Precalculus is challenging many 10th and 11th graders who struggle to manage their time efficiently, skipped a year of math and do not take advantage of office hours.

To assist students, precalculus teacher Andres Arboleda stays in his classroom everyday during window and lunch and is helping 11th graders catch up from the year they did not have math to level both grades out.

“I had to do a leveling process between the 10th and 11th graders because 10th graders came with very good basics, but 11th graders, not so much,” Arboleda said.

Many 11th graders struggle because they do not remember the information learned in algebra during 9th grade since they passed an entire year without reviewing these topics. In 10th grade they only had geometry which did not prepare them for precalculus.

“The first topic that you cover in precalculus is actually how you end the year with algebra in 9th grade, so abandoning math for a year was really hard,” Raquel Londoño, 11th grader said.

Some students have hired tutors, but are not taking advantage of their class time. Therefore, they must take more work for home and do not utilize the opportunities the school provides.

“About a 10-15% of students, especially those who struggle the most, depend more of their external classes with their tutors and do not take advantage of the time given during class,” Arboleda said.

Many students who could be coming in at lunch to get extra help are missing out on the one to one or small group instruction Arboleda provides. Students are struggling with basic math skills like factoring, simplification of algebraic fractions and complex fractions.

“I could do better if I would come to office hours with Andres because he is always here. Sometimes when I am at home doing my homework I struggle with some questions and I could use these office hours so that this does not happen,” Manuela Echandia, 10th grader said.

Solving the problem requires both the teacher and students to put an equal amount of effort into the subject to do well in this challenging class.

“If people are failing, it is because they do not want to pass. Andres gives a lot of opportunities to raise grades,” Londoño said.