Overview

Students taking grade 11 and 12 math may decide to enroll in one of three math branches: Foundations of Math, Pre-Calculus, or Apprenticeship and Workplace. Pre-Calculus 11 and 12 is designed for students who intend to pursue a career in mathematics, sciences, or engineering. It is designed to build student skills in problem solving, number concepts, and number operations. Students will work with mathematical patterns and relations including manipulating variables and equations. Trigonometry is also a key focus in Pre-Calculus. A graphing calculator is required for both Pre-Calculus 11 and 12.

Key Concepts

• Sequences and Series
• Transformation
• Graphing Quadratic and Reciprocal Functions
• Solving and Graphing Rational and Radical Functions
• Solving and Graphing Absolute Value Functions
• Systems of Equations
• Polynomials - Remainder and Factor Theorem
• Trigonometry - Solving, graphing, and proofing
• Logarithms and Exponential Functions
• Combinatorics

Post-Secondary Admission Requirements

University and college requirements vary depending on the disipline of study. Students shall take Pre-Calculus if they are unsure what they want to go into in post-secondary. Please consult our Post-Secondary Admissions page for information on the minimum math admission requirements for BC institutions.

Common Difficulties

There are a few key areas that students struggle with in Pre-Calculus 11 and 12. Of the most notable is graphing functions. Students must understand the properties of a graph such as asymptotes, maximums/minimums, and transformation in order to be proficient in graphing. Upper-level math also builds on the graphing concepts and introduces word problems involving graphs and functions. Students will most likely have a hard time with word problems if they do not have a solid understanding of graphs. Another key areas that students struggle with are trigonometric proofs.

How Math Tutor Network can help?

As tutoring demands are the highest for Math 11 and 12, Math Tutor Network has specialized tutors who tutors mainly Math 11 and 12.

Our Recommendations

With or without tutoring lessons, students should always complete their homework as best as they can. A good approach is to give each question the best effort before checking the answers. Before quizzes or tests, try to do a set of questions and resist from checking the answer until all questions are completed. By doing so, students will be more prepared in a test-writing environment.

Tutoring Lessons

For students who only require help on homework problems and for test preparation, Math Tutor Network recommends one 2-hour lesson per week.

For students having difficulties understanding the concepts the teacher go over in class, Math Tutor Network recommends two or more 2-hour lessons per week.