Dear Lee,
I’m trying to update my son’s transcript tonight. So just in case you’re watching your email and don’t mind answering this… How many high-school credits should be awarded for Thinkwell’s Pre-Calculus? My son did all 344 lessons (both in the book and online), took every test, and ended up with an A for the year. It took him the full year, and he spent easily more than 10 hours per week on it. My son was hoping that it would be more like 1.5 or 2 credits, since 1 credit is 120 hours, and he put in more than three times that many hours.
Thanks,
Gigi in MD
Thanks for your question. One complete high school course like pre-calculus is one whole credit. No doubt about it. One textbook is one credit, even if it takes forever. If you are counting hours, even if you go over 120 hours, it’s still just one credit. When we did swim team, for example, it was HUNDREDS of hours, but still just one credit a year. Math is just one of those things, like organized sports, that can take a LOT of hours to complete each year. So, nope, just one credit. It’s a big, beefy, MANLY credit, though, because it’s pre-Calc. You tell him I said that <smile>
Now’s a good time to mention that you don’t have to count hours AND count textbooks. If you have a textbook, that becomes your measure for a credit. If you are counting hours, then 120-180 hours is a credit.
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Yvonne says:
Hi Lee,
When I was in college, taking a math course, they attached a “math lab,” credit. So while we went to regular math class and got 3 credits for that, we also had a math lab in which we got another 1.5 credits.
Maybe this mom could do that to simply show the effort and time spent?
Blessings,
Yvonne
August 26th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Lee says:
Hi Yvonne,
I suppose it’s possible, but I’ve never actually seen that done on a high school transcript. Perhaps it’s just a college thing?
I can think of things to do when it takes you a whole year to get through 1/2 a book. Then you could divide it into “trig” for one year and “pre-calc” for another year. But it really does take an average kid a ton of time to get through high school math at that level. It’s just flat out hard work. I know that colleges love those credits, and they know it IS hard work.
Parents are the “deciders” but in my opinion, pre-calc really is 1 high school credit even though the average student may spend 2 to 3 hours per day on it.
This is just my opinion, anyway. Parents know what is best.
Blessings,
Lee
August 26th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Mary says:
Good Morning Lee, Thanks for the information on credits that was helpful. now if I take a subject and break it up it still equals one credit. My daughter did biology last year a struggle learner, she did the first part of the book/lab work disecting and this year she will complete biology but using it as a health book as well to learn about the human body & diseases we will dissect a pig to see how it compares to the human body. This book is very hard to follow for her “Biology A Search For Order In Complexity” I only have her read, answer question and do lab work and verbaly test her because she a struggling learner. Do you have an opinion on that?
Thanks Lee,
Mary Dubinsky
September 11th, 2009 at 6:43 am
Lee says:
Dear Mary,
I have emailed you the answer to your question, and it will be published on my blog in the coming weeks.
Blessings,
Lee
September 11th, 2009 at 6:53 pm