<p>Hey guys. I'm taking AP Calc AB as a senior next year, and I'm a little intimidated. I'm not worried, as I'm strong in math and had 100's all year in Pre-AP Pre-Calc, but in the past high-ranking and intelligent kids end up dropping the class to avoid failing. The class usually starts with about 20, and ends with less than 10! As a strong mathematics student, I refuse to let this happen to me. As a result, I'm looking for materials/ways to prepare myself for AP Calc AB this summer, especially stuff that will introduce basic concepts of limits, derivatives, and integrals. What would you guys recommend?</p>
<p>The class really isn’t that hard. Get the Princeton Review book and watch some of PatrickJMT and KhanAcademy’s videos on YouTube and you should be fine.</p>
<p>I understand your problem very well since I will be doing the same thing. I also want to prepare since the AP Calculus teacher said I will have a test the first day that would determine my grade in the class as I enter the first day. I’m a bit worried.</p>
<p>Learn your pre-Calculus/Trig very well, it will be key to your transition into Calculus at the AP level. Look over your notes, ignoring such extraneous topics such as matrices and probability. Go onto the Collegeboard website and look over the AP curriculum, paying attention to whether you have learned the underlying pre-calculus for certain topics. You have ample time to learn all the Calculus because your pretty much just learning around 6 chapters and a few key concepts.</p>
<p>@HelloNelly Which concepts of Pre-Calc and trig are particularly vital? In my class we used a dreadful curriculum called Springboard, which we did not even complete in full.</p>
<p>Know the unit circle like the back of your hand. Even those particularly annoying tangent values.
Trust me, it helps TONS.</p>
<p>Don’t forget trig identities, they’ll come in handy once you start integrals.</p>
<p>@izelkay Do you think I should know any other trig functions because the basic identities, Pythagorean, and these?</p>
<p><a href=“http://quizlet.com/857518/ap-calculus-trig-identities-flash-cards/[/url]”>http://quizlet.com/857518/ap-calculus-trig-identities-flash-cards/</a></p>
<p>Those’ll be fine.</p>