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MUS for end of high school: prepared for college calc?
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Has anyone used Math-u-see for high school math, then transitioned to college math (calculus, etc.)? Do you feel MUS adequately prepared them for the mat road ahead? I have one student doing MUS for her final high school math years (geom, alg 2, precalc) and another using a more traditional (and I think, rigorous) math for those levels and I’m concerned if my MUS student will be prepared for the math road ahead when she gets to college. I hope so! But she will be moving into precalc next so I can still make a change if needed.
What is your experience? Thank you!
Hey, Mysterious Lady, how are your girls? Can you believe how old our older kids are getting????
As far as I know I’m one of the only people on the planet to finish PreCalc with MUS. You might consider asking this on the MUS user group. There aren’t many of us. My best answer is—I think so, I hope. 🙂 We began the MUS Calculus program this spring with Cade. I can’t recommend it at all–it’s disjointed and hard to follow. But with a little help from the MUS folks we successfully completed PreCalc. I’m not 100% sure how we’ll do yet. Cade scored very well on the PSAT, fairly well on the SAT (which tests some of the harder stuff) He thinks he’s OK with his precalc knowledge. He actually stumbled a little on geometry of all things on the SAT–he’s reviewing that now in preparation for another assault on the SAT in May. He will be taking the COMPASS test this summer to place hopefully in Calc 1 at the community college this fall in prep for his college physics class he needs to take his first semester of college. We’ll see how he does on that, and on the SAT Math II test he’ll take in September. I can report in when we find out how he did. It certainly won’t be because of MY great advanced math skills if he does reasonably well.
I certainly wouldn’t recommend attempting MUS Calculus. It’s just not working out for us. I hope we have enough coverage of trig and limits that he’ll do OK on COMPASS. It really was I thought at the time, the only option I’d have a prayer of being able to understand, so that’s why it seemed important to us to continue with MUS. I, however, still got lost somewhere in the last half of Algebra II and I’ve stayed lost ever since. I’ve managed to learn enough trig to be able to check his physics assignments and that’s it, I’m afraid. We’re at this time planning to continue Evan on MUS through pre-calc, as well (he’s in Algebra II now)
Try asking the much brighter than me folks at the MUS user group. Or on the hs2college group–are you on there? There are several people there teaching precalc and calc but only a handful of MUS users. Everyone seems to like The Art of Problem Solving over there, but it’s soooooo over my head it’s pitiful.
On the better front—Cade really rocked on the critical reading and writing portions of the SAT–so since that was not his original “strength” I’m really, really, really confident in CM language arts methods!!!
Michelle
Bookworm!! I always love hearing your thoughts, and I miss you! Yes, it is so hard to believe that I can have children this old! Just the other day I was at the zoo with my littles and was reminded about how I used to go regularly with my “big girls” and we’d do our nature notebooks and picnic, etc. It seems like that was so recent, but it was years ago and now they are almost out of the house. Excited for them, but I will miss them so much! <sniff> I need to catch up with you!
BUT, back to MUS! lol Thank you so much for your reply. I have not checked out those other forums for feedback, but I think that’s a good idea. It can get a little sparse for feedback on these final high school years. Very interesting about calculus, and good to know since that was an option on the table. So… it sounds like you would still recommend the precalc though…. Hmm…. I’m inclined to let her stick with it because math has been a tough sell and this is the best it’s ever been with my oldest 2 using 2 separate programs. I’ll be honest: I am concerned about what’s really being covered in MUS — for example, it seems like my non-MUS dd covered a lot of trig in Alg 2, whereas MUS Alg 2 is just doing a bit at the end. In fact, my MUS dd is just finishing up the final Alg 2 lessons and commented on how easy all of this is because she had to learn this trig (and more) on the fly in her Physics class this year. But, I think it’s solid for what topics she is covering… and maybe sometimes less is more, if they understand it better. (I hope!) Well, she’s taking the ACT in a few weeks, so we’ll see how that pans out. Obviously she has plenty of math for what’s covered, but it will be interesting to see how the 2 do with their divergent math programs in high school.
And congrats to Cade on those SAT portions! Sounds like things are going pretty well there. Always makes me happy to see your “name” here. 🙂 Take care, my friend!
I am also wondering about MUS at the high school level. I posted a question a while back and didn’t get too many responses regarding the initial topic.
Since, I have done some research and found a good review by Cathy Duffy in “100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum”. In regard to algebra Duffy states, “Algebra I does not cover as much territory as do most other first-year algebra courses….I recommend this course for students who are average to slow in math……[Algebra 2] moves on to new matierial rather queickly (as compared to many other second-year algebra courses), so it brings the total of Math-U-See’s algebra coverage up close to that of other publishers….Students should be able to move on to either precalculus or trigonometry courses after completing Algebra 2.”
In regard to geometry Duffy states, “This course if fairly traditional in presentation and coverage, although it is an easier course than most. While it covers the standard topics, it does not go as far in depth…..However, Demme introduces geometric proofs in lesson 24 and uses them through the end of the course. He also introduces trigonometry and transformations in the last three lessons. Algebra is reviewed from time to time within the lessons.”
