College tracks

Grade 9 — start one project

You are on one track. The project lasts four years. This year you start it and keep a log. The log is the start of the file you will send. Do not open a second project.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer science, Marine biology, Pre-med, and PhD on-ramp:

Every week, do four things inside that project:

1. Compute a quantity with units, state the uncertainty, and say what decision it supports.
2. Write one claim, two reasons, and one real objection. About one page.
3. Read one short original — a figure and its caption, a statute section, a schematic, or a specimen — and write what it says, separate from a summary.
4. Add to the log.

For Pre-law:

Every week, do four things inside that project:

1. Mark which facts the clause uses and which it ignores, and write the result that follows.
2. Write one claim, two reasons, and one real objection. About one page.
3. Read one short clause and write what it says, separate from a summary.
4. Add to the log.

Finish these rungs on the First Principles ladder. Each one has a gate. The rung is done only when the gate is done.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer science, Marine biology, Pre-med, and PhD on-ramp:

1. Instructions a machine could follow
2. Loops and branches
3. Variables and state
4. Function as a black box
5. Balancing equations
6. The coordinate plane
7. Python: syntax and types
8. Python: files and automation

For Pre-law:

Finish Instructions a machine could follow only, plus the memo below.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer science, Marine biology, and Pre-med:

School courses beside the project: algebra and geometry, and a first lab science, usually biology.

For Pre-law:

School courses beside the project: algebra. Add a lab science only if the major will require it.

For PhD on-ramp:

School courses beside the project: algebra and geometry. Add a lab science if the department you expect to name will examine it.

Mechanical engineering

Build an object that must hold a known load. Before the test, write the load and the failure point you expect. After the test, write the measured failure point and the difference. Justify the equation line by line: every step names the operation applied to both sides.

Done when a second person can rebuild the test from the log and get a failure point in the same region.

This week. Span a gap with a strip of cardboard or a thin wood slat. Write the mass you think will break it, in grams, before you load it. Add coins or sand until it fails. Record the mass that broke it and the difference from your prediction. Write the weight as mass times 9.8, and name the operation on both sides of each line.

Log for this week. Date. Length of the gap. Material. Predicted failure mass (g), written before loading. Measured failure mass (g). Difference. Weight = mass × 9.8, with each line naming the operation on both sides. Who will rebuild the test.

Electrical engineering

Build a circuit with a source, a resistor, and a meter. Write the expected current from the resistance before you close the switch. Record the measured current and the gap. Same standard on the equation.

Done when a second person gets a nearby current from your written setup without asking you a question.

This week. Use a 9 volt battery and one resistor whose ohms are printed on it. Before you close the circuit, write current = voltage ÷ resistance, with the numbers filled in. Measure with a meter. Record the gap and whether you blame the resistor value, the battery, or the meter.

Log for this week. Date. Resistor value (Ω). Predicted current (A), written before closing. Measured current (A). Gap. Which part you blame. Who can rebuild the setup from this page.

Computer science

Write a specification in sentences, then a program that meets it. A classmate chooses an input you did not use. The log includes a script that reads a real file from the project, reports something you did not already know, and runs on a second file without an edit.

Cryptography is not a separate track. If that is your aim, stay on this project: the specification still comes first, and by grade 12 a classmate tries to break a piece you designed (a toy cipher, a password check, a signature, or an access rule) on your own system in a closed setting — not on a live network.

Done when the classmate’s input is in the log with the result the specification promised and the result the program produced.

This week. Specification, in sentences: the program reads a text file of one number per line, prints how many numbers it read, their sum, and the mean, and refuses a file that contains a word. Write that before you write the program. A classmate supplies a second file you have not opened. The log records what the specification promised and what the program printed.

Log for this week. Date. Specification sentences, written before any code. Your file’s count, sum, and mean. Classmate’s file name. What the specification promised for that file. What the program printed. Where they disagree.

Marine biology

Pick a site you can revisit. Write the method: where, when, and how many samples. Visit three times with that method. Any count or density keeps both sides of the equation balanced.

