Preparing for Math HL with Khan Academy?

[Hassty]

Hey everyone

I'm trying to build up a good foundation for Math HL using Khan Academy. I was wondering if anyone knew which topics I should build up or maximise in order to be decently prepared for the course?

Specifically I'm wondering if I should master Algebra II as well as Algebra I? Is pre-calculus enough or do I need to touch some topics under differential calculus as well? Do I need to cover some amount of all 8 topics under high school math?

I believe the system used in KA is very similar to that of the American high school system, which I'm not at all familiar with. So any help is much appreciated.

Thanks!

[ctrls]

First things first, don't feel like you need to do prior prep in order to do well with HL maths. While the course can be pretty overwhelming at the start, it is designed so that you as a two year course, so you will have plenty of time during the two years to improve and prepare for the final exam. That being said of course, doing early preparations never hurt.

 

In terms of what is and isn't relevant, here's a quick list of what is and isn't on the course for each topic. I'm including more information that you probably need, but hopefully it'll be useful for future reference. I'll be making references to to the syllabus, which you can view here.

• Algebra 1 seems to be mostly topics under the 'prior knowledge' section, so you would be expected to know them from the start
• Algebra 2 will be covered in the course, though I suppose many would have some experience with a lot these topics already. The last two topics (conic sections and matrices) however are not on the syllabus.
• Everything on the trig section seems to be on syllabus, so it would be relevant if you're interested.
• With probability, independent/dependent events, descriptive stats and random variables+distributions are on the syllabus. Probability and combinatorics is mostly relevant, though I don't think it's covered is quite as much depth. The other topics will only be covered on the option chapter on stats.
• Not everything in precalc is on the syllabus. Vectors, complex numbers, probability, descriptive stats and sequences, series, induction are relevant, the rest are not.
• With differential calc, 'taking derivatives' and the first half of 'derivative applications' are on the core syllabus, while most of the rest is on the option chapter on calc.
• With integral calculus, only indefinite and definite integrals is on the core syllabus. The sequence/series/function approx covers a lot of topics on the calc option chapter.

 

Though I'm not too sure how useful it is to cover a bunch of topics before you start. On one hand, the harder part of HL maths is the exam-style questions, which requires more than just knowing all the relations and instead tests problem solving skills. On the other hand, knowing a bunch of topics beforehand may be useful as your teacher will probably move through the topics pretty quickly. Being comfortable with the basics would allow you to jump straight to tackling the harder problems. While you will be expected to be very comfortable with the manipulation/application of more basic ideas by the end of the two years (eg: spotting a difference of two squares or a disguised quadratic in the middle of, say, a vectors problem), you will develop that skill over the duration of the course so it's not necessary to 'master' those topics either.

[Hassty]

First things first, don't feel like you need to do prior prep in order to do well with HL maths. While the course can be pretty overwhelming at the start, it is designed so that you as a two year course, so you will have plenty of time during the two years to improve and prepare for the final exam. That being said of course, doing early preparations never hurt.

 

In terms of what is and isn't relevant, here's a quick list of what is and isn't on the course for each topic. I'm including more information that you probably need, but hopefully it'll be useful for future reference. I'll be making references to to the syllabus, which you can view here.

• Algebra 1 seems to be mostly topics under the 'prior knowledge' section, so you would be expected to know them from the start
• Algebra 2 will be covered in the course, though I suppose many would have some experience with a lot these topics already. The last two topics (conic sections and matrices) however are not on the syllabus.
• Everything on the trig section seems to be on syllabus, so it would be relevant if you're interested.
• With probability, independent/dependent events, descriptive stats and random variables+distributions are on the syllabus. Probability and combinatorics is mostly relevant, though I don't think it's covered is quite as much depth. The other topics will only be covered on the option chapter on stats.
• Not everything in precalc is on the syllabus. Vectors, complex numbers, probability, descriptive stats and sequences, series, induction are relevant, the rest are not.
• With differential calc, 'taking derivatives' and the first half of 'derivative applications' are on the core syllabus, while most of the rest is on the option chapter on calc.
• With integral calculus, only indefinite and definite integrals is on the core syllabus. The sequence/series/function approx covers a lot of topics on the calc option chapter.

 

Though I'm not too sure how useful it is to cover a bunch of topics before you start. On one hand, the harder part of HL maths is the exam-style questions, which requires more than just knowing all the relations and instead tests problem solving skills. On the other hand, knowing a bunch of topics beforehand may be useful as your teacher will probably move through the topics pretty quickly. Being comfortable with the basics would allow you to jump straight to tackling the harder problems. While you will be expected to be very comfortable with the manipulation/application of more basic ideas by the end of the two years (eg: spotting a difference of two squares or a disguised quadratic in the middle of, say, a vectors problem), you will develop that skill over the duration of the course so it's not necessary to 'master' those topics either.

This is an amazing answer, I couldn't have hoped for better! Thank you so so much. I'm mostly interested in covering everything under prior knowledge! You're wonderful help