AP Calculus Course?

<p>My 12th grade daughter is attending a school that doesn't offer AP Calc. The school has agreed to let her do an internet course as an Independent Study class. In elementary school she did CTY Johns Hopkins courses by internet, which were pretty good. Does anyone know if their AP Calc is good or which other internet course offers the best program? She got a 750 on math SAT I but is not a math whiz. I noticed CTY offers both AB and BC which might be good as she could start with AB and see how it goes, then move on to BC if the first course goes well. Thank you for any advice.</p>

<p>Did you ever consider post secondary. Maybe a local community college offers Calc. Colleges view those classes highly as honors/ap classes.</p>

<p>Befuddled,</p>

<p>There are a few ways to take the Calculus course "online". Here are the one that I am familiar with but there are many others:</p>

<p>1) Stanford's Educational Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) - The classes start the first of every month and they are self paced within limits. They assign you a tutor and a whiteboard session (basically a virtual whitebaord for the class to use for discussion). They send you CDs that are lectures and quizzes. For the complete AB, BC course set it is 3 sections, A, B and C in their catalog. For more see:</p>

<p><a href="http://epgy.stanford.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://epgy.stanford.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>2) The Johns Hopkins CTY program. Many on CC have gone this route with summer and online programs. I see that you must be familiar with it. It is a little bit more expensive than the Stanford program.</p>

<p>3) The Thinkwell software. The Thinkwell software is the basis of the CTY classes and can be used stand alone. My son used the second half of the Thinkwell CD texbook this last year to self study for the Calculus BC test. The cost of the CDs is about $100. For more on the CD see:</p>

<p><a href="http://thinkwell.com/marketing/viewTitle.cfm?disciplineID=1&productID=111%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://thinkwell.com/marketing/viewTitle.cfm?disciplineID=1&productID=111&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Othere will chime in with other options. Good luck in your efforts.</p>

<p>I believe CTY uses the same materials as EPGY. How good the class is depends on the tutors. If your school is willing to let your D take the course as independent study, would it be willing to pay for it? It would be far cheaper. The catch is that the tutor would be provided by the school, not by EPGY.
If she got 750 on the Math SAT, she should be able to do BC with no problem. It just covers some more materials than AB (AB is about 2/3 of BC).</p>

<p>I took AP calc online and found that, while the course taught me calc well, it did not prepare me well for the exam. I am very scientifically and mathematically inclined (I maxed out the math on the SAT and have always done extremely well in both hs and college math and science courses). If you school is going to provide a tutor, then take the class online. If not, I would consider taking calc eslewhere. I did not have a tutor and found it difficult to take the course online b/c I had no one to ask questions to or discuss the material with, which is critical to the learning process.</p>

<p>Look carefully before signing up for EPGY courses. I know several people who very unhappy with the instruction, the inconsistency of the grading, and the lack of feedback. It's expensive and they felt they would have been better off taking courses from their local college.</p>