Done when a second person can repeat a fourth visit from the method alone.

This week. Pick one place you can walk to three times. Mark one square you can find again, about one step on a side. Count one kind of organism you can recognize, and write the feature you used to recognize it. Visit three times on three days. The method names the place, the square, the organism, and the count each day. Density is the count divided by the area of the square. Show that division as an equation with both sides named.

Log for this week. Place. How to find the square again. Organism and recognition feature. Day 1 date and count. Day 2 date and count. Day 3 date and count. Density equation with both sides named. Who could do visit 4 from this page alone.

Pre-med

Choose one mechanism from biology. Write the causal chain. For each link, write the observation that supports it, and mark which observations you have only from a summary. Any concentration or dosage arithmetic stays balanced on both sides.

Done when a stranger can point to the link whose evidence is weakest, and you can say what measurement would strengthen it.

This week. Explain why breathing gets faster during a run. Write the chain: muscles use more oxygen, carbon dioxide in the blood rises, sensors detect that rise, breathing rate increases. For each link, write the observation that supports it. Mark any link you only have from a summary. Name the measurement that would test the weakest link, such as a change in breathing when carbon dioxide changes and exercise does not.

Log for this week. Date. Four links in the chain. Observation for each link. Which links are summary-only. Weakest link. Measurement that would test it.

Pre-law

Take one short statute, rule, or contract clause and a one-page fact pattern that includes irrelevant facts. Write which facts the rule uses and what result follows. One page.

Done when someone who has not discussed the problem with you follows your writeup and reaches your result, or their miss shows a step you left to judgement. If the open step is a judgment call, name the choices (A/B) on the page so the reader can pick without asking you.

This week. Use this clause, and only this clause: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Facts: Sam left a backpack on a city bus. Sam had eaten a sandwich at noon. The driver opened the backpack to look for a name. It was raining. Write one page on which facts the clause uses and what result follows. A reader who has not talked to you follows that page.

Log for this week. Date. Facts the clause uses. Facts the clause ignores. Result that follows. Reader’s name. Whether they reached your result without asking you.

PhD on-ramp

Write a question and this sentence: “I would drop this question if I saw ___.” Start a log. Another person must be able to carry out the next observation from the log without asking what you meant. The field may stay unnamed this year.

Done when that sentence and a followable method are both in the log.

This week. Write one question you can test with a count, for example whether more of one insect appear at your site after rain. Add the sentence “I would drop this question if three visits showed no difference I could count.” Write the method so a stranger can do the next visit: where, when, what to count, and where to write the number. The field can stay unnamed.

Log for this week. Date. Question. Drop-sentence. Where. When. What to count. Where to write the number. Field (may be blank). Who could do the next visit from this page.

Grade 10 — predict, then revise

Same project as grade 9. This year you write the prediction before the next result, and you revise after someone disagrees. The first prediction stays in the log after you revise.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer science, Marine biology, Pre-med, and PhD on-ramp:

Every week, inside that project:

1. Predict a number with units, measure it, and write the gap. The first prediction stays visible.
2. Revise one claim after someone disagrees. Keep the strongest objection.
3. Annotate one short original. Quote the sentence, line, or feature that does the work, separate from your summary.
4. Add both results to the log.

For Pre-law:

Every week, inside that project:

1. Quote the words that decide between the two rules. The first choice stays visible after you revise.
2. Revise after someone who picked the other rule. Answer their best sentence.
3. Quote the sentence in the rule that does the work, separate from your summary.
4. Keep both versions in the log.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer science, Marine biology, and Pre-med:

Finish these rungs:

9. Exponents and their inverse
10. Logarithmic scale
11. Polynomials and roots
12. Complex numbers
13. Deduction
14. Proof technique
15. Boolean algebra
16. Counting
17. Sets
18. Arrays, lists, dicts, and Big O

For Pre-law:

Finish Deduction and Proof technique.

