<p>Which one out of the two should I do? I'm a entering sophomore and I was thinking of doing both but someone said that was stupid. Any reason why? So which one should I do?</p>
<p>If you're a first-year calculus student, you should probably take AB. BC is more for people in their second year of calculus. At some schools, if you take AB and BC, the credit you get on BC isn't much more than you would get if you took AB alone. For example, at the University of Washington, if you get a 5 on the AB test, you get placement out of Math 125 (and Math 126, I think). If you get a 5 on the BC test, you don't get any more credit or any higher placement, so taking the BC test is basically a waste of money. But at other schools, they do give you some credit for BC, but it's often not as much, so for instance a university might give 10 credits for a 5 on AB, and only 5 more credits for a 5 on BC. So you have to check with the colleges you're thinking of applying to. Also, many colleges and universities, in the math departments, have their own placement tests. The college that I'm going to, Swarthmore, has placement tests that I will take so that I (hopefully) will be able to start of my freshman year with Honors Linear Algebra. In that case, learning calculus is definitely useful, but taking the AP test isn't really, because it doesn't matter whether I took the AP Calc test or not; what matters is how I do on the placement test. Swarthmore does grant a little bit of credit for doing well on the AP Calc exam, but not placement. So it really doesn't matter because I'm a math nerd and it doesn't matter whether I'll get credit, because I'll be taking as many math classes as I can at Swarthmore. So you have to research the AP policies at the schools you're going to apply to, to see whether taking these tests will really be necessary.</p>
<p>Did you mean doing both at the same time? BC covers material from AB and more.</p>
<p>BC.</p>
<p>You're taking it as a sophomore, earlier than most - you're probably smart enough for BC.</p>
<p>Just work on some basic calc this summer and you'll be good.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks. Yeah I'll do BC this year and then just forget about taking AB. The worst thing about Andover is the rigidness of the sophomore year. I have to take Gym and a Phil/Rel Studies class. I'd much prefer being able to also take AP STATS and another science like Bio (My 1st choice Science is AP C Physics). Ah well, can't complain, I'm sure it well be great.</p>
<p>^ Make sure you learn a bit over the summer though. Both AB and BC can be overwhelming if you haven't had any exposure to calculus. The rules are pretty simple, but there are a LOT.</p>
<p>Wow, a sophomore taking calculus.</p>
<p>and yes, taking BC is a better choice if you're good at math.</p>
<p>At most colleges,</p>
<p>AB = Calculus I (one semester)
BC = Calculus I + Calculus II (two semesters)</p>
<p>And its only a couple more topics to cover.</p>
<p>I have known people who took an AB class and just breezed through BC class the following year with ease since they have already learned like 80 percent of the material from the AB class.</p>
<p>A lot of people here say that you should "brush up" on your calc over the summer; in all honesty, you don't really "need" to, as long as you'll put forth the "standard" effort during the normal school year.</p>
<p>Having said that it NEVER hurts to do some practice; but don't think that if you don't do anything over the summer you're DOOMED, because you're not!</p>
<p>I personally did nothing over the summer, put forth a lot of effort during the year, and got a 5 on BC, the test is challenging, but doable. The curve is also very generous ;)</p>
<p>GOOD LUCK!!!</p>
<p>AB is a joke. no one in my school takes it unless they cannot fit BC into their schedule. BC is not really very hard. you just need to be good at math.</p>
<p>AP Calculus BC is the easiest class that I've taken in high school. It's such a joke. You must be smart enough if you're a sophomore. BC for sure. seriously, at our school the BC material is taught in the last 3 weeks before the AP test. It's that easy. BC for sure I'll say it again.</p>
<p>I asked myself the same question and I'm taking BC my senior year. BC already covers AB and then some.</p>
<p>BC calc all the way.....!</p>
<p>I took AB as a sophomore because our school didn't offer BC, and I've looked over the course material for both of them and I'd say go ahead and take BC. It's very simple; AB is essentially a waste of a year. I'm glad I took it though, because our school pays for our AP exams, so I can do BC next year and take that for free as well, making it essentially a free college credit/placement.</p>
<p>Yeah, thanks it looks pretty simple. I'm taking the exam in May so I may need a bit of self study just before though.</p>
<p>AB leads to BC.. take AB first, then take BC second</p>
<p>no. smart kids take BC. kids who can't get BC take AB. BC is really AB+C. BC is not the much anticipated hollywood sequel of AB.</p>
<p>ExplorerCY, you're talking about the way things work at your school. It's fairly common for the available choices to be AB or BC, but Peytoncline might be going to a high school where it is the norm to take the two courses in sequence. There are plenty of those, too.</p>
<p>^ Not really. If all the students in a BC class have already taken AB, they could learn the rest of the material necessary for the BC exam in a few weeks. What would they do for the other 6 months? Review? I doubt it. </p>
<p>Most schools teach BC expecting that the students know little to no calculus, and so someone qualified to take AB calculus is almost always qualified to take BC calculus.</p>
<p>UnleashedFury, things are not done the same at every high school. Just because you are unfamiliar with that way of structuring, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.</p>
<p>based on the AP test and CollegeBoard's scoring (the AB subscore of the BC exam) Welsch, i am sorry but i believe your high school does things incorrectly. nothing against you, but that format goes against common sense.</p>