The courses, in order
Every name below is a course on Khan Academy’s maths page, spelled the way the site spells it. Where it offers two versions of the same step, the list says which to pick.
- Arithmetic
- Pre-algebra
- Algebra 1
- High school geometry
- Algebra 2
- Trigonometry
- Precalculus, or AP®/College Precalculus if you are sitting that exam
- Single-variable calculus as one pair: AP®/College Calculus AB then BC, Differential Calculus then Integral Calculus, or Calculus 1 then Calculus 2
- Multivariable calculus, Differential equations and Linear algebra, in the order your goal needs; Statistics and probability alongside
AP®/College Precalculus is new to the site. The College Board course first ran in the 2023-24 school year, with the first exam in 2024, and Khan Academy introduced its own version on its blog on 3 September 2026, saying it follows the AP course unit by unit. Of its 6 units, four match the College Board units, one is test support and one is an optional Algebra 2 review. The plain Precalculus course has 10 units and goes wider: complex numbers, conic sections, vectors, matrices, probability and combinatorics, series, and limits and continuity.
The rest of the maths page is other ways of slicing the same material. The grade-level courses, from early maths review to 8th grade, follow a school year. The Get ready courses cover only what the next course assumes, from Get ready for 3rd grade math up to Get ready for AP® Statistics, and the Essentials run from 3rd grade math essentials to Statistics essentials. Integrated math 1, 2 and 3 are an alternative high-school sequence to Algebra 1, High school geometry and Algebra 2, and there are versions aligned to particular school programmes and state standards. Use a Get ready course as a quick check before a subject course, and choose either the integrated sequence or the traditional one, not a mix of the two.
The same order on a prerequisite map
A course list says which course comes first. It does not say how much one course leans on another. Consiliae’s curriculum is a graph in which each concept lists the concepts it rests on, grouped into chapters that roughly match the courses above. Counting the links that cross from one chapter into another shows the shape of the order. The pairing with Khan Academy courses in the table is our own reading of the two syllabuses.
| Chapter on our map | Nearest course | Concepts | Cites most (links) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundations of Arithmetic | Arithmetic | 155 | Nothing outside itself |
| Pre-Algebra | Pre-algebra | 92 | Foundations of Arithmetic (42) |
| Algebra I | Algebra 1, and the polynomial work of Algebra 2 | 202 | Pre-Algebra (54), Foundations of Arithmetic (28), Pre-Calculus & Discrete Foundations (4) |
| Geometry | High school geometry | 269 | Algebra I (40), Foundations of Arithmetic (38), Pre-Algebra (17) |
| Trigonometry | Trigonometry | 102 | Geometry (31), Algebra I (23), Pre-Algebra (9) |
| Pre-Calculus & Discrete Foundations | Precalculus | 79 | Foundations of Arithmetic (11), Pre-Algebra (10), Algebra I (7) |
| Single-Variable Calculus | Differential Calculus and Integral Calculus | 222 | Algebra I (40), Trigonometry (20), Pre-Calculus & Discrete Foundations (15) |
| Multivariable Calculus | Multivariable calculus | 167 | Single-Variable Calculus (26), Geometry (15), Trigonometry (9) |
| Linear Algebra | Linear algebra | 136 | Algebra I (11), Multivariable Calculus (10), Geometry (2) |
Three things stand out. First, algebra leans hardest on the two chapters before it: 54 links into pre-algebra and 28 into arithmetic. The sections it cites most are Exponents & Roots, Variables & Expressions and Integers. A weakness there usually shows up as trouble with algebra rather than with the earlier topic itself, so that is the first place to be strict.
Second, the middle of the list has an order of its own. Our geometry chapter cites algebra 40 times, which supports doing Algebra 1 before High school geometry. Trigonometry cites Geometry more than any other chapter (31 links), so whichever order you take the middle courses in, finish the geometry before the trigonometry. Calculus, in turn, draws most on Algebra I (40 links) and Trigonometry (20 links). The sections it cites most are Functions, Trig Identities and The Unit Circle, and that is the second place to be strict: those need to be automatic before a derivative course starts.
Third, past calculus the list stops being a line. On our map, no single-variable calculus concept sits anywhere underneath linear algebra. What linear algebra takes from the multivariable chapter is 10 concepts, all from its Vectors & 3D Geometry section. If your goal is data science or machine learning, Linear algebra can start once your algebra and vectors are solid, rather than after a full calculus sequence.
Placing yourself on Khan Academy
Most courses open with a Course challenge, and each unit ends in a unit test. Both move your skill levels from Not started through Attempted, Familiar and Proficient to Mastered, and a course’s mastery percentage counts the skills at Proficient or above. To place yourself, start at the hardest course you might partly know, take its Course challenge without revising, and step down a course at a time until most questions come easily. Write down every skill you missed along the way; that list is your real starting point. When we checked, the Linear algebra and Differential equations pages showed no Course challenge or unit tests, so for those you will have to judge readiness from the unit list.
Once you are moving, the Mastery challenges bring back skills you have already practised, 6 questions across 3 skills at a time, inside the course you are in. Material from a course you have finished does not come back on its own, so plan a regular revisit of earlier courses, or use a spaced review schedule that covers them.
