<p>Hello, I am going to be a senior and I want to become an engineer. I dont know if I should dive straight into Calc BC. I have always LOVED math and I did very good in Precalculus. In Precal we covered: functions (including trigonometric), matrices, polar coordinates, vectors, complex numbers, and mathematical induction. You think it will be wise for me to take Calc BC without AB?</p>
<p>Depends on your school.</p>
<p>There are schools that offer BC without AB as a prereq - in other words, they teach AB AND BC all in one year.</p>
<p>Then there are schools that offer BC only after AB - in other words, your year in BC will only focus on BC (and you really need the AB topics).</p>
<p>If you don’t know what is typical at your school, talk to the teachers and see what they say.</p>
<p>IMO, if it’s a school like the first scenario, and you’re a math person like you say, definitely take the more advanced one. I wish I had… my school didn’t even offer BC because there were only 4 of us taking AB. Sadly, we were done with all of the material by January and spent the remaining months reviewing. It was ridiculously boring.</p>
<p>BC is just AB+. AB covers one semester of calculus, BC covers two. It’s more an issue of how quickly you learn.</p>
<p>I’d only recommend you do this if you’re willing to study most of the AB material independently over the summer. Although the BC exam only has a few extra chapters tacked on, the material is extremely demanding compared to the AB topics. In addition, the AB-type questions on the BC exam will be much more difficult. You could definitely take the BC course if you’re willing to spend time outside of class, but if not your teacher will not focus enough on the AB material for you to do well on the exam overall or have a fundamental understanding of calculus.</p>
<p>BC over one year (including the AB material) is like a college freshman calculus course; AB is like the first half to two thirds of it, so it goes at a slower pace.</p>
<p>Since you are an advanced student (one grade level ahead) who did well in precalculus, BC seems like an appropriate choice, assuming that your high school teaches it starting from the beginning for students who just completed precalculus (i.e. not assuming that the students have completed AB previously).</p>