I’m a sophomore at a high school that offers AP Calculus BC, and I am currently taking AP Calculus AB. I really enjoy math and am naturally good at it. Unfortunately, the teacher for the AP Calc BC class is known to be terrible; my friends taking his class say that he uses his first few periods (including his BC class time) to prepare for the rest of the day, and literally does no actual teaching… I have quite a few nearby community colleges that I could take concurrent enrollment at, instead of Calc BC. Would it be better to take Calc II at one of these CC’s than to take Calc BC at my high school? Also, would it look bad to colleges if I took the class at the CC instead of the AP, since Calc II is only a semester?
Does your school require AB as a prerequisite for BC? If not, the first half of the class might be redundant because BC is supposed to cover everything AB covers. That’s why AP Calculus BC lasts two semesters and Calculus II only lasts one.
AP Calculus AB = Calculus I
AP Calculus BC = Calculus I and Calculus II
I don’t think it matters where you take calculus. If you want, you could take the BC exam after taking Calculus II.
AP or 4 year year college over community college.
My high school only allows me to get credit at a community college @bengalmombengal
If you got an A in Calc AB, you could definitely take Calc2 at the community college, then calc3. If you got less than an A in Calc AB, you could just take Calc 1 and 2.
Colleges like to see how you perform in college classes, because the best predictor of college success is… surprise… success in a college class (with a college pace, autonomy, the 3-period a week/2hours of work per period system, getting used to using a syllabus.)
What I would like to mention is getting credit for your work. Dual Enrollment is a great idea, but you have to be careful where community college credit transfers to. My sister took a DE English class her senior year, and it turned out that it wouldn’t transfer out if state.
Just be aware that, depending on what college you go to down the line, you may have to retake a class because you have no credit. Of course, most schools offer placement testing which you should pass easily. Ap is accepted almost anywhere though.
The more selective the college, the less the credits transfer. In fact, at most top 25 universities/LACs, AP is the default, ie., freshman classes are post AP, and AP wouldn’t bring credit because the first year classes are beyond that. An exception is for foreign language and calculus, but math and FL typically have a placement test during orientation, anyway.