There are two things that contribute to the difficult time many students have in Algebra II. One is the 15 months (including two summers) between the end of Algebra I and the beginning of Algebra II. 15 months is a long time for you and me — and it’s even longer for a 14- or 15-year-old.

More importantly, there’s the often significant increase in the level of difficulty and rigor from 8th grade Algebra I to 10th grade Algebra II. Unfortunately, many Algebra I courses at local schools don’t give students the preparation they need for demanding high school math courses. And the quality of 8th grade algebra courses varies from school to school. The jump in difficulty and sophistication from some of the 8th grade algebra courses to 10th grade algebra (especially to honors Algebra II) can be enormous.

This course will bring students back up to speed with the most important Algebra I concepts they may have forgotten, or, in some cases, never really learned. Among the many topics we’ll cover are the dozen or so most important methods of manipulating algebraic expressions that are critical for Algebra II — not to mention the rest of high school mathematics. Students will also review function notation, quadratics, polynomials, rules for exponents and radicals, and many more of the meat-and-potatoes topics of Algebra I. Students are required to bring a graphing calculator to the class.