For PhD on-ramp:

Finish Deduction and Proof technique. The field may still be unnamed.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer science, Marine biology, and Pre-med:

School courses beside the project: advanced algebra and trigonometry, into precalculus, and chemistry with a lab.

For Pre-law:

School courses beside the project: advanced algebra and trigonometry, into precalculus. Add chemistry only if the major will require it.

For PhD on-ramp:

School courses beside the project: advanced algebra and trigonometry, into precalculus. Add chemistry if the department you expect to name will examine it.

Mechanical engineering

Draw the object with dimensions and a free-body sketch before the next build. Test it. Break one assumption on purpose, change one thing, and measure again. Name the assumption the first test killed. The argument has to say which step would be false if the second measurement had gone the other way.

Done when both measurements and the single change between them are in the log, and a second person can point to the assumption without your help.

This week. Sketch last year’s beam with its length, its thickness, and arrows for the load and the supports. Change one thing only, the thickness or the span. Write the new failure mass before you test. Afterward, name the assumption the first test killed, for example that it would bend in the middle rather than tear at a support.

Log for this week. Date. Sketch (length, thickness, load arrows). What you changed (thickness or span only). New predicted failure mass, written before the test. Measured failure mass. Assumption the first test killed.

Electrical engineering

Add time. Charge a capacitor, blink a lamp, or filter a sound. Write the expected time or frequency before you measure. Use exponents and their inverse when the quantity is multiplying or shrinking.

Done when the predicted value, the measured value, and the reason for the gap — wrong part, wrong model, or measurement — are written down, and a second person repeats the measurement from the setup notes.

This week. Charge or discharge through a resistor and a capacitor, or time how long a lamp takes to fade. Before you measure, write a time: resistance times capacitance, with the units converted so the product is in seconds. A 10,000 ohm resistor and a 100 microfarad capacitor give about one second. Record the measured time and say whether the gap is the part, the model, or the measurement.

Log for this week. Date. R and C values. Predicted time (R×C), with units. Measured time. Whether the gap is the part, the model, or the measurement.

Computer science

Extend the specification to include inputs that must fail. Write the tests in a separate file from the program. A partner runs tests you did not write. Any claim that the program is correct has to use its assumption, not wave at examples.

Done when the bug log quotes the specification and the actual result for at least one failing test, and the repair is a change you can point to.

This week. Add one sentence to the specification: a file that contains a word must stop with an error and must not print a mean. Put that case in a test file separate from the program. Run it. In the bug log, quote the specification sentence and the line the program actually printed. Repair one thing, and point to the change.

Log for this week. Date. New specification sentence. Test file name. What the program printed. What you repaired. Line that shows the change.

Marine biology

Before the next visit, write what you expect to count or measure, and why. Bring one chemistry measurement the site can support: temperature, pH, salinity, or a concentration. Identify one organism by the feature that distinguishes it, and write that feature.

Done when the prediction and the later observation are both dated, and you say whether the prediction survived.

This week. Before the next visit, write the count you expect and the reason, and date it. At the square, measure one chemistry quantity the site allows: temperature or pH. On the return, write the count beside the prediction and say whether the prediction survived. Name the feature that identifies the organism.

Log for this week. Date of prediction. Predicted count and reason. Temperature or pH. Actual count. Did the prediction survive. Recognition feature.

Pre-med

Tie one chemical fact to last year’s mechanism: a bond, a concentration, an acid, a dose. Predict what should change if one step is blocked or increased. If you cannot run that test, analyze a published figure and write the measurement that is missing. A classmate names a link your chemistry does not actually support. Repair that link or drop it.

Done when the revision is in the memo and the dropped or repaired sentence is visible.

This week. From last year’s breathing chain, predict what happens to breathing rate if carbon dioxide in the air rises and the person is sitting still. If you cannot run that, take one published figure and write the measurement it does not contain. A classmate marks a link your chemistry does not support. The revision shows the sentence you dropped or repaired.

Log for this week. Date. Prediction for CO₂ at rest. Classmate’s marked link. Sentence you dropped or repaired. Why chemistry supports the revision.

