Thomas Brown

The year Mr. Brown taught me he taught me Precalculus. The class itself is paced weirdly since sometimes topics that don't need much "thinking" and are easy to grasp when you do reach that math level are covered for a longer period of time while topics that are tougher and need more explanation on (as well as being crucial for AP Calc AB if you plan to take it), like trig identities, are not covered for a long time. Expect to take notes, but they aren't graded unless he explicitly states it. I recommend taking notes on units that you personally think are tough, and the other ones you can just sit through. In my year there were no in class assignments and he always let us take stuff home for projects, notes, and stuff. The tests will never be open note, but he always finds a way to provide you a second opportunity on a math unit if you did badly in one. My year he was really wishy washy and called us his "lab rat" year where he tested out different techniques to give us a second chance to prove high proficiency in a math unit (it drove me nuts but it motivated me to study hard so I wouldn't have to deal with that crap). He either makes you take a second test that you can score up to a 3 on, provides a whole class mandatory project in groups of 2 to 3, or makes you take Cornell notes and turn those into him. The class has you memorize some tough formulas (if you understand it though you don't really need to memorize them) and he almost always provides the formulas for you on the whiteboard or on the test. He should explicitly state the formulas he won't provide you, and then you should go crack down on those.

Precalc is a hard class. It is confusing at first and makes little sense. Keep up on your homework and ask questions if needed. If the teacher's style of teaching doesn't fit you, then watch lots of videos. Attend study sessions. Precalc is a lot easier than Calc AB will ever be.

I took AGS 2 with Mr. Brown. At first the class was boring and rather unorganized. But as the year continued I got used to the environment and forced my self to listen and in the end this ended up being the best math class I’ve ever taken. Homework is minimal and tests will never have surprises. Review packets are well done and extremely helpful.