<p>I'm finishing up AP Calculus BC as a junior in my high school, so I'm going to take some more calculus classes at a local community college as a senior.</p>
<p>However, I don't know whether or not I should take Calc II or Calc III...Does AP Calc BC teach you all the stuff in Calc II?</p>
<p>I want to take Calc III, but I don't want to be unprepared because I only just took AP Calc BC...Is this enough preparation?</p>
<p>Assuming you get a 5 on the BC test, that is usually equivalent to between two quarters (two thirds of a year) and two semesters of freshman calculus at a college or university.</p>
<p>Different universities and community colleges organize their curricula differently, so you may want to check with the community college to make sure what the correct placement in its math sequence is. At a semester school, it is usually into the third semester calculus (multivariable calculus) course; at a quarter school, it is usually into the third or fourth quarter calculus course.</p>
<p>If you take any of the sophomore level math courses like multivariable calculus, you may also want to complete linear algebra and differential equations so that you won’t have problems with how different universities and community colleges organize their courses, particularly between semester and quarter systems. If you take only part of the sophomore level math courses, it is possible that you may have to partially repeat some material due to differences in course organization.</p>
<p>My son scored a 5 on AP calculus. He started out in multivariable calculus in college and got an A in the class. It wasn’t very difficult for him.</p>
<p>If this is a terminal math course for you, your coverage of math III is probably just fine. But since you are going into engineering, it is important that you have a sterling base in calculus. Many colleges have separate calculus lines for their math/physics/engineering majors for that reason. I would recommend you retake your Calc 3 and make sure you have a thorough understanding of vector calculus and the theorie in there. Many times Stokes and Green’s Theorems, for instance, are not thoroughly covered in a Calc BC course which is no big deal in the social sciences, but can become an issue in those subjects where a more complete understanding of math theory is important.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think this is especially important because different schools mix in linear algebra at different places. So you may need to take a separate linear algebra course in addition to Calc BC before moving on to Calc III. </p>
<p>The best thing to do is contact who ever is teaching Calc I and Calc II at that college and ask for their latest syllabus (just a quick two sentence email). Sometimes you can Google and find it. Then look over the topics they covered in Calc I and II and see if you covered all or almost all of them in BC.</p>
<p>So basically, most of the time:</p>
<p>AP Calc BC = Calc I + II</p>
<p>Right?</p>
<p>For scientists and engineers undergraduate math courses are typically:</p>
<ol>
<li> Calculus (with analytic geometry) I & II: Covering basic differential and integral calculus. This equals AP Calculus BC in high school.</li>
<li> Calculus III & IV: Covering vector calculus, partial differentiation and multiple integrals.</li>
<li> Ordinary Differential Equations</li>
<li> Partial Differential Equations</li>
<li> Series Analysis</li>
<li> Linear Algebra</li>
<li> Statistical methods</li>
</ol>
<p>The specific degree may not need all, but if you have the chance to take them, you should especially if you wish to well in grad school.</p>