Pre-law

Take two rules that both seem to apply to a new fact pattern. Pick one. Quote the words that make the other lose. Exchange with a classmate who picked differently, and answer them in a revised memo. The source is the text of the rule. Each step follows from a step already earned.

Done when the revised memo quotes the classmate’s best sentence and responds to it.

This week. Two written rules, and only those. The clause from grade 9, and this company rule: “The driver may open an unattended bag to identify the owner.” Facts: the backpack was on a seat, not in anyone’s hands; the driver was looking for a phone number; Sam was still on the bus two stops away. Pick one rule. Quote the words that make the other lose. Trade with a classmate who picked the other rule, and answer their best sentence in the revision.

Log for this week. Date. Rule you picked. Words that make the other lose. Classmate’s best sentence. Your answer in the revision.

PhD on-ramp

Carry out a method that can come out false: a measurement, a close reading, a proof, a dataset, or a build. Write the first result. Update last year’s drop-sentence if the result changed what would make you quit. If the method is a proof, produce a contradiction or an induction on a claim you have not been shown worked, and use the assumption.

Done when the result is written down, not merely planned.

This week. Do the count your grade 9 method describes. Three visits, three numbers in the log. Write whether you would still drop the question for the reason you named last year. If the method is a proof instead of a count, write a contradiction or an induction on a claim nobody has worked for you, and mark the line where the assumption is used.

Log for this week. Visit 1 date and number. Visit 2 date and number. Visit 3 date and number. Still drop the question? If a proof: claim, assumption line, contradiction or induction step.

Grade 11 — let someone break it

Same project. Someone outside your household tries to break the result. Their paragraph stays in the log. That person is the one who can write the letter.

Before you register for grade 12, write three lines from the course list your desired college publishes: courses you will have finished, courses still missing, and the term you will take each missing one. Add a missing course around the project. Do not drop this track’s mathematics, lab line, or memo to make room for an elective.

For PhD on-ramp:

Name a department this year. From here, finish the mathematics that department will examine. The rung list below is for the other tracks.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer science, Marine biology, and Pre-med:

Every week, inside that project:

1. Use a rate, an accumulation, or a comparison, with units and the uncertainty, on the project's claim.
2. Write a timed page a stranger could grade. Answer the other side in the text.
3. Cite one paper, case, dataset, or specification. A textbook restatement does not carry the claim.
4. Put the outside reader's paragraph in the log before you answer it.

For Pre-law:

Every week, inside that project:

1. In a timed sit, apply one quoted rule to one quoted fact and write the result.
2. Answer the other side in the text, not afterward.
3. The packet is the source. A textbook restatement does not carry the claim.
4. Put the outside reader's paragraph in the log before you answer it.

For PhD on-ramp:

Every week, inside that project:

1. Use the standard of proof the named department uses on the method already in the log.
2. Write a timed page a stranger in that field could grade. Answer the other side in the text.
3. Cite one paper, dataset, or specification that department would recognize. A textbook restatement does not carry the claim.
4. Put the outside reader's paragraph in the log before you answer it.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer science, Marine biology, and Pre-med:

19. Limits
20. The derivative
21. Rules of differentiation
22. The chain rule
23. Integration and the fundamental theorem
24. Series and convergence

For Computer science:

Also finish:

25. Recursion
26. Trees and heaps
27. Sorting and searching under constraint

For Pre-law:

Finish Deduction, Proof technique, Boolean algebra, and Counting, if those gates are not already done.

For Mechanical engineering, Computer science, Marine biology, and Pre-med:

School courses beside the project: precalculus finished and calculus started, and physics.

For Electrical engineering:

School courses beside the project: precalculus finished and calculus started, and physics. Take electricity and magnetism when the school offers it.

For Pre-law:

School courses beside the project: the major’s reading and writing. Add calculus only if the major will require it.

For PhD on-ramp:

School courses beside the project: the mathematics the named department will examine.

