AP Calculus (BC) Obscure Topics to be aware of?

<p>I hope this isn't breaking or infringing upon any rules, but since the test is tomorrow, I figured I'd be generally safe?</p>

<p>What kinds of obscure problems and methods should I be prepared for on the test? </p>

<p>Euler's Method
Newton's Method
Logistics Growth (something with limits and a P(t) = something)
Slope Fields
Parametric stuff they might throw</p>

<hr>

<p>Should I be particularly aware of a few of them or others I have not listed? I know it's the night before the test, but I'm doing a few last minute brushups. Any tips would be really helpful and greatly appreciated ^_^</p>

<p>THanks a lot!</p>

<p>omg i hate the parametric thing:
the first deriv of a parametic is dy/dt / dx/dt right?
what's the acceleration/2nd deriv then?</p>

<p>second derivative is a bit more complex:</p>

<p>it's d2y/dx2</p>

<p>so after finding dy/dt / dx/dt, you take the derivative AGAIN</p>

<p>and then divide THAT by dx/dt again.</p>

<p>I don't know how much thense that made but...I tried.</p>

<p>yibun how many hours left for u, and shall we continue our all nighter by providing moral support to one another? i am sucking on these freaking sequence tests i hate them with a passion....... taylor was much easier than i thought ;)</p>

<p>Regarding all nighter..don't do it..get sleep...at this point anything you cram into your head after 11 p.m. is futile! --> I'm in bed by 11 guys...=) [California]..you should be too!</p>

<p>I'm in California, so I'm hitting the bed before 12. Although I took a three hour nap earlier today...</p>

<p>I have problems with series. they don't quite agree with me, but let's hope that I'll be able to charm them tomorrow into agreeing with me! </p>

<p>Hopefully no simpson's rule....and no logistics growth, no newton's law of cooling, no lagrange, and I'd feel much better...</p>

<p>NO DONT HIT THE BED NOW</p>

<p>STAY UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1</p>

<p>here's what I did last year for 11 ap exams it made me a national ap scholar</p>

<p>keep yourself on a consistent plateau of caffeine and read the review book again, or at least the highlighted portions</p>

<p>it worked for me</p>

<p>for 2 weeks I would stay up until 4 AM and wake up at 6</p>

<p>trust me on this</p>

<p>caffeine helps u stay awake and sharpens your mind</p>

<p>You're crazy. Nuff said.</p>

<p>Just kidding ;) Congrats to you!</p>

<p>But unfornately, I also am sick. Seriously sick - I would stay home if I could but I have to show up tomorrow morning to take it. So I dont' think caffeine would do much good for me ;)</p>

<p>Besides, no coffee in the house. Snaps!</p>

<p>Curse you Lagrange + Logistics..curse you all!</p>

<p>remember, if u bomb the test, u can always withhold the scores from colleges</p>

<p>lagrange error or something like that... it was on last years test and i just left it completely blank. come to speak of it, i think i got that entire free response wrong LOL</p>

<p>Okay, nearly 3AM but I'm almost done rereading the Calculus book. On power series right now. After this there's just area of polar equations. Then I can hit the sack.</p>

<p>*** go to bed child!</p>

<p>Almost...there...</p>

<p>There, done! Finally...</p>

<p>My textbook doesn't mention LaGrange error bounds, so...I just hope there aren't any of those tomorrow..err...later today.</p>

<p>Langrange error bound is the difference between the sum of an infinite series and the sum of a finite series.</p>

<p>Euler's Method
This might take a little longer to explain, but it is fairly easy once you understand what to do (I taught this to my Calc teacher :-D).
Since the slope, dy/dx, shows the ratio of how much the function increases to how much x increases, and since f'(x) = dy/dx, dx*f'(x) = dy. A small change in x, multiplied by the slope is the amount the function, increases. Easy to understand, right?
Now, Euler's Method takes advantage of this in order to sketch a curve. So what you do is:
For a given point (1,2) on x^2, we want to approximate what value of th function x=3, using Euler's Method with step x=1.</p>

<p>This might be daunting, but don't let it be. All that you do is find the change in y after the function has traveled to x=2, and add that value to the f(1) to find the new coordinate (2, f(2)) So this is what we'd do mathematically:
Find dy=dx<em>f'(1)
=1</em>(2x)
=2
So the function went out one and up 2, so our new point is: (1+1, 2+2) = (2, 4)
So let's find for (3, f(3))</p>

<p>dy=dx<em>f'(2)
= 1</em>2*x
=4
(x+dx, y+dy) (that is all we are doing!)
(2+1, 4+4)
(3, 8)</p>

<p>Obviously the smaller your dx's are the more accurate the curve will be.</p>

<p>Newton's Method
This is a method to find a root of a function. I won't derive how the equation works right now, but if you plug in values to this equations: x[sub]n+1[/sub]=x[sub]n[/sub] - f(x[sub]n[/sub])/f'(x[sub]n[/sub])
Do this thee times, and then you should have a very accurate value for one of the function's root.</p>

<p>**Logistics Growth<a href="something%20with%20limits%20and%20a%20P(t)%20=%20something">/b</a>
Most MC questions ask what is the max pop. that the logistic function represents, which is pretty simple because dP/dt must be greater or equal to zero.</p>

<p>Slope Fields
For these MC questions you plug in values for x and y, and see if they match up to the slope at that point, or the value of dy/dx</p>

<p>Haha...my late night/early morning cramming paid off! I knew nearly all questions on the exam except for one, whose concept I deliberately skipped because it was 4am and I didn't feel like learning a new concept.</p>

<p>man, if I had read this post before the BC test... stupid Euler!!!</p>

<p>
[quote]
stupid Euler!!!

[/quote]

How dare you!</p>