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Maybe not grade school, but calculus comes in tenth grade or so, if my memory is right. Quadratic equations are 8th grade, compared to 11th in North America. I

Maybe not grade school, but calculus comes in tenth grade or so, if my memory is right. Quadratic equations are 8th grade, compared to 11th in North America. It's actually telling of the quality of education, given that I did better in Math in college than in high school (in North America), and I still found it not anywhere rigorous enough.

RogerL 13y ago
I did quadratic equations in 7th grade in the US, in a back woods small hillbilly school in the US. With that said, I've generally heard foreign students equate the junior year of a math degree at college to their senior year at high school. I don't dispute your general point.
michael_h 13y ago
There is no 'North America' when talking about education. There isn't even a 'United States'. The high school experience differs widely. I went to public school in southeast Ohio. Quadratic equations (for me) were 8th grade. Calculus started midway through 10th, but didn't really get moving until 11th grade.
- amichal 13y ago
  My US public high school did not offer calculus at all during my tenure. Resulted in very interesting conversations with university admissions departments.
tomkarlo 13y ago
As others have pointed out, it varies widely by school and district. I went to public high school in the US, and we did Calculus and Multivariate Calculus in 11th and 12th grade. (And this is not uncommon, given that it maps to the two Advanced Placement math tests widely taken by US high school students.)
- dubya 13y ago
  It's being standardized now across most states. It looks like quadratic equations are in high school. http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/HSA/APR http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/HSA/APR
  - tomkarlo 13y ago
    The linked doc is specifically minimum grade-level standards. It explicitly states that it doesn't cover how schools should address students that exceed those minimum standards, which would include anyone taking more advanced math courses. "The Standards set grade-specific standards but do not define the intervention methods or materials necessary to support students who are well below or well above grade-level expectations." I.e., this defines what constitutes "grade-level" skill sets, but lots of better schools will exceed those standards by one or more years - their 10th graders may be operating at the 12th-grade standard, etc.

RogerL 13y ago

I did quadratic equations in 7th grade in the US, in a back woods small hillbilly school in the US. With that said, I've generally heard foreign students equate the junior year of a math degree at college to their senior year at high school. I don't dispute your general point.

michael_h 13y ago

There is no 'North America' when talking about education. There isn't even a 'United States'. The high school experience differs widely. I went to public school in southeast Ohio. Quadratic equations (for me) were 8th grade. Calculus started midway through 10th, but didn't really get moving until 11th grade.

amichal 13y ago
My US public high school did not offer calculus at all during my tenure. Resulted in very interesting conversations with university admissions departments.

tomkarlo 13y ago

As others have pointed out, it varies widely by school and district. I went to public high school in the US, and we did Calculus and Multivariate Calculus in 11th and 12th grade. (And this is not uncommon, given that it maps to the two Advanced Placement math tests widely taken by US high school students.)

dubya 13y ago
It's being standardized now across most states. It looks like quadratic equations are in high school. http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/HSA/APR http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/HSA/APR
- tomkarlo 13y ago
  The linked doc is specifically minimum grade-level standards. It explicitly states that it doesn't cover how schools should address students that exceed those minimum standards, which would include anyone taking more advanced math courses. "The Standards set grade-specific standards but do not define the intervention methods or materials necessary to support students who are well below or well above grade-level expectations." I.e., this defines what constitutes "grade-level" skill sets, but lots of better schools will exceed those standards by one or more years - their 10th graders may be operating at the 12th-grade standard, etc.