Do you think preAlgebra is necessary?

[BonAmy]

If you did not do preAlgebra... what were you doing leading up to Algebra??

thanks!
BonAmy

[WTMindy]

That depends on a lot of things. How quickly does the student pick up new topics? Does the student have a concept of negative numbers? Can the students work with variables and exponents? These topics are assumed some knowledge of when you get to algebra.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

I don't believe that Pre-Algebra is necessary for every student. My plan is to go straight from the Singapore Primary math series into an Algebra text. Since algebra requires more abstract thinking, we'll see how DD does with the program. If she's not ready for the abstract thinking, then we'll drop back and do a year of pre-algebra. HTH

[Perry]

We did Singapore through 6B and tried to go right to Algebra. My girls weren't ready-- the conceptual understanding was good but they needed more practice with exponents and fractions. We backtracked and are quickly going through Chalkdust prealgebra. I feel much better about doing Algebra next year now.

[Niebski]

My 12yo dd went from Singapore 6 to ALEKS pre-algebra (about 2 months) to Foerster's Algebra. It has been smooooooth sailing, but she is very quick to pick up new concepts....

YMMV!
Sue

[GVA]

We're nearly at that decision point, and frankly my oldest is going to need prealgebra. He "plods" a bit in math, and I see a few gaps, although not too bad. We might do a year of it. We'll see...