<p>It seems like BC is handled differently at different schools, so I thought it would be cool to see how it's done everywhere. :)</p>
<p>I've noticed a lot of posts on here talking about taking a year of AB Calc and then BC the next year. Is this common? Don't you repeat a bunch of stuff? Or run out of topics? Do you need to be ahead of your school's normal math curriculum to take it? </p>
<p>Do you guys have good teachers or bad ones? What kind of work do you do? Do people get good grades in the class? What topic are you on now?</p>
<p>There are very few students at my school who even take AB. What happens is some students are put on a more accelerated track and then learn ABC if they are seniors taking calculus for the first time. It is mostly self-study for the occasional junior that squeaks his/her way into the AP maths. </p>
<p>There are few if any great math teachers at my school. The type of work is pretty much homogenous from the moment a student begins algerbra/geometry or whatever - constant dittos and daily mathbook assignments from 9th to 12th.</p>
<p>Very few students get good grades in the class for the consistency in math topics across ascending math levels is lacking and so there is not enough mmm glue to stick things together.</p>
<p>My situation is I took AB 10th grade because my school at the time didn't even offer BC, then I moved across the country and this school does offer it so I'm taking BC this year. The first semester of BC was complete review and it still is currently so I really regret that BC wasn't available at my previous school because I feel as though I wasted a year.</p>
<p>The school I'm at currently has the policy if you have an A in precalc, you go to BC, B or lower, you go to AB.</p>
<p>At my school there's only one Calc BC teacher. And believe me, he definitely isn't the teacher most capable of keeping your attention. BORING BORING BORING. Has lame jokes that nobody gets. And I am not taking Calc BC right now (Considering my math grade, I probably won't ever), but from what my junior friends say, it is pretty darn difficult. Even though a lot of the juniors I know are struggling in that class and are trying hard just to keep up with the material rather than breezing through and being ahead of the class, they scrape by with acceptable grades, usually A/B's. </p>
<p>If a student begins as a freshman taking Geometry Enriched, Algebra 2, or Algebra 2Trig (or higher), then he/she will probably end up taking Calculus BC junior or senior year (assuming he/she doesnt stray from the sequence of classes to switch to a lower level class, etc.).</p>
<p>I go to school in the East Bay (CA) and there's no Calc BC at my school. Although there is AB, which I'm currently taking. There's two common routes: 1. geometry 9th, algebra 2 10th, math analysis (trig/precalc) 11th, calc AB 12th 2. algebra 1B 9th, etc onto math analysis in 12th. The route you take was determined in 7th grade, I believe, where people were deemed to either require one or two years of algebra 1.</p>
<p>Calc AB so far hasn't really been too difficult, but it is does emphasize application more than the other math classes. There are two teachers and both of them are very good (the class itself is pretty relaxed and we students are allowed to work things out for ourselves most of the time, asking for help when we need it).</p>
<p>i took calc ab soph year, and for junior year i opted out of first trimester of calc bc and took ap stats instead. even though i only took second and third trimesters, second tri was a lot of review...</p>
<p>
[quote]
I go to school in the East Bay (CA) and there's no Calc BC at my school. Although there is AB, which I'm currently taking. There's two common routes: 1. geometry 9th, algebra 2 10th, math analysis (trig/precalc) 11th, calc AB 12th 2. algebra 1B 9th, etc onto math analysis in 12th. The route you take was determined in 7th grade, I believe, where people were deemed to either require one or two years of algebra 1.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's exactly the way my school does it as well. I thought my school was behind or something.</p>
<p>FreshElephant, I've always thought that too. On this site, I constantly see people who have taken Calc BC as juniors or AB as sophomores and I'm just thinking, "is my school totally out of the loop?" It's fairly uncommon to have a junior in AB at my school who actually skipped a year of math--most juniors who are in AB take precalc the summer after 10th grade to skip.</p>
<p>My school is pretty well regarded regionally; most people who move into the town I live in do so because of the public school system (1 high school, 1 middle, 3 elementary). I'm not sure why we don't offer BC though.</p>
<p>my school was just advanced b/c as 8th graders you could take geo/algebra 2 if you were gifted enough. if you went the geo route, you could jump straight to bc and skip ab. most kids who took the algebra route (myself included) went ab and then bc. </p>
<p>i think the high demand for higher level math classes led to younger students taking calc.</p>
<p>Damnit. How did you all take precalc sophomore year? I'm on the most advanced track at my school and alg II was freshman year, then precalc sophomore (where I am now), and only then calc AB and BC ('m jealous, if you can't tell :P).</p>
<p>Here, we have integrated math (1, 2 and 3... 1 starts in middle school for more advanced people). Then, you either get into Precalc AB or Precalc BC as a junior (based on previous grades/PSATs... they use a point system and because of my terrible freshman year, I was like 1 point away from BC) and then you do AP Calc AB or AP Calc BC or you can do Honors Calc as a senior.