Mechanical engineering

The prediction uses a rate, a stress, a torque, or a flow from physics or from the derivative. Design the test to attack that formula’s assumption. Hand the report to someone who was not in the room for the build.

Done when the writeup names the assumption the test attacked and the measurement that decided it, and the outside reader can say whether the test actually attacked that assumption.

This week. Write one assumption in a sentence: the beam fails when the bending in the middle reaches a load you calculate, not when it slips at a support. Set the next test to attack that sentence, for example by shortening the overlap at the support. Record which failure happened. Give the page to someone who was not there for the build.

Log for this week. Date. Assumption sentence. How the test attacks it. Which failure happened. Outside reader’s name. Their verdict on whether the test attacked the assumption.

Electrical engineering

Write the expected output of a signal or a circuit before you look at the measurement. Use a derivative or an integral if the quantity is a rate or an accumulation. Take electricity and magnetism when the school offers it.

Done when the prediction is dated earlier than the measurement, and a second person has checked the setup rather than only the prose.

This week. Pick one number the circuit will show: a voltage at a midpoint, or the time until a lamp is half as bright. Write that number and the time of day in the log before you measure. Measure after. A second person checks that the meter is on the quantity your equation names.

Log for this week. Date and clock time of prediction. Predicted number. Measured number. Second person’s check that the meter matched the equation.

Computer science

State an invariant or write a proof for one piece of the program, on a claim you have not been shown worked. Separate the base case and the inductive step, and use the assumption. If the project is a recursive structure, a tree, or a search with a budget, that structure has to meet a time or space limit you wrote down first.

Done when a test that would violate the invariant is in the project, and the proof or the code changed because of it.

This week. Write one invariant for the file program: after each line, the running total equals the sum of the numbers read so far. State the base case, the empty file, separately. Add a test that would make the invariant false if the code is wrong. If the test fails, change the proof or the code, and point to that change.

Log for this week. Date. Invariant. Empty-file base case. Test that would falsify it. Result. Proof or code change, with the line pointed out.

Marine biology

Compare two sites, two seasons, or two conditions with the same method. State the uncertainty on the difference. Say what sample size would make you trust it.

Done when an outside reader can attack the method — a biased site, a changed protocol, a sample too small — and your note answers that attack.

This week. Use the same square method at a second site, or in a second season. Write the difference in the count and the number of further visits you would need before you trusted it. Ask someone outside your household what could bias the site. Put their objection and your answer in the note.

Log for this week. Date. Second site or season. Count difference. Further visits needed. Outside objection. Your answer.

Pre-med

Write a one-page explanation of the mechanism with no notes, in one sitting. Include one physical quantity: pressure, flow, diffusion, an electrical signal, or a rate.

Done when a stranger, in twenty minutes, marks the sentence where the mechanism skips a step, and you can repair that sentence from evidence.

This week. One sitting, one page, no notes. Explain the breathing chain and include one quantity: breaths per minute at rest and during the run, or the change you predict if carbon dioxide rises at rest. A stranger marks the sentence that skips a step. Repair that sentence from an observation, not from a smoother phrase.

Log for this week. Date. Quantity included. Sentence the stranger marked. Observation used to repair it. Passage practice done this week (yes/no).

Once a week, read a passage that is not this project. Answer only from the passage, timed. The medical school admission test grades that skill apart from the science. The passage does not replace the mechanism page.

Pre-law

Sit for 45 to 60 minutes with a packet of two or three authorities and a fact pattern. No outside research during the sit. Write the answer the packet supports.

Done when the memo applies a quoted rule to a quoted fact. A summary of the authorities with no application is not done.

This week. Sit for 45 to 60 minutes. The packet is only the two rules from grade 10 and this fact pattern: the bag was zipped; the driver opened it; Sam was standing at the next stop; a passenger had asked for a lost phone. No other source. The memo quotes one rule and one fact and says what result follows.

Log for this week. Date. Start and end time. Rule quoted. Fact quoted. Result. No other source used.

