I’m a soon to be sophmore, and although I’ve never taken any AP math courses, I plan to in my junior and/or senior year to take an AP Calculus course. Honestly, ever since I’ve gotten into high school I’ve just become REALLY bad at math. I basically failed my freshman year math class, so I can’t take Honors Precalc, only regular precalc. Despite being a student who struggles, I will work hard to succeed, so as long as I’m not working in an inefficient manner. Is it ever too early to start studying for these exams? And how exactly should I be studying for them?
It is never too early to start studying for exams. For calc a lot of it revolves around memorization of the integral and derivative identities. If you are going to study a year early I would suggest just memorizing those. It wouldn’t help you actually learn the material in the class but it would make it much easier for you when you take the class. Also you should take time and meet with the calc teacher t your school after you finished precal. AP calc is not the easiest course and many people who are good at math struggle with it. You should talk with the teacher of the class and see if they think you would be able to keep up with the pace of the class.
I suggest catching up on lower-level subjects (e.g. algebra, trig, pre-calc) before continuing on to AP Calculus. I once tutored someone in calculus who couldn’t tell me what sin(pi/3) was or expand a polynomial such as (x+2)^3, and it’s nearly impossible.