Your schools are better in that you can take precalc as a sophomore.</p>
<p>My school only offers BC every so often, if a senior class has enough strong math students. It's a small school.</p>
<p>The "regular" sequence is a year and a half of algebra I and geometry (starting in grade 8), a year of Algebra II in 11th, and then kids separate into different classes. The normal honors/AP sequence is a year each of algebra h, geometry h, pre-calc h, and then ab calc in senior year. If they're doing a BC class that year, then there is an additional accelerated pre-calc class the year before. BC kids are chosen by the department. I'm ahead of the normal sequence, so I did normal pre-calc honors as a sophmore, AP Stats as a junior, and BC as a senior. The year before when I did Stats BC wasn't available.</p>
<p>Yeah, there's no BC Calc at my school either. However, there is a university really close by, and most of us take our advanced classes over there. It's interesting to see how a number of students who do not have a BC Calc course at their school are from California.</p>
<p>The accelerated track from grades 7-12 goes algebra I, algebra II, geometry, precalc, calc BC, multivariable.</p>
<p>The honors track goes prealgebra, algebra I, geometry, algebra II, precalc, calc (AB or honors).</p>
<p>The regular track goes grade 7 math, prealgebra, algebra I, geometry, algebra II, precalc.</p>
<p>The accelerated kids kinda start calc at the end of precalc and then move at a slightly faster pace than AB the next year. If you're in the honors track and skip one year of math (like me) then you take AB junior year and BC senior year. The same teacher - he's a pretty good teacher btw - does both classes. So basically most of first semester senior year will be a breeze for me unless if I skip calc BC and take MVC with the accelerated kids.</p>
<p>just like another poster's school here, after precalc, students who have an A are recommended to go to BC Calc, whereas students with a B or lower are recommended to go to AB. Our BC Class kicked soooo much ass cuz we have a funny ass indian teacher who makes jokes all the time. I once called him a bloody bastard in an Indian accent and he told me go back to IIT. Our BC class usually does extremely well on the AP, and has the one of the highest averages out of all schools in the Bay Area.</p>
<p>My school has an amazing calc teacher who started when I was a junior, so 5 years ago now. At first there was only Calc AB, which you would take as a senior assuming you were following the honor routes (alg 2, geo, analysis, calc) but after the first year the class received 15 5's and 3 4's on the AP exam so a AB and BC course were offered the following year. Since I took AB as a junior, I had been skipping 2 grades in math since 1st grade, I just sat through the BC topics the following year so that I could pass the exam. So far, after 4 years of teaching there has been something like 75% of the class getting 5's, 23% getting 4's and like 2% getting 3, no one has not passed the exam yet. The curriculum that the class follows is brutal but overly prepares you to ace the AP exam. By January both the AB and BC classes are done with all the topics and start reviewing immediately from that point on. We finish 2-3 review books by the time the AP exam rolls around, its quite helpful and you actually learn a lot.</p>
<p>My schools got 3000, so we have A LOT of choices. In the science and tech program, there are 4 routes of math. The AB/BC thing is, if you get a A or B in Precalc, you go to BC, if not you go to AB. Most don't bother doing BC after AB because they are usually in their senior year anyway.</p>
<p>Fresh;Soph;Junior;Sen</p>
<p>Algebra I; Geometry; Algebra II/Trig; Pre Calc (with science and tech you have to get to at least Pre Calc)
Geometry; Algebra II; Trig; Pre Calc
Geometry; Algebra II/Trig; Pre Calc; Calc AB or BC
Algebra II; Trig; Pre Calc; Calc AB or BC
Algebra II/Trig; Pre Calc; Calc AB or BC; Calc 3/Differential Equations (A Catholic University prof comes and teaches calc 3, and the school pays if you can't afford it)</p>
<p>I'm going to take Pre Calc after soph summer so I can take calc 3 by senior year</p>
<p>I skipped 6th grade math and started everything a year early. We took Calc AB last year, which prepped us for the AB test. It was meant to be an AP class for seniors, we are just accelerated. The lowest grade in our class was a 4 so i think our school did something right. This year I am in Calc BC, and it is accelerated, but we do not review anything from last year till right before the AP test...you may be wondering what we study then considering that the BC info does overlap the AB test quite a bit - well, we actually finish college level Calc 3. This is done simply so that we can be ready when we actually take that level in college. I think this system is very effective.</p>