*** AP Calculus BC Thread 2016-2017 ***

It’s time to look into the future. AB was no sweat and a nice introduction to Calculus, but it’s time for Collegeboard to bring forth it’s A-game!! If only Calc AB and BC merged and instead we could have a Multivariable course. <3

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Taking the course next year with the same great teacher. I expect a fun ride!

Taking the course with my pre-Calc teacher and getting a head start on the class w/ Coursera.
@ObitoSigma Calc BC is already a merged version of AB and a 2nd semester Calc course, but I wished they offered multi-variable calc too!

I’m taking it too! I took AB last year, and I’m finishing off my senior year with BC.

You know what would make this class even more fun? If it were proof-based! Man, that would be an absolute blast. What do you all say?

I’m taking AP Calculus BC too! I’m actually taking Calculus AB as well (my school has a 4 by 4 block schedule, so people normally take AB first term and BC second term).

I agree, proofs would make it fun! I always loved proofs from Geometry - it was like solving a puzzle - and it would be great if it were in AP Calc as well.

My teacher is forced to go on maternal leave and won’t be able to come back until the end of September. So she’s leaving AP Calculus AB work to get us prepared for BC material. Our very first assignment on the first day of class was the 2016 AP Calculus AB free response. I have to say that it was actually a really good way to remind me of how the course is structured! Now we are going to be given review sheets, starting from limits and probably ending with Disc / Washer method toward finding volumes by the end of September. By the time she comes back, I hope she can jump straight into the Shell Method!

What do you all think about the exam change? What’s really different, besides the three new topics added? I know the MC has changes from 5 choices to 4, but I want to know if the format of the questions has changed. Like; more conceptual, less conceptual, etc.

Not much has changed. The framework has adopted “Mathematics Practices for AP Calculus” to give teachers better idea on what to expect on the exam. http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/232206.html

Three concepts added: limit comparison test, absolute and conditional convergence, and the alternating series error bound.

My teacher finally came back this week and started teaching Integration techniques. But because there was a holiday on Monday, block scheduling where we alternate classes, and a hurricane is causing schools to be closed for Thursday and Friday, we only had the opportunity to see her one time this week. Sucks, doesn’t it?

AP Calculus BC Exam is on Victory Day!!! Tuesday! So Close!!

Are there any field questions on the BC exam like there are for AP Chem, if so, approximately how many.
Thanks

@Zhenazn I do not take AP Chem so I do not know. The closest thing that sounds similar to that is slope fields, in which case, yes, they are on the AP Calculus BC Exam (~1 question per MCQ Section)

Probably something with Euler’s method, estimations using right/left/midpoint/trapezoidal sums, and series/sequences and writing general formulas for them.

@Zhenazn I also took AP Chem this year, but I’m not sure what you mean by “field questions”. Can you elaborate?

@putinator @priyaraz sorry for the confusion. By field questions I meant questions that do not count towards the actual score, generally because they are reused questions. Chem had 10 of these questions, meaning graded out of 50 instead of 60 questions. Was not sure for what other aps these applied to.
Did not mean slope field.

@Zhenazn no. I do not think so

@priyaraz I hope there is something with Parametrics

@putinator True, that’s a pretty likely topic, along with polar.

@priyaraz

Official Prediction: Some table-- Riemann Sums-The Usual/ Series for sure/ Fundamental Theorem of Calculus/Parametric OR Differential Equations/Line tangents? (only on 2015 so far)/ Polar (I hope not) OR Area between Curves

Euler’s, Riemann Sums, Diffeqs, and Parametrics would be a dream.
@priyaraz I’m in the same boat, I hope there isn’t any polar.