PhD on-ramp

Name the department that would examine the method already in the log. Do not switch methods to fit a department you like better. If two departments could claim the method, pick the one that would grade the work you have, not the one with the more famous name. Ask someone in that field, or as close as you can get, to read the method.

Done when they have written a paragraph on how the result could be wrong for a reason you missed, and that paragraph is in the log.

This week. Read the method in the log. Write, at the top, the name of the department that would examine that method. Send the method, not the conclusion, to one person in that field or as close as you can get. When their paragraph arrives, paste it under the method. Do not answer it until it is in the log.

Log for this week. Date. Department name. Who received the method. Their paragraph pasted under the method before any answer.

Grade 12 — an artifact a stranger can grade

Same project. The artifact is what a stranger can grade. One reviewer has watched the work long enough to describe it.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, Computer science, Marine biology, and Pre-med:

Every week, until that artifact is the one you send:

1. Use the mathematics your first college course will assume, on this project, with units.
2. Keep the claim in a piece a reviewer can check against the sources.
3. Let a primary source carry the claim. A summary does not.
4. Write in the log what would change the conclusion.

For Pre-law:

Every week, until that memo is the one you send:

1. Quote the rule the exam will make you apply, and apply it to a fact in the packet.
2. Keep the claim in a piece a reviewer can check against that packet.
3. Let the packet carry the claim. A summary does not.
4. Write in the log which fact would change the result.

For PhD on-ramp:

Every week, until that note is the one you send:

1. Use the standard of proof the named department will examine, on the method already in the log.
2. Keep the claim in a piece a reviewer in that department can check against the sources.
3. Let a primary source carry the claim. A summary does not.
4. Write in the log what would change the conclusion.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, and Computer science:

Finish these rungs:

28. Vectors
29. Matrices as transformations
30. Systems, determinants, rank
31. Basis and change of basis

For Marine biology, and Pre-med:

Calculus is already finished. Finish these rungs:

38. Continuous distributions and PDFs
39. Expectation, variance, covariance
40. Bayes' theorem

For Computer science:

If grade 10 did not already finish them, finish Proof technique and Counting. For a cipher, a password check, a signature, or an access rule, also finish:

38. Continuous distributions and PDFs
39. Expectation, variance, covariance
40. Bayes' theorem

Those three do not replace the linear-algebra rungs above. The break attempt below is where you use them.

For Pre-law:

Stay on the memo. Do not add the linear-algebra or probability rungs unless the major will require them.

For PhD on-ramp:

Finish the rung phase the named department will examine.

For Mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering, and Computer science:

School courses beside the project: calculus underway or complete. By the end of this year the lab sequence is biology, chemistry, and physics.

For Marine biology, and Pre-med:

School courses beside the project: calculus underway or complete, and statistics as a second mathematics course. By the end of this year the lab sequence is biology, chemistry, and physics.

For Pre-law:

School courses beside the project: the major’s reading and writing. Add calculus only if the major will require it.

For PhD on-ramp:

School courses beside the project: the sequence the named department expects you to have started.

Mechanical engineering

Write the design report: requirement, model, build, measurement, failure, revision. If the forces or the supports are a system, vectors and linear systems are part of the model.

Done when someone who does not know you can say whether the model predicted the measurement, and can find the revision that followed the failure.

This week. Open the report with four labeled lines: the requirement, the failure mass your model predicts, the failure mass you measured, and the one revision you made after the failure. Stop there. A stranger should be able to tell whether the model matched the measurement.

Log for this week. Date. Requirement. Predicted failure mass. Measured failure mass. One revision. Stranger’s judgment: model matched measurement?

Electrical engineering

The same report, about a circuit or a signal: predicted equation, measured table or plot, reason for the error. A second person checks the measurement setup. Complex numbers, vectors, or a linear system belong in the model when the circuit uses them.

Done when the checker’s note agrees that the setup measures the quantity the equation names.

This week. Make a two-column table. Fill the predicted column, including the time you wrote it, before you fill the measured column. One row is enough: voltage or time. Ask a second person to say, in a sentence, whether the meter measured the quantity in the equation.

