AB or BC Calc?

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
1

<p>ok, i'm a 10th grader and am planning to take AP english III, AP US history, AP chem, AP French IV, phsics honors and AP calc</p>

<p>i did well in algebra I honors & II honors, geometry honors, and am doing ok (low/middle A) in precal honors. i am somewhat torn between AB and BC calc</p>

<p>i need to know: what's the difference? i've heard that BC calc is harder, but i've also heard the AP exam for BC is easier. </p>

<p>my main concern: as an aspiring premed student which one will be better on my transcript?</p>

<p>thanks</p>

2

<p>well bc would always look better on your transcript. are you taking an accelerated schedule because calc is for senior year at my school</p>

3

<p>By doing well in all of those math honors courses, you must be good at grasping math concepts rather easily, so I would urge you to seriously consider taking Calc BC – particularly since you are already taking pre-calc and doing well.</p>

<p>Calc BC covers more topics than Calc AB. With a passing score on the AP exam (and what the passing score is varies by college), most schools will grant credit for a one-semester course for Calc AB and credit for a two-semester course for Calc BC. </p>

<p>Also, the score report for the Calc BC exam provides a separate subscore for Calc AB (i.e., just the questions that would be included in the Calc AB curriculum) and most schools will use that subscore as the equivalent of the Calc AB exam.</p>

4

<p>to jcll2002: yeah, i took alg I honors in 7th grade and went from there so in junior yr i take Calc and senior yr i take Stat AP</p>

5

<p>thanks to worriedmom!</p>

6

<p>I’d recommend taking AB this year, and take BC & Stats next year, for 3 solid 5s..</p>

7

<p>Depends if you want to learn something or if want it to look good on paper…take bc if it is the paper you are worried about</p>

8

<p>BC just covers more material, but it’s not really that much. If you’re a straight-A math student, I’d go for BC. I took BC as a soph too and it wasn’t bad.</p>

9

<p>If you are a straight A math student (which is what I inferred from your list of honors classes and statement that a low/middle A is “OK”), taking Calc AB and then Calc BC the following year would just be a waste of time for you, because you can easily cover all of the material in Calc BC in one year and would most likely still get a 5 on the BC exam. </p>

<p>My son took Honors Pre-Calc as a sophomore, Calc BC as a junior (got 5 on the AP exam), and is taking Differential Equations as a senior.</p>

10

<p>Some schools offer AP Calc AB and AP Calc BC in separate years, while sometimes AP Calc AB and AP Calc BC are offered in an either/or type relationship. It sounds like your school is the either/or type.</p>

<p>If you’re ready for Calculus as a junior, and you’re doing well in your precalculus class, I would encourage you to take AP Calculus BC. The AP Calculus BC course isn’t harder because the content is more difficult; the course is harder because it covers material more quickly. If you’re getting to the course by junior year, that shouldn’t be a problem.</p>

<p>As far as the test being easier, this isn’t really true either. The percentage of 5’s on the BC exam is higher because (1) many schools offer BC after AB, and so the students are really only studying a few extra chapters and (2) in the schools where students have to choose, the “brighter” students tend to choose BC over AB, and they are performing better on an exam of comparable difficulty. This is to be expected.</p>

11

<p>why dont you take AB now and BC next year…that way that 2 more APs and BC will be so much easier (since 50% is already AB)</p>

12

<p>AB is more like 80% of BC, and some schools don’t allow you to take them in consecutive years.</p>

13

<p>Take BC, then take Calc III and Diff Eq your senior year.</p>