As a sophomore this year, I never expected myself to drop down from advanced math to honors. This was because I had done quite well overall in advanced geometry my freshmen year.
The gap between advanced and honors was much wider than I expected it to be. Because of this gap, many students have difficult transitions between the levels and simply do not feel like they fit in either one.
Switching between levels for courses occurs more often at the high school than many students think, especially with math.
My honors math class, as well as other sophomore honors math classes, exceeded the maximum number of students normally allowed in one class a long time ago due to the large number of students who have moved down. At the same time, there are also students who move up from honors to advanced.
From personal experience, I’ve noticed that these students who change levels generally are aware of the large gap between honors and advanced math, but are still unable to anticipate the transition.
Moving down a level, I found it easy going through material that I had already learned one or two years ago. It took a few weeks to adjust to the much slower pace. For students who move up a level, I can imagine they experience the opposite while adjusting to a more difficult and faster paced environment.
Senior Jk Suh said he had cruised through honors math for three years and was surprised when he found himself doing poorly once he moved up to BC calculus.
“They started testing me on stuff that I had really not learned as thoroughly as other people. It took prior knowledge and just algebra skills,” Suh said.
When moving up a level, students often have to put in a lot of extra time and work com- pared to people who have taken the higher level for multiple years.
“I worked really, really hard,” Suh said. “For this one month period I came in every morning for help and I eventually got my footing.”
According to senior Camille Newsom, taking the honors level math course felt significantly easier than taking advanced math.
“I slept every single day. I didn’t do any work and I would still get 100 on the tests,” Newsom said.
I struggled in the beginning of the year in advanced math. I found it very difficult and no matter how hard I worked or how much work I did, I just couldn’t do well.
When I moved down to honors, I felt that it was far too easy and slow for what I’m comfortable with. Clearly, it is hard to find the right level for math class because of this gap.
“The problem definitely is that a lot of kids in advanced who are at the top think it’s really easy, and there’s a lot of people in advanced who don’t think it’s so easy, but honors would be too easy for them,” Newsom said.
There are many factors that lead to students deciding to switch levels in math.
According to Suh, he move up to BC Calculus because he wanted to show that he was challenging himself.
“I really, really worked hard to get a good grade because this was the first time it didn’t come easy to me, and I kind of like to be challenged,” Suh said.
Something should be done to lessen the gap between advanced and honors math in order for students to find the level they feel comfortable in.
“Advanced just moves significantly faster than honors, and after half a year of advanced, I had already learned everything that they would learn in honors, so when I moved down I didn’t have to do any of the work,” Newsom said. “I think it would be good to have something in the middle.”
Want to write for Opinions? Contact us at [email protected].
