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I did algebra in 6th grade when I was 11 as IB curriculum (MYP 1). WTF is the point of waiting until 9th grade? That's disgusting.

dboreham 4y ago
One thing to note is that in the US education system they name classes/courses with the names of fields in mathematics. This is quite confusing and annoying. So "Algebra" actually means "The course we called Algebra 1" (there's an Algebra 2 that comes later, also not really about Algebra). The course called Algebra 1 is basically the material the education system has decided to teach at 9th grade. That material comprises various topics, only some of which are Algebraic. Students are typically (at least in my experience) exposed to "Algebra" (symbols, equations) much earlier. Memory is fading but for my kids something like 5th grade. I still have some of their scrawled equations on a white board in my office from back in those days... Edit: they continue this confusion (at least consistently confusing) by calling the 10th grade class "Geometry" even though it's only somewhat about Geometry, and students will have met triangles and obtuse angles and whatnot years earlier. And so on through to "Pre-Calculus" which...you can guess is not much about Calculus, but the stuff they think should be taught before teaching Calculus (very scary).
- abigail95 4y ago
  Thank you for the info. I actually really like features of the USA system, especially AP classes. The flexibility of AP is great. International baccalaureate actually places a limit on how many advanced subjects you can do and is completely inflexible to anyone trying to do more work or graduate early.
hadlock 4y ago
We had "pre-algebra" in 6th grade (optional) which was more or less foundational algebra, otherwise you took, whatever was the next step. Then in 7th grade you could take "algebra" and 8th was "algebra 2" if you wanted. Graduation from 8th grade required passing "algebra". Then in 9th or 10th grade you took "high school algebra" which was a big step up from 7th grade Algebra. From there you either took geometry + trig, or geometry + algebra 2 + precalc, or had the option to do all four years geometry + algebra 2 + precalc + calc. Most of these had honors and AP variations that were opt-in.

dboreham 4y ago

One thing to note is that in the US education system they name classes/courses with the names of fields in mathematics. This is quite confusing and annoying. So "Algebra" actually means "The course we called Algebra 1" (there's an Algebra 2 that comes later, also not really about Algebra). The course called Algebra 1 is basically the material the education system has decided to teach at 9th grade. That material comprises various topics, only some of which are Algebraic. Students are typically (at least in my experience) exposed to "Algebra" (symbols, equations) much earlier. Memory is fading but for my kids something like 5th grade. I still have some of their scrawled equations on a white board in my office from back in those days... Edit: they continue this confusion (at least consistently confusing) by calling the 10th grade class "Geometry" even though it's only somewhat about Geometry, and students will have met triangles and obtuse angles and whatnot years earlier. And so on through to "Pre-Calculus" which...you can guess is not much about Calculus, but the stuff they think should be taught before teaching Calculus (very scary).

abigail95 4y ago
Thank you for the info. I actually really like features of the USA system, especially AP classes. The flexibility of AP is great. International baccalaureate actually places a limit on how many advanced subjects you can do and is completely inflexible to anyone trying to do more work or graduate early.

hadlock 4y ago

We had "pre-algebra" in 6th grade (optional) which was more or less foundational algebra, otherwise you took, whatever was the next step. Then in 7th grade you could take "algebra" and 8th was "algebra 2" if you wanted. Graduation from 8th grade required passing "algebra". Then in 9th or 10th grade you took "high school algebra" which was a big step up from 7th grade Algebra. From there you either took geometry + trig, or geometry + algebra 2 + precalc, or had the option to do all four years geometry + algebra 2 + precalc + calc. Most of these had honors and AP variations that were opt-in.