<p>Yes, lots of times the AP is more difficult because there is a set of materials that must be covered. In College it is at the department or professor's discretion what they will cover and what they may skip</p>
<p>yeah and the grading's much harder and there's only a few tests</p>
<p>does anyone have anything on my calc question?</p>
<p>@Sports61kh:
Yes 1 Year should cover both Calc AB and BC. One semester of AB equivalent and one semester of BC equivalent.</p>
<p>
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Yes, lots of times the AP is more difficult because there is a set of materials that must be covered.
[/quote]
This is not true. None of the AP classes I took even came close to the depth and amount of material covered in their college counterparts. This is most apparent in the sciences. College classes also have "a set of materials that must be covered" based on what the professor or department believe should be covered; it's usually much more than is required for an AP test, and every professor I've had makes sure they get through it (rather than skipping over topics here and there).</p>
<p>the amount of material covered in an entire year of an AP is doubled and then cramped into <at most=""> one semester in college. so even if you do get that 5 on BC calc, you wouldnt have learned as much as you would in college...thus always take the 100 level class just so you can learn as much as possible without killing yourself</at></p>
<p>thanks GK, would anyone also happen to know the breakdown of calc in a quarter system? like is it calc A(one quarter class), then calc B, then calc C? or would there be overlaps?</p>
<p>my other question is: even though APs are easier than college courses, would the best prep for college (premed especially) be to take APs that are "equivalents" of my future early college courses? </p>
<p>for example: i wouldn't need physics C, but would take physics B b/c my physics class in college would only need to be alg-based
or in general load up senior yr (APchem, phys, BC calc) b/c they're supposedly equal to what i'm going to take?</p>
<p>thanks for any insight, i know my post is lengthy</p>
<p>^ (10 chars)</p>
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<p>I honestly think that in order to be equivalent to college courses, AP courses should be one semester long for everybody. Speaking of which, all of my AP courses, except my online ones, are a semester-long; thus, they are only held during the first semester. That means you have 4 months to either forget or solidify the information in your head.</p>
<p>Given this, the AP exams should be given around mid-June so that AP courses could be offered second semester as well. I think it is ridiculous AP courses want to call themselves "College-Level" when you get a whole damn year to do them. AP US History could be the only exception, however, as US History is normally a six-hour class at most universities. Most universities, however, just make you take US History in one semester and give you six hours of credit for it.</p>
<p>So uh, what does "^ (10 chars)" mean? A bump?</p>
<p>yeah it's a bump</p>
<p>Sligh_Anarchist....college courses may be only a semester long compared to AP courses which are usually 1.5 semesterish, but aren't college classes much longer than high school classes which are 45 minutes each? (at my school)</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>No. The majority of your courses in college will met 3 times a week for 50 minutes. My high school courses are 1.5 hours a day, five days a week.</p>
<p>^^^ not ever college is like that and not every high school is the same.
my hs has 40 minute periods 4 times a week (ap bio and physics is double period only exceptions)</p>
<p>the college im going to has 75 minutes twice a week. </p>
<p>Also, the labs in bio are not really comprable to a real college lab setting 3+ hours every week.</p>
<p>can someone explain the lab classes in college for science majors? like how it's structed, how you're graded, etc. thanks</p>
<p>I don't know about science majors, but the science classes I took at the university level had a one hour lecture section (really 50 minutes, but it was always called "one hour") three days a week, as well as a lab section that met for two hours on a fourth day (sometimes the same day as one of the lectures, sometimes not). The lab section caused these to be worth one more credit than most other courses.</p>
<p>As far as the letters in Calc go, A used to refer to precalculus topics, B used to refer to differential calculus (taking derivatives), and C used to refer to integral calculus.</p>
<p>Over the years, starting in the late 80's to early 90's, the precalculus portions of the exam were gradually removed, meaning that these days, there is precious little A that still occurs on either exam, and that a fair amount of C has crept on the AB exam.</p>
<p>That being said, on the quarters system, most colleges would say that A = first quarter and B = second quarter. One of the things folks don't realize is that under the quarters system, you're significantly more likely to take 3-4 classes, whereas under the semesters system, you're more likely to take 5-6 classes. Because of this, your semester system tends to offer classes of shorter length (for class meetings) and covers approximately the same depth. Give or take a little, and some colleges will obviously differ grossly from this.</p>
<p>As far as difficulty goes, I got a 4 on my AP Calculus AB exam several years back, was granted credit for the first course, but not the second. Only the very last chapter at the end of the second course was new material, and I was so used to spacing out/skipping the second course that I totally bombed that section once we got there.</p>
<p>So equivalency of AP courses to college courses are really going to depend on the subject area, the rigor of the high school, etc.</p>
<p>For instance, the high school that I teach at now will have five weeks of classes after the AP exam, and the expectation is that we're still teaching new material. Many other high schools across the nation are done by the time AP exams come around. My guess is that those high schools that are done at AP time aren't adding that material, and probably aren't covering as much.</p>