So I am in kind of a predicament with my schedule for my junior year.
I signed up for…
-AP Calc BC
-AP Physics 1
-AP US History
-English 4 Honors
-Spanish 3 Honors
but I have not taken Calc AB yet. I spoke with the BC teacher and she said if I wanted to take BC my junior year then I have to take the first semester of AB, then take BC second semester. I was told that I would learn all of the material but the students that took AB the year before will be reviewing the material while I am learning it for the first time. I currently have a high A in Pre-Calculus and I am putting little to no effort into the class but how different is an actual calculus class? I plan on studying a lot of the topics the summer before but is that enough? The reason I am taking AB my junior year is because I want to take AP Stats my senior year and I don’t plan on taking BC senior year along with stats if I can take it my junior year.
I’m not too familiar with the AP curriculum, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
This really depends on your school/math department’s rigor: what does your Precalculus class cover, and how fast is the class? You might want to ask the teacher teaching the BC class about the relative speed that the class goes compared to your current class. I did a mixed Precalculus/Calculus Pre-IB class freshman/sophomore year and it was not too difficult – definitely different from the usual math you may be used to, but it has its own merits to it. (BTW, we cover up to half of the BC curriculum, so that’s that.)
Why do you want to take AP Stats alone senior year though? College math often start with a Calc sequence, and being one year out of the loop may hurt your grades then (too long term? sorry.) But Stats is also known as one of the ‘easier’ AP classes, so if you’re not sure, how about doing AB then BC? Taking AP Stats isn’t a requirement at most schools IIRC.
Correct. In fact, taking any AP is not a requirement for any college.
Unless the OP has a post-BC math option senior year, I would not rush the calculus sequence. The BC exam contains 60% of the topics from the AB curriculum, so you really need to have that down pat to do well. If you really think you can self study all the AB topics over the summer, fine. Do that and talk to the teacher again at the beginning of the school year. But clearly she wants to be certain that you know the material and is not one to take your word on a plan before it’s actually implemented.
Some schools actually add two extra weeks of study to go from AP Calculus AB to AP Calculus BC…so, even if you haven’t taken Calculus AB, you will be fine with BC - you may have to put in a little extra effort (but nothing too extraneous).
I actually went from Trig to AP Calculus AB (I skipped pre-calculus), but ended up self studying for AP Calculus BC, and I was fine - I got As in class and a 5 on the BC exam.
And if you are planning to study in the summer, then trust me - you will be absolutely fine!
Calculus is a very practical - once you get the fundamental concepts down, everything else in the class is basically an application of that. The only way AB and BC is different is that BC covers Series, etc. while AB doesn’t.
If you want to talk more about this, or want my notes, feel free to email me at suzukiakira1996@gmail.com
I’m currently studying Aerospace engineering, so I LOVE to talk math…especially calculus!
There are post-BC math options senior year I believe. When I spoke with the Calculus teacher she said that at our school the first semester of AB covers around 90% of the topics for that class while the second semester of it is two new units and a review for the AP exam. She said that juniors have done it in the past and one year she had eleven juniors do it. Most seemed to do well except they needed a little extra help and she said she is more than happy to help reinforce topics that I would have any trouble on. I did not even mention to her that I would self-study the summer before so she assumed that I would be going into Calculus with only knowledge of what was covered in Pre-Calculus. I am not really worried about forgetting any Calculus topics I was just a little scared of not being able to handle the jump from Pre-Calculus to BC but if BC is 60% of the topics from AB then that is more reassuring. Thank you!
Three AP isn’t that many and I am sure you will be able to handle Calculus BC from AB. Many freshmen who took pre-calc in eighth grade go straight to Calculus BC. I don’t know how good you are at math but if you can pick things up quickly, I would suggest not wasting an year in AB and going straight to BC.
High schools organize Calculus in different manners:
AB OR BC: students take one or the other, depending on the intensity they feel they can handle. BC includes everything from AB plus the special C part, so it’s paced as fast as an average first-year college calculus class.
AB then BC: The AB segment is studied first, and the BC segment does NOT include AB (except perhaps 10%). The pace is thus double that of the “BC in one year” program and similar to other AP classes, where you cover one semester of college content over the course of one high school year.
If your HS uses the first system, you’re fine. If your HS uses the second system, I would NOT skip AB.
Then comes the second part of your issue: AP Stats is either a complementary class for students with calculus, or a rigorous class for students who can’t/won’t take calculus. What majors interest you? It’s not a good choice to end your HS math sequence if you expect to continue in STEM fields in college. See if your high school offers Multivariable calculus - if you currently have 95%+ in precalc honors without trying much, you can go straight to BC and then take MV, but the more reasonable and normal-advanced sequence would be AB-BC (if your HS uses this system).
I would have my goal as doing AP Calc AB and AP Calc BC in HS and having the time to do it well.
I would not worry about Stats…if you are really interested in it, take it in college or take it in addition to the other but don’t make it a focus.