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Comment by maniflames | Hacker News Reader

Honest question from someone from the Netherlands: when are kids in the states old enough for these topics?

Me and all of my friends were thaught the fundamentals of algebra & trigonomatry (admittedly not calculus) at 13 years old. I had no idea the wasn't the case in the US and it honestly kind of blows my mind.

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In some US public schools, the "advanced math" curriculum puts 7th graders in algebra. In more, though, algebra isn't available until 8th grade (and that is still treated as accelerated). "Normal" math progression has standardized on algebra as the first high school course, followed by geometry, then trig, then precalculus/analysis.

The first level of math acceleration moves that high school progression up a year and has seniors taking calc 1 (limits/derivates & single variable integrals. The second level of acceleration has calc 1 in 11th grade and calc 2 (multi-variable) in 12th grade.

There are a handful of schools, mostly private, that move faster or have more diverse math curriculum offerings, but this is the most common.

So, when do American kids his algebra?

Standard curriculum: 9th grade, ~14yo

The norm for exposure to basic algebra is 5th (10-11 years old) grade in most US states. Not sure what the standards are exactly, but each grade after that does progressively more, with 14 year olds expected to complete a full year course.

I came through the American system, in the 1990s, in a rural place. At grades:

7: Algebra I

8: Algebra II

9: Geometry

10: Trigonometry/Pre-Calculus

11: Calculus

12: Calculus-based Physics

My school was rural and that is way more advanced than mine was.

8: Algebra I 9: Algebra II 10: Geometry 11: Trigonometry 12: Pre-calculus

Advanced class was -1 year. This was Upstate New York 90s/00s. Though I guess to be more specific these courses were actually combination. So it was 3 years of mixed algebra/geometry/trigonometry. Math A, B I think New York called it. Until Pre-calculus Which was actually year and a half courses of mixed topics.

I should've added that I was on the advanced track and was a year ahead of most of my peers, though we had full class of > 20 students (in a graduating class of, I wanna say, ~100-ish) who were in this track. IIRC, it was a toss up what most students did for Math in the 11th and 12th grade. I do believe that the school offered a dedicated Trigonometry and Pre-Calculus course that many students took in the 11th and 12th grades, and there was also an Algebra-based Physics class that students could take, but I want to say that they were not necessary for graduation.

Very roughly, subtract 6 from age to get grade. For example, barring being held back, jumping a grade, or unusual things around birthday timing, you'd usually finish 12th grade at age 18.

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