One spring day, students gather after school to take a test that could change the path of their high school career. The students who pass will be able to skip an entire level of a class and be a year ahead of their grade.
Skip tests are administered each year, designed for students who have mastered a course’s content on their own. The tests aim to offer a challenge to students who excel in a subject, most commonly in math classes.
Sophomore Doelle Bhattacharya took the skip test for Algebra II, a sophomore-level class, her freshman year. According to Bhattacharya, she was the only one who skipped Algebra II that year and she passed the test by 1 percent.
“I think the test is actually a pretty good indicator of the level of the class. It was a lot harder than everyone expected and they graded it really harshly,” Bhattacharya said.
Junior Ivy Uno also passed the Algebra II skip test her freshman year. Outside of school, Uno participates in accelerated math programs such as Kumon and Russian School of Math (RSM). According to Uno, her friends encouraged her to take the test so that she could challenge herself.
“A lot of my friends and my peers from RSM also wanted to skip and we took the test together,” Uno said. “I did have a lot of pressure because me and other people that were skipping did have higher grades in freshman year, so people expected us to pass.”
Math teacher David Knott teaches Linear Algebra, a class that is only accessible for students who have passed the Calculus BC skip test or taken the course in their junior year or earlier. Knott said that although all the math skip tests are challenging, he hesitates to say that doing well on a skip test is the same as doing well in the class.
“Being in a class is not just about mastering material,” Knott said. “There [is] all kinds of social and emotional and psychological development that takes place in a classroom. Learning how to work with other people and developing study strategies are both things that are separate from purely understanding mathematics. This policy only makes sense for people who love math so much they are willing to sacrifice the ordinary experience of being in a classroom to achieve that goal.”
According to Knott, the math department is displeased that more people are considering skip tests as a way to appear more impressive. Knott warns students against skipping a class to appeal to colleges.
“There are many students who want to try to skip a level, not because they love the subject but because they want to pad their resumes for college,” Knott said. “Skipping a grade is a benefit for students who love mathematics so much that they want to consume it relentlessly, and the idea of taking a super-advanced math class in their senior year is really exciting for them.”
Uno said that entering a class with older students was intimidating at first, but she was able to make friends. Now she said she feels more challenged and has been able to build more consistent study habits.
“I wanted to challenge myself. The benefit is that I can take Linear Algebra next year,” Uno said.
For Bhattacharya, the adjustment to a more advanced level went smoothly. Bhattacharya said that she felt prepared to take Precalculus Advanced as a sophomore, and that the workload felt appropriate.
“I think overall, I’ve been doing pretty well. I’ve been keeping up with the material. Once you’ve actually skipped, adjusting is definitely a lot easier,” Bhattacharya said. “I’m learning a lot of new stuff that I didn’t know before.”
