AP Calculus AB - Two Questions!

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
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<p>FIRST
Okay - I'm sort of freaking out now, because in the PR review book for Calc AB, they claim that we have to now INTEGRATION BY PARTS. Is this true? My calc teacher claims the college board has never, never, never tested integration by parts on AB. Does anyone here have any idea?</p>

<p>SECOND
For the free response, can we write out our work / answers in pencil? ... or is that part strictly written in pen, like biology, history, and English?</p>

<p>Any and ALL responses are much appreciated. Thanks in advance!</p>

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<p>i don't think integration by parts is on the ap exam.... might be helpful, but no.</p>

<p>yah, use pencil, wouldn't do it in pen</p>

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<p>parts was removed from the AB test since ...2001 I think. It is on the BC test, however.</p>

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<p>Integration by parts is NOT covered on the AB Calculus exam.</p>

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<p>BUT sometimes it's helpful/easier to use (according to my teacher anyway).</p>

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<p>yeah if you have the PR book it says right in the book that integration by parts is one of the topics you only need for the BC exam.</p>

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<p>Do any of you know of a good site which provides free preperation tools? I'm not actually taking the AP Calculus exam, but my teacher is giving a practice exam that will excuse us from the final if we can get a 3. </p>

<p>Also, how difficult is it to get a 3?</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.archive.org/details/ap_calculus_ab%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.archive.org/details/ap_calculus_ab&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Thanks a lot!</p>

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<p>(DUmb questions but sorry I'm selfstudying so I dont really have a clue):</p>

<p>For the Free Response questions, how are you supposed to write the answers..?
Like, do you have to write the mathematical procedures in steps? And do you have to write words too? Like, "Step 1: Derive f(x) using the Trapezoid Rule" and then writing the full trapezoid rule?</p>

<p>And umm what is the paper like? Grid lined or just normal horizontally lined?</p>

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<p>Bump.......</p>

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<p>I have a really big question.</p>

<p>How accurate is Princeton Review Cracking the AP Cal.. 2006-2007?
I just took the first Practice... the MCs are insanely difficult, especially the calculator part... but the Free Responses are incredulously easy... like I just did one in 5 minutes... w/o thinking...</p>

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<p>NoFX: I think you have to show work in the Non-Calculator part, yet in the Calculator part, you can just write the Integral or Differential (ie, the first step) and then just give the answer... if you are running out of time...</p>

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<p>The good old days of Calc AB</p>

<p>To NOFX: No, you don't have to write out: Step 1: Derive f(x) using the Trapezoid Rule" just show all your work in the non-calculator and in the calculator part you can just write the equation that you are putting in your 89.</p>

<p>To Hoganwan: I personally disliked PR because I didn't feel it was an accurate representation of the test at all. Do you have access to any old MC exams?</p>

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<p>That AP Reject: No.. but I've done a lot of past paper before which my teacher gave me... They were not that hard... but the Free Response are harder than PR</p>

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<p>If you can get half of the FR from last year right then you will be fine. Besides the area and volume question and the slope field one.. that was no walk in the park :) You all aiming for 5s or what?</p>

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<p>Yeah! I'm aiming for a 5...
And I just did the paper of last year yesterday... and it is easy... I think I can get all the FRs right...
and the MCs are easy too! I think I missed one or two...</p>

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<p>Hey I've also noticed that FRs in PR were extremely easy. I think I finished it in like 10-15min.
But Peterson's... their FR.... it took over 45min... more like 55min..? I have a real difficuluty with the shell method lol</p>

<p>I dont go to an AP school so do you know where I can get the past years' papers?
hoganwan, is the last year's paper's FR, the same level of difficulty as PR's fr?</p>

<p>oh and I'm aiming for a 5 too :)</p>

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<p>same here! aiming for 5s.
Anyway, I'd answer some random questions that I read in this thread, but cant remember whom they are from:
- the answer sheet is blank paper, so you can draw, write wherever u want, as long as it's organized.
- You MUST use a pencil for AP exam, using pen will lead to score canceling, as far as I know.
- PR is bad, I took a survey in my school about the same question. 80% said PR sucks!
- and about the INTEGRATION BY PART question, it wasn't on the AB exam last year, but I would suggest you to learn that, it wouldn't hurt if you know it anyway, rite? it's easy too, so just dont freak out about it. However, if you dont feel like learning anything at this time, just skip that question. Skipping one question won't make you drop from a 5 to a 4. That's not a big deal.
I dont have suggestion about which book you should study, but take lots of pratice tests, you can find them on <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/ap%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.collegeboard.com/ap&lt;/a> that's all I can say, good luck guys!</p>

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<p>Oh one more! for the exam's open ended questions, all you need to write is that trapazoidal rule formula, substitute in the number, then give the answer, it usually tells you what to use (R. sum right hand rule, left hand....) you dont need to rewrite "I'm using trapazoidal rule, so here's what I'm gonna do... blablabla..."
^_^ good luck again</p>