Incoming Freshman Information

Prep is a school where the bonds of brotherhood are built by participating in the academic, spiritual, and extracurricular life of the school. In this dynamic and interactive course, students will be introduced to the important elements of not only going to school at Prep, but becoming a leader at Prep!  Led by a Prep faculty member and some of Prep’s upper classmen leaders, students will spend a session learning about academics at Prep.  Along with going over the important elements of a school day, faculty and students will share their tips on how to be successful academically at Prep. To make sure that students feel comfortable on the first day of school, instead of just going on a tour of the campus, students will participate in a scavenger hunt where they will find important classrooms, school landmarks, and meet important administrators. Another focus will be on prayer and service. Students will be introduced to the Jesuit form of prayer, the Examen, and will participate in a service project.  Finally, students will learn what it means to be a leader at Prep and set goals for how they will become Prep’s next set of leaders.  The week will end with upperclassmen teaching students Prep’s fight song as well as other cheers.

The purpose of this course is to create for the student a sense of the paragraph (development by description, narration, explanation, example, simple definition) and experience basic English sentence patterns. Parts of speech are identified, functions defined, and common usage mastered. Students are also taught how to logically develop their thoughts.

Led by a member of the Prep faculty, students will be introduced to the Executive Functioning skills of organizing, breaking down tasks, prioritizing assignments, and planning ahead.  During the course, students will be given important Executive Functioning strategies and then practice them by looking at a calendar full of homework assignments, tests, and meetings, and then creating a schedule to complete them. 

In this course, students will cover topics which will be taught in the first semester of Algebra I –the basic skills of manipulating exponents, working with polynomials, rational and irrational expressions, quadratics, and solving word problems through the use of factoring and other techniques. Students also learn to solve and graph linear equations and inequalities, work with functions, exponents, systems of equations, and radical and quadratic equations.

In this interactive course, students will be introduced to effective study strategies.  Students will be taught note taking and outlining strategies as well as how to best use flash cards and Quizlet. Students will also learn how to create study guides from their notes and outlines.