<p>I asked this question and got a kind of vague answer from another thread so I'm asking again: Can someone explain to me the difference between AP calculus AB and BC? I tried to google but couldn't find a good website that can give me the answer. D. is taking AP calc next year. We don't really know what it is. Her school's math team is weak. We are preparing to do some "home tutoring". It'd help to know the answer to this question. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>AP Calculus AB is supposed to be one semester of college calculus taught over one high school year. AP Calculus BC is supposed to be a year of college calculus taught over one high school year.</p>
<p>BC moves faster. The AB material should be included in the BC class, but at far too many schools they teach a year of AB and then a year of BC.</p>
<p>If your math is weak, it’s probably AB. In our school district of many high schools, only 5 teach BC.</p>
<p>For most purposes:</p>
<p>AB approximates the first semester of college freshman calculus.</p>
<p>BC approximates the first year of college freshman calculus.</p>
<p>Freshman calculus is fairly standardized for the most part, although there may be minor variations (e.g. some colleges include a few weeks of introductory differential equations or multivariable calculus at the end of the year). At many colleges, a less rigorous version for business majors is also offered.</p>
<p>However, at a few colleges, “freshman calculus” is not the fairly typical course as it is at most places. MIT compresses a year of freshman calculus into one semester, while Caltech and Harvey Mudd teach it with much more in-depth theory (what would be college junior level real analysis at most other schools).</p>
<p>At S’s school, BC covers AB material in first semester. If you look at the scores for BC, there are a lot of 5’s-- probably because the people who sign up for this course are those who REALLY get it. (One of my sons took BC as a junior–he was always good at math, but he struggled with the second semester of this course. His grade was OK, but he did not do well on the AP test. He did get an A in his college calculus course, though.)
Topics covered and practice questions should be on
college board/AP website.</p>
<p>This doesn’t directly answer your question but you may still find it interesting. School which DD is likely attending in the fall gives credits for AP Calculus as follows:
Calculus AB - score of 4 or 5 - credit for Calculus I (4 credit hours)
Calculus BC - 4 or 5 - credit for Calculus I and II (8 credit hours)
Calculus BC - AB subscore - 4 or 5 - credit for Calculus I (4 credit hours)</p>
<p>I never knew there was an “AB subscore” for the BC exam until I saw this, but I guess it makes sense if AB is simply the first half of what is covered in BC.</p>
<p>Thanks! </p>
<p>Does anyone have a link to college board that explains what they are? Why do I have so much trouble finding it. :(</p>
<p>A college prep book like kaplans has the details</p>
<p>[AP</a> Central - AP Calculus AB Course Home Page](<a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board)
[AP</a> Central - AP Calculus BC Course Home Page](<a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>AP Calculus BC Course – AP Central | College Board)</p>
<p>[AP</a> Calculus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Calculus]AP”>AP Calculus - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>You may want to find out how students who take AP calculus at your high school do on the AP test. A non-trivial number of 5 scores by the best-at-math students should be expected if the school is teaching it well. About a quarter of AB test takers and about half of BC test takers earn 5 scores (BC test takers are typically self-selected for the better-at-math students).</p>
<p>Although a 3 score is considered “passing”, a student should be very careful about taking advanced placement in college with a 3 score.</p>
<p>In general, a student with AP calculus credit should review the college’s old final exams for courses that s/he is allowed to skip, in order to determine whether skipping is a good idea. (Colleges often have old final exams on their web sites.)</p>
<p>As I recall AB Calc went through differential calculus but not further, while BC Calc went through both differential and integral calculus.</p>
<p>If you have any idea which schools they are considering yet, BC calc has a little more leeway with getting credit in a lot of colleges–often a 3 will exempt them from a math requirement at most schools. The AP BC test also gives them AP credits for AB calc. If they aren’t going to be math/science majors, just one way to free up some time in their college schedule. If they need math for their major, probably won’t get credit for a 3, but possibly a 4 or 5.</p>
<p>One more clarification that I found helpful when DS went through:</p>
