Essential Standards

Pre-Calculus Essential Standards

What are Essential Standards?  These are the concepts and ideas that you should have mastered by the end of the course.  Essential Standards do not cover every last detail of the course, but are main concepts that we will focus on in the class and ensure that you learn.

Along with the Essential Standards is what is called a Common Formative Assessment (CFA).  This assessment (quiz or test) is one way that I as a teacher will be able to determine if you have mastered the concept or not.  You might think of it as a gauge that tells me how much you understand the things that we are learning.  Each Essential Standard has a CFA to go along with it.

For Pre-Calculus, the Essential Standards are:

SEMESTER 1

I can solve a System of Linear Equations

• • I can recognize a system of Linear Equations.

  • I can solve a system of Linear Equations with two or three variables by substitution or elimination.

  • I can solve a system of Linear Equations by graphing.

  • CFA: Solving a System of Equations in Two Variables QUIZ

I can solve problems using Trigonometry

• • I can simplify trigonometric expressions

  • I can solve problems involving trigonometric ratios

  • I can solve triangles using the Law of Sines and the Law of Cosines

  • CFA: Trigonometric Identities Topic TEST

SEMESTER 2

I can perform operations with Matrices

• • I can add and subtract matrices.

  • I can multiply two matrices.

  • I can find the inverse of a square matrix.

  • CFA: Matrices Topic TEST

I can solve problems involving Conic Sections.

• • I can write equations of conic sections in standard form, including parabolas, ellipses, and hyperbolas.

  • I can use the completing the square method to write conic sections in standard form.

  • I can graph a parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola when written in standard form.

  • CFA: Conics Topic TEST