didn't include advanced algebra, calc, or stats, and the quality of geom/trig/algebra education that was included wasn't that great. Another problem is that this was just my experience in Texas. Other states have different curriculums, which makes the whole exercise of saying "education in the US is ____" very difficult.