AP Calc AB or BC???

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1

<p>Hi, I am a junior in a regular level pre-calculus class. I did very well this year, averaging a 97% this semester. </p>

<p>I was originally going to take AP Calc BC my senior year, but my teacher did not recommend it because "regular level students do not get end of the year calculus experience that the honors level class does." This doesn't make sense to me thought, since my class is doing some calculus now...</p>

<p>So I chose the AB class instead. I really want those 2 semester credits that BC would give so that I don't need to take math in college (I will be doing pre-med, which only requires a year of calculus). Should I take the BC class instead? Will it be much more difficult than AB? I am confident in my strength in math, but I still don't want to get in over my head...</p>

2

<p>so in your precalc class, what kind of calculus you do?</p>

<p>In mine, the only calculus thing my class did was limits. There is also conics and polar, which is kind of an intro needed for BC.</p>

<p>AB is easier than BC because you covered less materials than BC. Moreover, there are difficult topics in BC, such as series and polar.</p>

3

<p>You should take Calc AB and then Calb BC, so she’s right. If you only need one year of calculus, then the AB should cover that.</p>

4

<p>Hehe, any person pursuing an engineer major would tell you to take BC and get 5, but in your case I think GoIllini is right.</p>

5

<p>After doing Honors Alg II /trig, can someone please tell me which of the two would be the prefered approach -
Honors Pre-Cal / Calculus I followed by AP Calc BC or
AP Calc AB followed by AP Calc BC</p>

<p>Pre-Calc covers all advanced Trig concepts and the Calculus I curriculum covers a part of Calc AB . It DOES NOT prepare students to take the AP Calculus AB exam.</p>

6

<p>I was in your same position but they didn’t offer BC at my school. I learned the full AB curriculum down pat (as in I almost got full perfect scores on all practice exams on AB). I then decided to self-teach BC within two or three weeks, and honestly, the difference between the AB/BC exam isn’t that bad.</p>

7

<p>“Dont worry, there is no shame in taking AB over BC” say my math teacher who signed me into Calc BC even though I had a C- in Pre-Calc Honors at the time lol</p>

8

<p>bis,</p>

<p>Don’t take precalc. I can honestly say it’s a waste. You learn everything you need from Algebra II/Trig, and if you don’t you can just strengthen your knowledge when you need it in Calc. I didn’t know trig properties or logarithms very well, but I just sort of reviewed them once we got to them in Calculus, and it was alright. Take the AB then BC approach. BC will be incredibly easy by the time you get to it.</p>

9

<p>Completely disagree with the above post. BC duplicates about 80% of the AB material. It would duplicate significantly less of the Calc I material (and the way your school is structured, it might not duplicate any of it). You can take the time to learn the trig and logarithmic properties right, rather than redo some material that you learned the previous year.</p>

<p>Plus, there’s no reason to take both the AB exam the first year and the BC exam the second year. If you earn the BC credit, the AB credit will do you no good. If you don’t earn the BC credit, you’ve always got the AB subscore from that test to fall back on.</p>