Hey guys, I’m a rising junior for next year.
Just wondering whether I should take Calc AB or BC (I signed up for AB originally).
My HS Math Path so far:
9th: Honors Algebra 2
10th: Honors Precalc and AP Stat
11th: ???
My school offers Honors precalc and Advanced Honors precalc. Typically, most students who take Honors go to Calc AB, and most who take Advanced Honors go to Calc BC. I’m thinking of jumping over AB though.
I am a consistent A student in Math, getting A’s in Algebra 2, Precalc, and Stat.
Should I jump over AB and go for BC? What’s the difference?
This is really a question for your math teachers. If the BC class devotes a lot of time to the AB topics, you could be fine; if it skims the AB topics under the assumption that many/all were covered in Advanced Honors, you could be in trouble. However, since we don’t have your school’s syllabi, we won’t know.
If you signed up for AB, take it. If there’s options of taking another math class after BC then take BC. Or you could take AB and BC as a sequence.
AB covers Calc 1 (one semester of college math, typically from Sept to May)
BC cover Calc 1 and Calc 2 (two semesters, so double the pace with the test in May)
As skieurope said, we don’t know your syllabi, so your best bet would be to ask other students who took your path (from Honors to BC) and see how it was like for them.
In my school, the Honors Trig/Analytical Geometry kids are recapping Algebra 2 while the Trig/PreCalc kids started Calculus about 3-4 weeks ago.
Talk to the AB and BC teachers, too. Don’t forget to discuss this with your GC.
Good luck!
My math teacher said that if you have a high A in math than you can skip over AP Calc AB and just go to BC. She said that the only problem is that during the summer, you have to really prepare. Make sure to look over all your Precalc notes and you should be prepared for Calc BC. Make sure to look over derivatives, limits, and rational functions. That is what I’m doing next year! Good luck!