Log for this week. Date and time of predicted column. Predicted value. Measured value. Second person’s sentence on whether the meter matched the equation.

Computer science

Keep the specification. A classmate tries to break one piece you designed: a toy cipher, a password check, a signature on a message, or an access rule. The target is your system, in a closed setting. Write the adversary’s goal and whether the break worked. Finish the linear-algebra gates even if the break attempt is the center of the project.

Done when the writeup states the goal, the result, and the change you made if the break succeeded.

This week. Give a classmate one hour and a closed copy of a password check or a toy cipher you wrote. Tell them the goal in one sentence: produce an accepted password they were not given, or read a message without the key. Write whether they did it. If they did, change one thing and say what. The target is your program, not a live system.

Log for this week. Date. Adversary goal in one sentence. Did they succeed. Change made if they did. Confirmation the target was your program only.

Marine biology

Write the note: question, method, result, what would change the conclusion, and the primary observations. Compute the mean and variance of the sample and say whether they agree closely enough for the claim. A reader who knows the site tries to break the method.

Done when their objection is answered in the note, or the claim is narrowed to what the sample can support.

This week. From the counts you already have, compute the mean and the spread: the average, and the average squared distance from that average. Write whether those two numbers agree closely enough for the claim you want to make. If they do not, narrow the claim to the site and the days you actually counted.

Log for this week. Date. Mean. Average squared distance from the mean. Claim still holds? Narrowed claim, if any.

Pre-med

Write the mechanism memo a stranger can grade: claim, evidence, the best objection, and the result that would overturn it. Use a health or biology dataset for one uncertainty, with a mean and a variance.

Done when the overturn condition is a real measurement, and a stranger can find it in one reading.

This week. End the memo with one sentence a stranger can find without hunting: “I would abandon this mechanism if ___,” and fill the blank with a measurement, such as breathing rate staying the same when carbon dioxide rises at rest. The sentence is a measurement, not a softer wording of the claim.

Log for this week. Date. Abandon-if sentence with a real measurement. Passage practice done this week (yes/no).

Keep the weekly passage from grade 11: a text that is not this project, answered only from the passage, timed. It still does not replace the mechanism memo.

Pre-law

Write a longer closed-universe memo with a counterargument. Give the packet and your memo to someone else.

Done when they cannot dismiss the counterargument without quoting the packet, or their dismissal shows a fact you ignored.

This week. Add a counterargument section to the grade 11 memo. Give the packet and the memo to someone else. They have to dismiss that section by quoting the packet, or show you a fact you ignored. Write down which one they did.

Log for this week. Date. Reviewer’s name. Did they dismiss by quoting the packet, or show a fact you ignored. Which.

PhD on-ramp

Write the note a graduate reader can finish in twenty minutes: question, method, result, limitation, and what would change the conclusion. The reader from grade 11 is the person who can write about the work.

Done when the note contains all five parts and the limitation is a way the result could be false.

This week. Cut the note so a reader can finish it in twenty minutes. Five headings, in this order: question, method, result, limitation, what would change the conclusion. The limitation has to be a way the result could be false. Send it to the person who wrote the grade 11 paragraph.

Log for this week. Date. Five headings present. Limitation that could make the result false. Sent to the grade 11 reader (name).

What you send

The application is this project. By the time you apply, the file has these parts:

1. The grade 12 artifact for your track.
2. The log, showing the same question across four years and what changed.
3. A letter from the person outside your household who tried to break the work.
4. The course record this lesson names: calculus and the lab sequence where your track requires them. Also take the courses your desired college publishes as required. If one of those crowds out the project, add it around the project. Do not drop the lab line or the mathematics line to make room for an elective.
5. The undergraduate admission test that college requires, on the calendar that college publishes. If your track has a mathematics line, take the test after that mathematics is underway. This is not the medical-school, law-school, or doctoral test, and it is not a substitute for the project.
6. An essay that states the claim, the best objection, and what the project changed. It is not a list of activities.