Can anyone using these levels attest to this one way or another? Thanks, Melissa
It sounds to me like Duffy did not include the honors pages in her review. I think with the addition of the honors pages, both the algebra and geometry programs are quite solid. I strongly prefer the way MUS teaches algebra and geometry; there may be more difficult courses out there, but because of my own personal experience, it seems to me preferable to get the basics down and UNDERSTAND them. My own education may have “covered” more but I had no idea what they were talking about. This is a problem. 🙂
And yes, actually, many topics in upcoming books are presented at the end of a book–geometry at the end of algebra, trig at the end of Algebra II. And there is review in the Systematic Review pages throughout.
The format of the books changes somewhat when you get to PreCalc. There are then no honors pages, and the typical format of two to three topical pages followed by three systematic review pages is different as well.
I have actually heard all kinds of criticisms of upper level math. I have heard Teaching Textbooks criticized for being too easy. I’ve heard Saxon criticized as being too formulaic. I’ve heard other books criticized as being too old-fashioned, too hard, too easy, too something. IMO each family needs to look at what it can actually pull off. If Mom is strong in upper level math, then you are going to have more choices. Most students are going to need some help with math at this level; there are the occasional math prodigies but by and large, a teen is going to need access to SOMEONE who can help figure out where he went wrong on a proof or a long complex problem. If you are that someone, you’d better look for a program you think you are going to be able to understand and figure out where Junior goes wrong. 🙂
Michelle, one of my daughters wants to redo some Geometry because she really did not get it, partly due to her illness, and she is also extremely visual in her learning style – I have not found Teaching Textbooks to be to her liking in the past and Jacobs which I have gave her nightmare lol. Do you think MUS Geometry would be a good fit? Linda
Well, I did not get geometry in high school. I really struggled. It just did not make sense to me. But I loved MUS geometry. I had no trouble with it at all, even liked it. Some of this may be that I’m older and more experienced, and highly motivated since I had kids taking it, but I got it. I wish I could have had it taught MUS way in high school. I might not have dropped out of math entirely. I’m a very visual learner, and needed to take things a step at a time, which I think is well done in MUS geometry. Instead of introducing proofs first and then adding theorems, it slowly builds up the theorems, and at least I remember thinking “Oh, yeah, of course those two would be the same!” and then slowly adds proofs in increments, too, at first doing part of the work for you so you can really follow the steps but without expecting you to know all by yourself what to do next, and THEN at the end giving you proofs to do on your own. It worked better for me, at least.
Thanks for that – it sounds like it may be a good fit for her and I will get it. We watched the demo video and she liked him and his method from what she saw – but I always like to have a personal recommendation. If she wanted to refresh her Algebra 1 would MUS also be a good fit? Her math is not as good as she would like – she did the lessons, but a lot of times with her illness her mind just was not functioning well enough with the medications for it all to sink in – she is motivated to try and improve where she thinks she needs to – at this stage she is not worried about calculus and things as that is likely not in her future – but we do want all the basics down well. I appreciate your input. Finally do you need the blocks for geometry? I would get them if necessary because she is so visual. Thanks again – Linda
Bookworm…I hope I didn’t offend you in any way. We are actually using MUS at the high school level and our dd loves it! I think the point may be that if you start the Algebra 1, you need to continue and finish Algebra 2 in order to have complete understanding of it. This was reassuring to me as we finally found a program that’s working for her. Blessings, Melissa
A Mom just posted that on the MUS Facebook page. She used MUS Advanced Math, the old Algebra/Geometry, then the new Algebra 1, and then Pre-Calculus. Nice success story about her son
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/196972/publisher_ID/36/
Linda, my dd did something like what you are looking at for yours. She did geometry with a standard textbook, but it was such a struggle. Very focused on proofs from day one, a ridicous number of theorems, etc. After much deliberation and the end of school year approaching and nowhere near the end of the book, it finally dawned on me that she needed a different approach. I had her watch and look at all the online samplea of TT and some others. She finally settled on MUS. I ordered geometry and alg2 — she skimmed through the first half of geometry until she got to some stuff that was a bit newer or just an area that she knew she needed some clarification on, and went forward from there. So she did geometry in 2-3 months over the summer because some of that was clearly review. Then she was ready to jump into alg2 for the new school year. BEST decision I made! I don’t remember there beng any need for blocks at these levels (my dd didn’t use any, but I don’t recall them even bring asked for), but you could always call and ask the MUS people to be sure.
She did alg1 with a different publisher so I can’t comment on that for your dd. Perhaps it does move slower and cover fewer topics than some other programs IDK. But you could always look through the table of contents and see if it covers what your dd is looking for. After dd’s experience starting MUS in geometry to brush up on and finish off that subject, I think it was terrific at reviewing and reinforcing. Best wishes with it all!
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