Long-time readers will know that I generally advise against skipping a year in math. For many reasons, it’s usually a bad idea. Nonetheless, many students continue to make this choice, so let’s talk about how to do it right.
Most people just figure that the school said they were smart enough to jump ahead, so that’s good enough. This approach often leads to serious problems down the road: a snowballing accumulation of knowledge gaps and a growing feeling that you’re not really a “math person,” which ultimately leads to giving up on STEM.
Skipping Ahead in Middle School
The most common version of skipping a year is jumping from 7th-grade math to Algebra 1, effectively skipping over 8th-grade math. If that’s your path, then you should spend this summer learning the course you’re skipping.
Make a Khan Academy account (it’s free) and work your way through their 8th-grade math course. Do every single exercise in every single unit. Watch the videos on topics you don’t know yet and take notes.
If something is hard for you, print worksheets from Kuta Software (also free) and work the problems until you’ve really mastered the topic. Take Khan Academy’s quizzes and the tests. Retake them after more practice if you do poorly. Even if you think you already know the material, prove it by doing the work.
If the math comes easily, great, but learning the math is only part of the reason you should do this. The other part is practicing doing more work than you’re required to do. Succeeding in advanced math doesn’t just require intelligence and math knowledge; it also requires diligence and grit. Skipping ahead usually means more homework and more difficult homework, but it also means you’ll frequently need to study and practice beyond the homework. Doing regular math practice over the summer is a powerful way to build this habit.
All of this is doubly important for those students who skip two years – jumping from 6th-grade math to Algebra 1 in 7th grade.
Skipping Ahead in High School
The other way people skip a year in math is by taking a course over the summer. Most commonly, students take an online Geometry class in order to jump from Algebra 1 to Algebra 2. This is, actually, not a terrible idea. It avoids the “Geometry sandwich” that is often problematic for students, and of all the regular high school math courses, Geometry is the least connected to the others.
(A less common – and far worse idea – is to take Algebra 2 over the summer to skip from Geometry to PreCalc. Algebra 2 is the foundation of higher math, and shortcutting through this course is likely to be disastrous. Math is an upside-down pyramid, and all of the layers are important, but Algebra 2 is uniquely important. It effectively serves as a gateway to higher math.)
If you’re taking an online class over the summer (or retaking a class in summer school), you should keep in mind that you’re cramming a year’s worth of content into a couple of months. This makes it much harder to engage in mastery learning, so you’ll have to do more work on your own. I know that’s a tough sell, since it’s summer vacation, and you’re already doing the work at a faster pace than you would during the school year. But if you want to retain the knowledge, you’re going to have to earn it.
What if it’s too late?
What if you already skipped a year, and you’re starting to feel like you’re drowning? Then it’s time to patch the holes in your math knowledge, so you’re actually ready for what comes next. This investment will pay off enormously during the school year.
Imagine if all those lingering areas of math where you’re unconfident – fractions, long division, factoring – were as easy for you as addition. That can be your reality; you just have to earn it. Oh, and those things that were hard to learn when you were young? They won’t be as hard now. You’re smarter than you used to be.
Chris Loper has been working as a tutor and academic coach since 2014, racking up over 13,000 hours of experience supporting students.
Along with Greg Smith, Chris is the co-creator of Parenting for Academic Success, a series of classes that create empowered parents, confident students, and harmonious families.
Chris writes the popular self-improvement blog Becoming Better, where he also offers habit coaching, helping busy adults with habit formation and productivity.
Chris’s most recent endeavor combines his academic and habit-formation expertise to help students thrive in college. Visit SmartCollegeHabits.com to learn more.
In 2021, he published a humorous memoir titled Wood Floats and Other Brilliant Observations, a book that blends crazy stories with practical life lessons.
He lives in Issaquah, WA, where he is the owner of South Cove Tutoring.