<p>Maybe you all need to understand Statistics better. Of course, the calculus fan boys look down on stats, but it is very important to understand stats for many degree fields.</p>
<p>They do offer MV calc. It is called college for a reason. Many of the top schools do not even allow you to use your AP scores for things like calculus as they want to make sure you learned how to do it correctly and can more successfully move into the next level of inquiry.</p>
<p>There is already WAY too much of High Schools thinking they are colleges. Kids graduate thinking they are already smarter than their professors because they got a 4 on an AP exam. </p>
<p>Maybe you could spend that academic energy broadening your horizons and learning other important life skills. There is plenty of time in college to take all of the math you desire. You can even major in it, I hear.</p>
<p>My school offers Lin Alg/DiffeQ for those finishing Calc BC junior year or earlier. I took the diffeq class last year as a sophomore, and luckily had a great teacher who knew his stuff. I honestly don’t think an AP label is needed for such a class, including MV. If your school doesn’t have the class (I’ve noticed that these post-calc bc classes are usually only offered at large public schools and maybe some private schools), then just go to the local community college or a nearby university to take it. </p>
<p>Plenty of other kids at my school are in a similar situation, being way ahead of the normal sequence in math (taking BC freshman year or earlier). The solution? Take math at the local university or take classes over the summer if it is too much of a hassle to travel or take an online class during the school year.</p>
<p>Offering an “AP” MV course doesn’t change anything anyway; your school would most likely already offer the class if it had a qualified and willing teacher. Many high school math teachers may be familiar with the content found in a MV course, but I doubt many would actually be able to teach it.</p>
<p>My High School offers Calc AB, BC, Multivariable Calc, Linear Algebra, Diff Equ, Complex Analysis and Real Analysis. I will be taking all of those courses before I graduate.</p>
<p>@albertedison98 Except most small high schools, like mine, won’t offer it. We never had Calculus at all until 3 years ago. It sucks that kids like me are getting screwed over because of these accelerated math programs that 70% of the population doesn’t even have access to. And I feel like the rush for these courses is causing less time spent mastering foundational math. Whatever happened to people taking Trig before Precal?</p>
<p>@sonofgod908 yeah, my school has 7 whole classes of multivar (5 of linear, 2 of complex, 2 of diff eq, among other math classes), but that is not the norm. All of them are semester classes. I got to a science and math magnet school. Most schools in my county don’t offer multivar.</p>
<p>Our school actually does Multivar and linear alg all in one semester. Also, our teacher doesn’t teach us anything. We just learn it all by ourselves and he gives tests periodically. He feels that self-studying is an important skill in life so we should start practicing it now.</p>
<p>It would mainly be high performing high schools that might (or currently) offer multivariable calculus; disadvantaged or rural high schools are less likely to offer such a course, so adding an AP test would not really expand opportunities at the latter high schools.</p>
I too would love to see AP multivariable calculus added to the AP program (as long as they managed to make it rigorous). While they’re at it, AP linear algebra and AP differential equations would also be fantastic additions. I do believe higher than that would be unreasonable/cutting too far into college math, but I don’t think those courses are too much to ask for (even if they would have a small test taking population).
Once you’ve put in these more rigorous math courses, I think there would be room for another physics course- beyond AP physics C which invokes some of this advanced math. Here’s what I’d envision AP physics D (random name choice- next letter after C (although D wouldn’t really stand for anything) containing:
25%- More advanced mechanics invoking some more advanced mathematics (air resistance with projectile motion, damped harmonic motion, gyroscopic motion, generalizing various systems (like momentum, projectile motion) into 3d, complex system type problems (ie. combinations of pendula, springs, etc. on one system), a very brief/basic introduction to Lagrangrian/ Hamiltonian Mechanics)
25%- More advanced electricity and magnetism studies invoking knowledge of multivariable calculus
25%- Special Relativity/Lorentz transformation equations
25%- Miscellaneous topics not covered in AP Physics C (Optics, Waves, and Modern Physics)
Some of you may have more ideas for that kind of course (I’m still in AP Physics C myself and am only studying mechanics this year, so I have more ideas for that than the other topics). I think some advanced extension courses into physics/mathematics geared towards the very top students could be incredibly rewarding and a great step for the College Board.
@Mathinduction except it’s College Board and curriculum and politics and money and such.
According to good ol’ Wikipedia, AP Computer Science AB was discontinued after the 2008-2009 year due to low numbers of students taking the test. Apparently it covered data structures such as heaps and BSTs, as well as heapsort, quicksort, and hashing (all topics you’d find in an introductory algorithms course).
It’s definitely a good idea in practice, but I highly doubt AP Linear Algebra or AP Multi-variable Calculus will exist any time soon.
Yes, @MITer94 you’re probably right. It would be fun to have AP linear algebra and AP multivariable calculus though (and also AP Physics D). Maybe, one day far in the future, they will add these courses. After all, calculus in high school has become much more widespread than it once was (although that’s either a good or bad thing depending on who you ask- some would say that it’s decreased in rigor as it’s become more widespread).
It would be a great idea as it seems more students are taking BC before senior year tan ever before. However, as @MITer94 correctly pointed out, it will not happen anytime soon due to cost constraints.
The last thing we need to do is teach more calculus to high school students. It would be invaluable to teach a true, proof-based discrete math course. Unfortunately, I bet only a few high school teachers would be capable of teaching this kind of a course.
I realize that the the OP is six years old, but this isn’t true, isn’t it? I thought the AP language exams are comparable to second or third year college language classes?
My sister’s ex did precisely that. Our school offered the entire Calc sequence (single variable and multivariable) in two years, but that was it in terms of the higher level math classes. (The school didn’t even have a regular statistics class, never mind the AP version!) He took discrete math, prob. & stats, linear algebra, and diff. eq. at the local JC. He was able to start university by taking real analysis and abstract algebra. Yikes.
It’s nice in theory, but I predict many high school teachers will not be capable of teaching higher math properly, and that could end up being a detriment to the student rather than an asset. It’s just not feasible for the nation’s schools as a whole, it works much better for students to go to a local college to continue beyond BC.