Saxon users - Anyone NOT taken separate geometry

[Pip]

and just done their Algebra1, 2 and Advanced Math? If you went with these 3 classes in 9th, 10th and 11th respectively, would you have enough geometry to do well on the college boards?

AFter reading reviews, it sounds as if Saxon's geometry is a little awkward to fit in after Algebra 1 because it was never planned to be in the mix. It also sounds as if the original sequence, without the new Geometry, is preferred if you want to go into a science/math field.

[tvaleri]

When my ds, 19, was in 7th grade, he worked through the 2nd edition of Saxon's Algebra 1 during the summer. Followed that with Algebra 2 then Advanced Math over the course of the a year. He went on to win a MathCounts competition at the state level in 8th grade without ever having taken another "geometry" course. He also scored 2100 on the SAT while running a 102 degree fever AND battling nausea b/c a sick gal in the classroom threw up and the facilitators wouldn't let the kids out of the class!

He went to ps after that and placed in AP Calc. Unbeknownst to me, he'd been working through a college calc textbook I picked up at a yard sale :)

HTH,
Teresa in NC

[Susan C.]

The only input I can offer is from a high school meeting with our homeschool group from a long time ago, one of the kids complained about not having a separate geometry course (after completing high school). I don't know if he got low scores on it or what the complaint was. I would have your kid do a SAT practice test and see how your child does on the geometry part. There are not very many homeschool kids around here that even take precalc..... so maybe if they don't do advanced math, they can't finish geometry?? Another thought is that my ds had trouble with algebra 1, so we went over to geometry for a year to delay Alg. 2.

[Linda in TX]

My son went this route (no separate geometry) and aced the math portion of the SAT. He got full scholarship for a degree in EE and graduated with a 3.9 GPA from college. The lack of a separate geometry never hurt him.

My oldest daughter is going the business route (just got her associate's degree with a 4.0 GPA) and did very well in her junior college classes. She had reasonable scores on the SAT, not stellar -- but she always freezes on timed standardized tests.

Neither has expressed a need for any more geometry.

Linda

[katilac]

Isn't the separate geometry really new? I would think most people have done it the 'old' way!

[Beebalm]

My daughter took Algebra I, II, and Advanced Math in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades, respectively. This year as a 10th grader,(mainly due to my ignorance) she took College Algebra and Trig at a local community college. It was all review....we should have tested out of them. Live and learn. She made a nearly perfect score on the math section of the SAT (780/800). One suggestion...when she took the PSAT last fall, although she did very well I noticed that nearly every math question she missed was geometry. I asked her to review her Saxon texts before taking the SAT this spring. It was obviously quite sufficient. The advanced math suggests making a formula notebook too....it helped her review a bit easier. Hope this helps. I'm a big believer in Saxon. Rigorous but solid.

[Moni]

We plan Alg 1 Alg2 then AdvMath
If a separate Geometry will be done, it will be Before Calculus.

We do CC as the first choice college thought, so no SAT/ACT here

:seeya:

[Janet in WA]

Our sons used Saxon through Advanced Math. They scored very well (earned scholarships based on their scores) on the SAT and ACT. We didn't use a separate geometry and never regretted it.

[Sonshine]

Two of my sons did only Saxon. One was a non math major (although the math dept. asked him to major in math based on his SAT score, to his chagrin). He made a high score on the SAT, and now has graduated from college, and teaches SAT prep for Princeton Review, including math. To my knowledge his only math came from Saxon after 3rd or 4th grade. He took no math in college, as he clepped out of it. He only went through Algebra 2.

The other son went from Saxon to community college calculus. He did have problems in calc, but more because of not enough pre-calc. not because of any geometry problems. He has since made an A in college calc, and made a very good score on the SAT.

[Sonshine]

I'm sorry - I did have the first son do quite a bit of SAT prep, which included geometry, using SAT prep books not textbooks, I recommend Rocket Review. He is also naturally good at math, which I am sure helped.

You can always have your son take a sample test before you have to make a decision and see how he does. FYI, Princeton Review offers free on site practice tests, and they don't hound you afterwards to sign up for their courses. My son actually took one several years before he worked for them.