<p>A: chapters 1-3 (roughly) in the book
B: chapters 4-7
C: chapters 8-10</p>
<p>AB covers ch 1-7 and the “C” part adds on 3 more chapters. DSs school only offered AB. When I saw the above, in combination with the fact that there is an AB subscore on the BC test, there appeared to be no penalty for taking the BC test. DS self studied the last 3 chapters and took the BC (with no help from his calc teacher I would add). He learned enough to get a 5 on the BC but did say that he had holes in his knowledge when he started with 2nd year Calc at college. He filled in the holes though.</p>
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<p>I’ve found out already and that’s why we’re worried - the past record is horrible. The math teachers are not good at all. I feel bad to say this because they’re really nice people but can’t hide the fact they don’t teach math well. They probably don’t do well themselves. </p>
<p>
@ihs, which book are you referring to? Is it a calc textbook? Is there a standard calc textbook?</p>
<p>Can you kids take a Calc 1 class at a local university for HS and college credit?</p>
<p>but she wants to get AP credit and get a higher GPA. College course (with an A) is 4.5, AP is 5. stupid game we have to play.</p>
<p>I know a lot of people here aren’t fond of it, but my school district had AB as a junior course and BC for seniors. About half of the students that took AB went on to take BC, and everyone in BC generally scored a 4 or 5. At least half of the class would get 5s. I definitely felt way better prepared than some of my classmates that had taken only BC and placed out of freshman calc.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your experience RacinReaver.
Right now her plan is to take AP calc AB in junior year and AP statistics in senior year. I don’t know if AP BC is even offered in her school. </p>
<p>She is a humanity student. She is not bad at math. It’d be nice if she could get calc out of her way. maybe we should re-consider the math plan, and have her take calc BC in a local college and take the exam in May senior year instead? any suggestions? (I’m thinking maybe she’ll get the credit for AP if she takes the AP exam, even though it’s not an AP course in her school.)</p>
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<p>The chance of getting a 3 or higher or 4 or higher on the AP Calculus AB exam can be estimated from a student’s PSAT score (or SAT score divided by 10) using the [AP</a> Potential Expectancy Tables](<a href=“Expectancy Tables – AP Potential | College Board”>Expectancy Tables – AP Potential | College Board) . To have a 50% chance of getting a 3 or higher one needs a score of 57 on the PSAT math section.</p>
<p>The calculus teachers should be judged in the context of their students’ PSAT scores, although poor PSAT scores could indicate poor teaching in earlier courses.</p>
<p>Interesting table.</p>
<p>90% change to get 4+ on AP Physics C Elec/Mag requires 159 on CR + M PSAT.
Almost perfect scores.</p>
<p>Also kids have to do well on CR+M+W to do well on US Government and other subjects.</p>
<p>Nice table. that’s encouraging. 
Her school’s PSAT math is in general low. above 60 in math is considered high. (I know!) But she got 74 as a sophomore. Hopefully at higher level math she can still perform above her school’s level.</p>
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<p>Does high school weighted GPA matter for class rank purposes, where she is near some threshold (e.g. valedictorian competition for admission to super-selective colleges, or top 7%/10% in Texas for automatic admission to Texas public universities)?</p>
<p>If the AP calculus courses in the high school are so poor that no one gets a 5 score on the AP test, then taking a true college calculus course is likely a better choice from the standpoint of learning something. (If there is question about transferability of the college course to a private four year school, then she can also take the AP BC test. Most public four year schools have articulation listings of same-state community college courses.)</p>
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<p>Humanities majors typically do not need calculus for their majors, although some schools do require it as a general education requirement. Social studies majors may need it (particularly economics), though they tend to need statistics more (although statistics can be easier to learn with a calculus background).</p>
<p>However, as a humanities student, being two grade levels ahead in math (reaching calculus as a high school junior) puts her in league with the top students in math overall (who typically major in math, physics, engineering, etc.). That seems to be quite uncommon among humanities students, many of whom are poor at math and fear anything math-based in college (even less rigorous options like non-calculus statistics or calculus for business majors).</p>