<p>My D is becoming a Junior next year at a competitive boarding school. She should decide the courses to take next year. For math class, she has taken Honor AlgebraII and Honor Precalculus. However, she does not like math very much, and she struggled a bit in the Honor Precaulculs class even though she is doing fine now. So my question is "is it OK to take AP calulus AB instead of BC next year" I am afraid that it might be some disadvatageous if she takes AB rather than Bc for college admission. Any advice wil help.
If she takes AB, she may get a better grade though. I am confused.</p>
<p>I think she would be better off taking AB and getting a significantly better grade than taking BC and struggling. The bottom line will be a) she has AP Calc on her transcript, and b) if she has a history of struggling in math she may learn better and retain more moving at the slightly slower pace of the AB class. She can take more calculus in college.</p>
<p>AB is good enough, unless she is applying to engineering schools, or presents herself as a “math person”.</p>
<p>Thank you for the comments. I’d appreciate more comments. Especially I wonder if AB is good enough for top colleges. She is thinking about science or premed path(not engineering).</p>
<p>If both AB and BC are taught as full-year courses, a person who had a bit of difficulty with some of the concepts of precalculus would be better off in AB because the pace is slower and there’s more time to really learn the material. The pace of BC, if taught as a single-year course, is very rapid.</p>
<p>Nothing is gained by learning BC badly and having to do it over again in college.</p>
<p>IS AB good enough to go to top colleges? She will be on science or premed path(not engineering).</p>
<p>op, I think your priorities are mixed up. It doesn’t matter what will “look good” for “top colleges”. What is important is that your D actually learns and understands the material. Why push her to Calc BC if there’s a very high likelyhood that class will move too quickly for her and she’ll struggle?</p>
<p>Try not to worry about the prestige factor, and focus on your daughter.</p>
<p>My D is pre-med, but she stuck out BC with her engineering/CS-bound friends. You get both a BC score and an “AB section” score on the report, so I don’t think it would hurt if you would get say a 4 on BC but a 5 on the AB section…I agree with a previous poster though as far as checking how it is taught at your school, whether they start the AB concepts in pre-calculus or try to cram all the BC concepts in one year. If it is the latter I would stick with AB.</p>
<p>She is outstanding in all other subjects, and she is not bad in MATH(but not outstanding). Her teachers say that she can take either AB or BC, But she may have trouble in BC, That is why we are also confused and I like to ask if
AB is good enough to go to top colleges? Then I will let her take AB since she can enjoy and do better there.
She will be on science or premed path(not engineering).</p>
<p>An “A” in Calculus AB is going to look a whole lot better to elite colleges than a “C” in Calculus “BC”. Furthermore, if she takes AB as a junior (you said she’d be a junior next year, right?) then perhaps she can take BC as a senior.</p>
<p>At our high school plenty of kids got into very, very selective colleges with Calc AB.</p>
<p>No reason to take BC, which is hard and could result in a worse grade and that would at minimum cause worry and why do that to her or yourself? </p>
<p>I always suggest AP stats instead of AB. You need stats. You can’t do science without stats.</p>
<p>BTW, I think people moving into BC if they haven’t been on the BC track is hard because the pace is faster, the material is more difficult and they may not have learned all the prereqs. I don’t know how this works at schools that have one track until the last year. My experience is that if there are two separate tracks, the BC track is so different that one couldn’t rationally do well coming from AB for the last year.</p>
<p>Wait, wait, wait…</p>
<p>Your D will be taking Calc AB as a junior? Then go with AB!!! She can take BC as a senior. Junior year grades are VERY important, and it’s better to get an A in AB as a junior. </p>
<p>I took AB as a senior, got a C, and got into a Top 15 university…then again I didn’t even try to present myself as interested in math/science. LOL, if I had taken BC, I probably would have failed!</p>
<p>If we’re talking about a senior level class, she might as well try to challenge herself. Most colleges (even top ones) don’t put much weight into senior year grades. If she pulls a C in BC math senior year but gets As in her other classes, it’s not going to impact admissions decisions, I wouldn’t think. But if she totally overloads herself, that’s another story…</p>
<p>OK. thanks very much for all the good comments.
I will tell her to take AB. and it guess it is OK to tell her that she can go to top colleges without taking BC. And also she is gointo to take another Math class next year. either Math Advanced Topic or AP statistics. Hope that will be enough for her math qualification. AP statistics will be helpful for her science or premed path.</p>
<p>S took AP Calc AB as a junior and he is now a freshman at an Ivy League school. Take AB…a good grade in AB will help her more than a mediocre grade in BC (from purely an admissions standpoint…I agree with mrsref re: choosing the course that is appropriate for her.)</p>
<p>^Why not just get a good grade in BC? ;)</p>
<p>But I agree a junior probably can get away with AB and another math course senior year.</p>
<p>Take AB - she will be fine.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Teaching all of BC in one year is actually the normal pace that university freshman calculus courses teach at. If the student in question wants to get a sampling of what a real university level course is like, AP Calculus BC taught in one year is the closest one to that out of AP courses in high school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes. Worked for my two science kids (physics and neuroscience). Pushing her into BC when she’s not ready and doesn’t like math–and then having her crash and burn–would be a disaster.</p>
<p>Agree w/ everyone else. S1 took AB as a junior and then AP Stats as a senior.
It didn’t hurt him. He went to a big state u. on a full-ride.</p>
<p>Just one bit of pushback: what, exactly, do you mean that she “struggles” with math and might have “trouble” with BC? My antennae go up when I hear terms like this, especially when applied to a girl. So, has she barely eked out As in math so far, with a fair number of bombed tests outweighed by better grades? Or did she get Bs on a couple of assignments? Did she get very good grades, but had to study hard to get them? Does she do fine, but just feels that she isn’t a “math whiz” like some others in the class?</p>
<p>Also, I would ask how kids do in the BC class in her school.</p>