This is the first Math course that is not Arithmetic. While being able to calculate will be quite necessary. This is more of a concets course. For instance while 4 divided by 2 is easy to figure out. what about a2/a or multiply x-5 by x+9 or "Factoring" like x2+5x+6, a2-b2 or 49x2
If you are into getting your mind blown or expanded. this is for you. I wish I'd have had that attitude in ninth grade. This is psychedelic stuf. Along with Mathematical Logic, this is the gateway from Mathematics and the Sciences to philosphy. In this branch of math, youlearn to attach numbers to things. However the things are unspecified and are simply given as letters like 2x, 3a and sometimes a number of things like A2-B2. These are called "literal coefficients" whereas any numbers that occur are called "numberical coefficients". Together these make up a "term" like ABx-5 If there is no number in the term it is presumed to be 1 so that abc is actaully 1a1b1c. Along with standing for unspecified things, these literal conefficients are also stand-ins for unknown numbers. 2a could be read as 2(some number of things) so that if 2a+4=10 then since I have 2 and 10, all I have to figure out is "what number times two, plus four equals ten" and the answer is 4, Right? well 2 times 4 plus 4 equals 12 so that's wrong, try 3. How about 2? One or more terms (groups of numbers and letters) jointed by operators (+,-,*(or x) and /) make an "expression" a-b+c=0 is an epression. Expressions can have any number of terms from 1 to whatever a 1-term expression, like 3a or 5b3y, is a monomial, more than one is a polynomial. Only the first two polynomials have names, 2-terms, like 9x-5b or a/c is a binomial (like a biplane) and 3-terms like ax-5b-cd=0 are trinomials (like a tricycle). That's about all I can give you here.