Another question from me about D20's math choices for next year.

@skieurope - I won’t. She’s an only child and the whole college application process was a real eye-opener. It was mentioned at most of her visits (not so much Bio, but the other three; I figure most students nowadays take AP Bio anyway).

Because of her major, she didn’t even bother to take AP History or AP Gov. in high school. She took honors for those. She took Calc, Chem, Physics, Bio, Lit, Comp, and Psych as AP’s.

Were the other students those who had calculus in high school, but really did not learn it well (low score on AP exam), or were they trying for easy A grades by repeating their AP 5 scores for grade-grubbing purposes (e.g. pre-med, pre-law, secondary admission to a competitive major)?

That is really strange. Take the strongest students in math and put them two grade levels ahead in 7th grade, then slow them down by making the standard algebra 2 - precalculus sequence three years instead of two, then discourage them from taking calculus after precalculus.

Calculus BC over one year starting from the completion of precalculus is approximately college pace, while calculus AB is a slower pace. So students looking for a more gentle introduction to calculus may want to take calculus AB in high school instead of waiting until college to take full speed college calculus 1.

As far as the math savants go, most of them have long since gotten AP 5 on BC (or equivalent in IB HL or A-level) and moved on to more advanced math courses, so they would not be taking calculus 1 in college (except for those at Caltech or Harvey Mudd, or those taking honors proof-heavy versions if offered at their colleges).

@4girlsmom I didn’t catch her intended major. If it is a social science, the college may prefer AP stats. Cornell’s Industrial and Labor Relations college told us that if the applicant had to choose between calc and stats, they wanted to see stats. Perhaps this info is on the sites of the schools she is considering, or you could call.

But if she’s going to take calc, I’d petition to see if you can get her moved to AP calc AB. Our kids’ school lets kids go straight from precal to BC, and all the kids, including our older son, who took AB first thought it was easy because it moves quite slow.