As students attending Wilson, we’re all familiar with the annual summer assignments. We receive a reading and math assignment, and if you’re lucky, an AP assignment. I would never mind the reading assignments because they always correlated with the curriculum for the first advisory unit. The AP assignments were extremely tedious but effective in preparing me for class. However, when it comes to Delta Math, the monotony seems pointless.

When I first saw my delta math assignment, some of the material looked like a foreign language and I was 99 percent sure I had not learned any of it yet. I’ve never even received a grade for my hard work on delta math, which is disappointing and unfair. Therefore, instead of Delta Math, students should be able to cover at least 2 math topics they’ve struggled with from the previous school year through khan academy, take an SAT or ACT math prep course, or if you‘re feeling risky, try take an extra math class over the summer.

The first alternative to Delta Math would be watching a couple of Khan Academy videos. Personally, Khan Academy has been a miracle worker for me since 8th grade. It’s unfortunate that by the end of the year, many students aren’t always feeling 100 percent sure about the material they were just taught. That was one of my problems as well. However, Khan Academy is perfect for the average wishy-washy teenage brain. It acts as a portable teacher because it’s easily accessible and has a ton of videos to watch. It also doesn’t stop with just Geometry and Algebra. This alternative would work by sitting down with a teacher before the end of the school year and picking out a topic one or two topics to study over the summer and having the current math teacher sign off on it. When the student comes back entering a new math class, the new teachers would have already communicated with the previous math teachers and updated them on what material students have struggled with. The students would then be given a quiz or a small test based off the specific video/topic they have covered over the summer.  

Next, would be to take an SAT or ACT prep class. We all know about the pressure of doing well on the SAT or the ACT. Frankly, it sucks that one or two tests could determine your acceptance depending on the school you apply too. However an early start never hurt anyone when it comes to studying for any test. Most people usually feel confident about the reading and writing portion. However when it comes to the math portion of standardized tests the confidence starts to trickle away.

This is extremely unfortunate. For this reason, taking either an SAT or ACT prep class over the summer and focusing on the math portion could be beneficial and possibly give you an edge when taking the real tests. Whether you take an online course or a traditional class, when you get back to school, to have proof of taking the course, a student could possibly show an email to the math teacher that states that students completion. They also could probably bring in a certificate of completion with updated dates.

The last alternative would be for a student to take another math course over the summer. This option could not only get a student ahead of their high school classmates, but get them ahead of their college peers as well freshman year. Not to mention the enriching knowledge that a student will gain from taking an extra math course. A student would most likely go through their counselor to verify that the course has been taken. This way the student could possibly get an extra credit placed on their transcript.

Delta Math sucks. There’s no way around it or no way to sugarcoat it without lying. I feel as though these alternatives should be offered instead of staring at a computer for hours and then not receiving an ounce of credit for it. Unfortunately, this is my last year at Wilson so I won’t get to see if these changes happen or not. Hopefully they do for my sister’s sake and anyone else returning.