there is not a great use of "pre-" in europe when it comes to study subjects, just say 'simple' or '(high-) school'
just like i never heard of "para" professionals (except for paramedics) anywhere outside the realm of the usa (not discounting 'associated' countries though)

so what it the subject discussed in this thread called in the usa?

algebra?, pre-calculus?, calculus?
please don't tell me to make a poll or state that the terminology/classification is different in the various states (or even counties/hamlets)

except where specific methods are required to solve a problem i couldn't care less

depends on the school. In my high school, geometry was 9th grade, algebra 2 was 10th grade (powers, exponents, e, ln, factoring, complex numbers, intro to trig, graphing functions), precalculus was 11th grade (more trig, some more factoring, some matrices, more complex numbers, intro to proofs), then calculus was 12th grade (limits, derivative, integrals).

precalc was just a mix of algebra / linear algebra / trig, so i dont really consider it to be a different classification personally.

This post was edited by carteblanche on Feb 5 2014 11:25pm

Nope, I'm American. I do understand the difference between calculus and algebra, guess I just call it calculus because it is part of a calculus class. I know, I know, I really shouldn't, but it is just habit. I can't think of a better way to explain it.

don't worry about it, it don't matter what you call it