I don't have much offer. My ds14 took Honors Algebra 2 last year. This was a kid that went through 6 years of math in 3 years. That class almost killed him. It was challenging in a way he never expected. The teacher basically said from the beginning of the year that her class was much harder than anything in the text book. She did give homework harder as well. The exams were normally very long problems with a combination of skills applied together. The task didn't involve understanding individual skills but how to apply them appropriately in one question.
Thanks, it does help to hear this. My son does say that he isn't the only one complaining that these tests are very hard. And the test questions are as you described long problems with combinations of skills applied together. I just wish he had more homework problems that were more like the test questions. I am going to insist we sit down with the teacher but since the semester final is quite a different test, I am leaving him to focus on that first.
DD14, now a senior, needed a LOT of additional help from me when she took Alegebra II as a freshman. This is now a "killer" class-- I mean, I always remember it being
hard, but several additional factors made it way harder for my DD. She didn't really have any instruction until the 'regular' teacher came back from maternity leave in late January, so until the second midterm, I had no idea that she was getting NO actual instruction in the course. It was crazy-hard.
Ahem.
Anyway-- wanted you to know that it may really not be anything that your ds is doing wrong here. It might just be a matter of
showing the teacher that he is committed to trying HARDER, and figuring out HOW to do well in the class-- which means meeting with the teacher, maybe fairly frequently. Honestly, I don't know that I would wait-- because that signals to the teacher that the GRADE is the thing... not the learning. (If that makes sense.) A student concerned by those earlier exams and what they represent re: course mastery would be in there asking for help from the teacher NOW, regardless of what a cream-puff the final is expected to be. Part of this is about playing the game. Yes, that, too, is a learning experience. HS students have to learn to DEMONSTRATE that they are the kind of student who is
worthy of the benefit-of-the-doubt.
Yes, on some level that is "sucking up" behavior, but it may be what it takes to meet other goals longer term, right?
You have my sympathies. As another member and I have commiserated over the past year.... it's just
always math, isn't it??