What you enroll in

The first year of college keeps the next gate open. Add a course only when it serves that gate.

Once a week, in the hardest course you are in, take one problem the exam could ask. Close the notes. Write the diagram, the equation, or the rule before you look up the solution. Record whether you finished it and where the solution disagreed. That page is the log. A course you only follow in lecture is not done.

Mechanical engineering. Calculus through the multivariable course if grade 12 did not finish it, calculus-based physics, and statics. Linear algebra and differential equations as soon as the calculus sequence allows. Read every statics problem the way you read the design report: diagram, equation, number, measurement.

Electrical engineering. Calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, calculus-based electricity and magnetism, and a circuits course with a lab. Write the expected measurement before you take it.

Computer science. Data structures and discrete mathematics in the first year. Computer organization when the department offers it. Linear algebra stays in the plan. Cryptography comes after proofs and probability are comfortable. It does not replace data structures.

Marine biology. General biology, general chemistry, calculus, and a first statistics or ecology course. The field note is the start of a methods course. A survey of the oceans does not replace chemistry.

Pre-med. General chemistry with lab and biology with lab in the first year. Organic chemistry and physics follow, then biochemistry. Statistics is in the plan before the medical school admission test. Once a week, a passage that is not the science course, answered only from the text, timed. Clinical hours stay short enough that the science sequence is the work.

Pre-law. A major you can do well, with a heavy reading and writing load. Once a term, sit a timed closed-universe memo from a packet. There is no required pre-law major. The law-school admission test is the grade 11 sit, longer, and you take it in college. It is not the test in the undergraduate application.

PhD on-ramp. The first-year sequence the named department requires for your method. In the first term, take the twenty-minute note to a research meeting. Do not add a second project to look broader.

Through the degree, to the gate

The first year is the start. The gate opens only if the later courses are the same kind of work.

Mechanical engineering. After statics: dynamics, mechanics of materials, and thermodynamics. Then fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and machine design or controls. Differential equations and linear algebra sit under those courses. The senior design or research report uses the same shape as the grade 12 report: requirement, model, measurement, failure, revision. Graduate mechanical engineering expects that report plus calculus, differential equations, and calculus-based physics already finished.

Electrical engineering. After the first circuits course: a second circuits course, electronics, and signals and systems. Then electromagnetics, and probability for random signals. The lab habit does not change: predict, then measure. Graduate electrical engineering expects circuits, signals, electronics, and that mathematics already finished.

Computer science. After data structures and discrete mathematics: algorithms, computer organization, and probability. Then a systems course and a theory or second algorithms course. The specification and the tests stay the way you are graded. Cryptography is a later course, after proofs and probability, and it adds an adversary to the specification. It does not replace algorithms or systems. Graduate computer science expects those courses. A cryptography direction expects you can state what an adversary is allowed to do and whether the scheme survived it.

Marine biology. After general biology, general chemistry, and calculus: ecology, a statistics course that computes uncertainty on a real sample, and a field or lab methods course. Then an independent project whose note a graduate advisor can read in one sitting. Graduate marine biology expects that note, the chemistry, and the statistics. The site can still be local.

Pre-med. The science sequence finishes before the medical school admission test: general chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, physics, biochemistry, and statistics, each with the lab the school requires. One course in psychology or sociology covers the behavior section of that test. It does not replace chemistry. The mechanism memo is how you practice the timed explanation. Medical school is the gate. The first year there is a heavier version of that memo, not a new kind of work.

Pre-law. Every year of the major includes the timed memo. The law-school admission test is that sit, taken in college. Law school’s first year is a closed packet of authorities applied to facts, written to a professional standard. The undergraduate major is the one you can do well. The memo is the skill the exams grade.

PhD on-ramp. Years one and two are the department’s sequence for the method. By the junior year the note has a result the department recognizes, and the grade 11 reader, or someone in the department who has replaced them, has watched the work long enough to write about it. Doctoral admission is that note plus those courses. A second project does not help.