<p>RoKr93: I think you really relate to my situation! It’s kind of ironic, because I was one of those students who didn’t have a problem flying through AP Bio at all and I really loved that class, so funny that you mentioned that. I think that it really depends on each individual and their strengths as well as the difficulty of the AP course, which varies from school to school. And thanks for the encouragement about college, haha I really hope I get in somewhere good. (:</p>
<p>Saugus: I definitely think I can pull off an A in AB because friends that were in Honors Precalc with me last year with the same teacher told me that it’s about the same difficulty as that class, if not easier.</p>
<p>Also, I realize college will be much tougher, but I’ll worry about that when the time comes-right now I’m just focused on this year, and learning the best I can as well as keeping up my grades.</p>
<p>Many people take Calc AB for a full year so I’m not sure it would even be clear to an admissions committee that you “missed” something. It would be pretty blatantly clear if you got a C in AP Calc BC. I would say drop down and try very hard to bring the grade up to at least a B+, if not an A (i.e., rock the heck out of the AB final). </p>
<p>But I would make sure that you feel confident in Calc AB. If you drop down to Calc AB and still get a C, that would only make it look worse (i.e., you took an easier class and still did poorly). It seems odd that Honors PreCalc = Calc AB at your school. Perhaps just school differences, though. At my school, we did a year of AB and a year of BC. I LOVED my teacher, though, and I rocked my APs and my math entrance exam at the U of Chicago. There is something to be said for a solid foundation in calculus. But I digress.</p>
<p>And I don’t think choosing to take Stat next year is a problem, especially if it’s AP Stat. I liked Statistics 
Although I would say to try to understand calculus, because if you’re interested in advanced statistics in college at all, they’re heavily calculus based. </p>
<p>Good luck! And don’t forget to relax a little.</p>
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<p>I think this is a crime. Your school board saw a problem, but they didn’t understand it, and now they’re screwing up. If students are struggling with BC, it’s because the buildup with algebra, trig, and precalc was insufficient in some way. That’s where the problem is, and that’s what needs to be addressed. Good preparation up through precalc should allow a student to succeed at BC.</p>
<p>For a good student, it’s a complete waste of time to take AB and then BC. And for the student who isn’t grasping BC, taking AB won’t remedy the problem. </p>
<p>Your school board has misfired. Knowledgeable parents should be making big waves.</p>
<p>nygiants27: Yes, definitely drop down to AB. It sounds like you did the best you could and BC is just too much right now, so it’s much better to get a great grade in a lower class than a very poor grade in a higher one. Since you’ve done well in your previous math classes and the SAT II, and you’re taking AP Stats next year, colleges should be able to see that you’re proficient in math. </p>
<p>Also, don’t worry too much about the college courses. It sounds like you have a truly awful teacher and I’m sure that’s what’s holding you back since you did so well last year. Another factor that may be giving you difficulty in BC this year is that you’re frustrated and stressed from falling behind, and that’s not conducive to learning. When you do calc again in college, it’ll be a fresh start, not to mention the foundation that AB will give you :)</p>
<p>I would drop to AB like most people are suggesting. From what I hear it is significantly easier than BC (I’m in AB right now and it’s probably my easiest class). Also, I don’t think having AP Calc AB as a junior would look bad on your transcript, since you’re already ahead in math regardless—many people don’t even take Calc until senior year.</p>
<p>OP, what do you want to do for a living? Is AP Calc something you are taking just to show another AP class on your transcript, or do you actually NEED this for a future career? The insane push to take AP classes just to pad GPAs is making a lot of students unnecessarily stressed out. If you aren’t actually LEARNING anything…what’s the point? Take the class where you will learn something!</p>
<p>I agree-- if you aren’t learning, don’t take the class. I might also warn you against dropping down to AB, though, depending on how math works at your high school. We had a big problem at my high school with BC Calculus. There was an accelerated math program for “college bound” and “gifted” students, so many people ended up two years ahead in math. The problem was that most of them didn’t understand precalculus, had major problems with algebra II, and couldn’t even do some basic algebra consistently. (My school was not great). The teachers sympathized with the stress a lot of parents laid on their kids, and they curved things LIKE CRAZY (I had 240% in my precalc class one trimester) and cut a lot of the curriculum so that the class wasn’t actually moving faster than a regular course. By the time people got to BC calculus, most were obviously not ready (some of us realized that there were issues with the accelerated math and self-studied, and the course was no problem, but most were happy to take their A’s and move on to the next level.) A lot of people dropped to AB, and still didn’t do so well on the AP test, though they did better in the class. </p>
<p>If you are having trouble in this class, think REALLY hard about whether you are being honest with yourself when you blame the teacher. It could be that other teachers are nicer when they grade you, or explain things in a way that is easier to “grasp” (sometimes this is just dumbed down stuff that you can plug into a calculator, and when you have to figure out problems that aren’t basic textbook questions you run into problems. Majority of the students in my accelerated math class couldn’t do polynomial division because they couldn’t do long division. A lot of them also never learned to factor, because they knew calculator tricks to look for zeroes, holes, etc. This was a PROBLEM when they got to calculus, and it would be even if they didn’t ever need to find zeroes or holes.) </p>
<p>You will need to know how to teach yourself when you get to college, and you will need to learn how to study and move quickly. If you’re not ready for BC Calc, don’t take it, but I would seriously suggest that you go back through your previous math classes, ask to borrow a precalc textbook, and do some self-teaching to get ready to take this class next year.</p>
<p>(If you need to take this class next year. If you’re undecided, I recommend you do. A lot of disciplines require calculus. Many also require stats, but AP stats is not going to help you much there. I believe that’s one of those APs that definitely isn’t at college level, so you would be better off taking calc now to prepare for serious college statistics-- I’m not sure if most schools are like this, but stats at my school comes after calc, sometimes after multivariable if you need it for something like economics. You may actually have seen most of AP Stats in previous math courses.)</p>