Together Ben and I looked at FAU's Computer Science Bachelor of Arts requirements are. We read that he would need 120 credits for a BA and 11 of those credits would need to be in Math: Calc 1, Calc 2, and Matrix Algebra. We discussed that on the course he is now, he will take Algebra 1A this year as a Sophomore, Algebra 1B next year as a Junior, and Geometry as a Senior. This means that he would need to earn College Algebra and PreCalculus pre-requisite credits PRIOR to taking the math courses needed for his degree. In other words, at the pace he is at right now, he is 2 math classes behind. He asked if he could take multiple math courses at once. I said no, but he could take summer school. I also said that Algebra 1 could be taken in one year, but he said that he'd prefer to split it into Two.
I explained to him that this was all just information for him to know, and that he did not need to make a decision now. But I thought it was important for him to understand what will need to happen if he wants to get a BA in Computer Science.
After our discussion we began working on Word Problems. After reading the first question, Ben said, "Wait, Whaaaat?" I agreed with him that word problems are challenging. For me personally, I have to read problems sometimes 3 times before I even understand what they're asking. I encouraged Ben to do the same. They were questions like "If you have $24 to spend on pencils, you buy 7 and have $10 leftover, how much was each pencil?" Ben has to set up and solve 7p+10=24. He knows how to solve these, but setting up is the challenge. And this is true for ALL students, not just Ben. We will spend another day on this, and then move on.