<p>I’d advise taking just AB. A lot of the BC students who even had trouble with it were smart kids and also had done precalc the year before. Besides, you don’t want to rush it if you’re going to need a solid foundation in mathematics for a future major like engineering.</p>
<p>I’d say AB is pretty straightforward, but I don’t know how much BC would be since it builds off of the things in AB and really the only way to get good at math is to practice. If you’re dedicated, then I guess take BC… but I’d still say take AB and you’ll do well and you’ll learn a lot too.</p>
<p>I think your surely right, my mathematics plan will go like this (or so):
As a…
Freshman - Geometry
Sophomore - Algebra II
Junior - (Skip Pre-Calculus) Calculus AB
Junior - Calculus BC
and Calculus III in college…</p>
<p>to boneh3ad…I’m not calling AP courses easy, I’m referring to “Advanced Courses”, for example in 8th grade, Pre Algebra is supposed to be taken. However, while the “advanced” students can take Algebra or Geometry (if they’re gifted).</p>
<p>Egotism will get you know where. I suggest doing your best to grow out of that as fast as you can, because it will only serve to turn people off.</p>
<p>When I went to high school, the standard sequence was:</p>
<p>Algebra I
Geometry
Algebra II
Precalculus
Calculus (only one class, teaching to the AP BC syllabus)</p>
<p>Obviously, you needed to be in at least Geometry by 9th grade to reach Calculus by senior year. This was less than 10% of the students then, but more now. Back then, maybe one student every few years was two years ahead, in Algebra II in 9th grade. Most of the students who reached Calculus took the honors versions of Geometry, Algebra II, and Precalculus.</p>
<p>Today, the same high school has essentially the same math course sequence, but there are more one year ahead students and probably a non-trivial number of two year ahead students (who will reach Calculus by junior year). They also have an AB option as well as the original BC course – a student who completes Precalculus by junior year takes either AB or BC (not AB one year and BC the next year).</p>
<p>A course covering the AB syllabus approximates a one semester college or university calculus course. If that course is over a whole year, it would be at a slower pace than a college or university calculus course. A course covering the BC syllabus approximates a one year[li] college or university calculus course.</p>[/li]
<p>[*] Colleges and universities do vary; at some, there are topics in freshman calculus not covered in BC. Some super-elite science and engineering schools make everyone retake freshman calculus because their courses have a lot of extra theory.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t suggest skipping precalc. Many students, including myself, had a minor struggle going from academic algebra 2 to precalc honors. Precalc covers topics crucial for calc. Maybe double up on math classes somehow, but definitely take precalc prior to AP calc</p>
<p>You don’t need trig. At all. I did this last year and got out of Calculus with around a 98%, and it’s not a blow-off class at my school. You’ll be just fine. It’s VERY algebra heavy.</p>
<p>MAYBE u can skip pre calculus, it’s mostly review of trig and Algebra 2. But it does have intro lessons to calculus, like vectors, matrices, conics, and some derivatives. You can’t skip calculus one and go directly to calc 2. You will be missing the most crucial part such as integration, differentiation, and solids of revolution. Skipping some classes in algebra isn’t the same as skipping calculus. It’s a completely different matter.</p>
<p>Ok, I had two reactions when I read this thread.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Daaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmnnnnn. Algrebra II straight to BC Calc?!</p></li>
<li><p>bad idea</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’m currently a high school senior and I took AP BC Calculus last year. Unfortunately, out of the 3 BC Calc periods at my school I was put in the one with the new teacher. Our teacher had just started teaching the class the year before after having taught (ironically) only Algebra II for 10+ years prior. To this day I still cannot understand who made that call or why, but regardless, she had NO idea what she was doing. </p>
<p>The funny thing is, she even ADMITTED to us that she had NO idea what she was doing, and this year she was put in charge of teaching all 3 BC Calc classes -.-</p>
<p>Moral of the story: don’t make that big of a jump unless you are some math prodigy, at least by my standards. There are probably people on these forums who would consider a jump from Algebra II to BC Calc nothing out of the ordinary -.-</p>
<p>If you can teach yourself enough trig to merit skipping precalc, then I highly doubt that you will have trouble in Calc BC at all. until you get to series I’m guessing</p>
<p>Ha, I’m in a similar situation right now. I’m a freshman in Precalculus Pre-AP, and I’ve studied the whole year for Calculus by myself. Right now the principle is giving me the bullcrap that I can’t skip Calculus 1. I’m fighting for the right to do such thing, because it has been done before by a student who got a 5 on the AB AP exam.</p>
<p>And actually, I’m doing the BC exam, because next thing I knew I was already leaking BC material into my brain by January. So I decided to level up. But the least I want is to take Calculus 2, and they won’t let me, which is pretty unfair. I talked to the student and he said that they also denied it to him before he did the test but… I want to put a stop to the lies.</p>
<p>However you’re dealing with your math classes, hope it all goes well.</p>
<p>By the way, Pre-calculus isn’t exactly useless, it’s more Algebra and trig as well as concepts critical to calculus not covered in Algebra 2. It can be skipped, but you’ll need the algebraic and arithmetic practice.</p>
<p>I went from Geometry to BC calc, trig alg 2 precalc are all pointless. Matter of fact algebra 1 to BC is reasonable as long you have like 140 iq ish…</p>
<p>Alg 2 to Calc BC is certainly possible. I know I did it without issue.
However, the fact that you even have to ask about this means that I’d advise against you doing it. You’d know if you could do it without a hitch.</p>
<p>Too many posts to read through so I’ll only answer the OP’s original question. You probably could take calc BC without too many troubles (my school also did precalc -> calc ab and precalc -> calc bc). And I’ve joked at a couple points that pre calc is useless. Make sure you know parametric equations and polar coordinates though. They won’t be covered very much in calc bc but you’ll be expected to know them. </p>
<p>Though may I ask why your doing this? There’s nothing after calc bc that counts towards college college credit in the AP curriculum (I suppose you could go to a community college for lin al/calc III if your that committed). And since you did skipped pre algebra, your most likely already ahead, so you’ll end up not taking math junior or senior year, which probably isn’t good for an engineer. </p>
<p>And, seriously, other kids will prejudge you for being smug. Not that you have to care what others think about you, just saying it’ll probably happen.</p>