<p>Is it a good idea to go from calc AB into multivariable (basically calc 3)? without ap calc bc? I think I could learn the bc stuff over the summer. i am a fairly good math student... low As high Bs. Thanks!!</p>
<p>No. </p>
<p>10char</p>
<p>Erm, I don’t think so. </p>
<p>I took the Calculus BC exam, and I am a high-A student in math courses (at least when it comes to tests-homework, not so much). There are many things in BC that are extremely important: Euler’s method, integration by parts, polar curves, parametric curves, improper integrals. </p>
<p>If you are so inclined, I would check out MIT OpenCourseWare for their Calculus II stuff (18.02 Single Variable). But BC is very important in my honest opinion, and I wouldn’t feel prepared going into multivariable/vector calculus next year without it.</p>
<p>Calc III is basically Calc I, but there are definitely topics in Calc II that are integral (har har) to learning MV Calc. This might be possible to do on your own, but expect to be at least a little behind.</p>
<p>Euler’s method and basically all of Differential Equations is not necessary for Calc 3. The application and formulas in Calc II are far less important than the concepts in it (for Calc III). You will need to certainly feel comfortable with them. However, Calc II is a lot of memorization of formulas and such, which you don’t really need for Calc III.</p>
<p>On another note, you should take Calc II because it introduces many important topics into math, and is so much more than a stepping stone into Calc III.</p>
<p>If you are very self-motivated and are confident that you can learn all of the calc II material yourself, then go for it. Otherwise, it’s a bad choice. Information missing from the ab curriculum is critical for a lot of multivar calc</p>
<p>BC’s topics are basically Sequences and Series, Taylor Series, methods of integration, improper integrals, parametric equations, polar equations, and Euler’s method. Of these things, the only topic really useful in calc 3 is parametric equations because they give you a foundation for understanding vector-defined functions, but methods of integration don’t come back untill Diff Eqs, Euler’s method doesn’t come back until Real Analysis and Diff Eqs., sequences and series don’t come back until laplace in Diff Eqs with the power series and in parts of Analysis, and polar equations are really gone forever. The only thing you might want to know for MVcalc is, again, intuition on parametric equations, and you really won’t see methods of integration because the point of MV Calc isn’t to test that.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and Taylor series is involved in Diff Eq proofs and Analysis.</p>
<p>It is certainly possible but you absolutely should learn the BC stuff.</p>