<p>hi, i'm self-studying for AP Calculus AB. im in grade 10 now and i was wondering if those 'find the area using integration' questions were on the non-calculator part of the test. because it's quite hard to find weird functions' areas without graphing on the graphing calculator.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>And which prep-book is better, Barrons, Kapan, or PR?</p>
<p>At least a third of the non-calculator portion of the test is on integration. It's really easy after you practice a lot, you just follow the patterns. Add one to the exponent, multiply by its reciprocal, and put +C on the end. There are those crazy trig memorizers--1/rt(1-u) and all that, but practice enough and you'll start to see them in your sleep. It's just derivatives backwards.</p>
<p>I can't imagine self-studying for Calc AB. You need someone to show you short-cuts and illustrate related rates and things. If you're starting to study now, you shouldn't be looking at integrals until a couple months from now. Start with limits, move to derivatives, expand on derivatives (quotient rule, product rule, u substitution, related rates) then move to integration, area, rotated solids, logarithms and ln.</p>
<p>I use PR, but I don't use it too often. My teacher gives the best reviews. Is it not available at your school?</p>
<p>If you must take this path, make sure you get a handle on graphs! Follow the tangent lines of each graph to create the first derivative, and the second, and make sure you can go backwards. And get practice with word problems. And make sure you can find the properties of a graph, the max and min, critical points and what they mean, points of inflection, because you're going to have to identify and create equations a lot.</p>
<p>hi, we do have the class, but i want to take it earlier (2006 may), while i'm still grade 10. thats because our school only allows students to take it when they are juniors.</p>
<p>anyway, thanks a lot for your advice! :-)</p>