Calc AB to Multivariable Calc

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi,

Currently I’m a freshman in high school taking pre-calc. I have three options for the next few years at my school:

  1. I take AP Calc AB sophomore year, AP Calc BC Junior year, and Multivariable Senior year.
  2. I take Calc 1 (essentially Calc AB) at a local community college and go to BC as a sophmore. This path would allow me to take Linear Algebra at a local college as a senior.
  3. I take AP Calc AB sophomore year, take Calc 2 (Basically Calc BC) at a local community college. This path would also allow me to take Linear Algebra at a local college as part of school.

The problem: I was thinking of taking the Calc 1 course this summer and then testing into BC Calc as a sophomore, but many upperclassmen at the school have told me that the AP Calc AB teacher is amazing and they learned a lot in her class, while the BC Calc teacher is absolute garbage and takes other teacher’s lectures to try and teach. They said it would be a better option to take AB Calc as a sophomore and take the Calc 2 course over summer to be able to take MV as a junior and linear algebra as a senior. However, many online forums reccomend against skipping BC and I’m torn apart on what to do.

PLEASE HELP!

2

Option 4 is another option, which is to take Calc 1 and Calc 2 at a community college, then take MV. Taking Calc 1 at a CC saves you a half-year of time.

3

I vote for taking the better teacher, so AB in high school.

I do not understand the thought process whereby school districts accelerate kids through pre-calc as freshmen (+3), then drag calculus out slower than even the College Board suggests. If a kid is that good at math, BC in a year and Calc III / Linear Algebra the next year is not an unreasonable pace. Even in our district, which is mid-transition from the most advanced track being +1 (pre-calc in 11th) to the most advanced track being +2 (pre-calc in 10th) recommends BC for anyone with an A or B in pre-calc, and covers multivariate and linear algebra in one semester each.

4

Why the hurry to get to linear algebra? I would go with Option #1 for a year, then see where things stand.

5
  1. It is not essential to accelerate math beyond the +3 that you already are at (ending at +2 if you have to take the slow way of calculus over two years).
  2. High schools with strong +1/+2/+3 math students really should be offering calculus BC over one year (including AB material) after precalculus, since the strongest students in math can handle it at college speed without thinking it is unusually hard. (If your high school does offer that, that would be a good choice for you.)
  3. After calculus BC, it is best to take subsequent math courses at a college to make it more likely that you will get credit and placement for them.
6

it sounds though like if the OP is at one of those schools where you take AP Calc AB then BC as opposed to AP Calc AB or BC. Otherwise, it would have been a no-brainer to just take AP Calc BC. The Option 4 that I presented would be more or less the equivalent of taking a traditional AP Calc BC.

7

I would take AP Calc AB since having a good teacher is important and then decide on option 1 or 2.

8

I agree with @dophiee - a good teacher trumps accelerating to get to the highest possible level.

Also, is multivariable calculus a pre-req for linear algebra? My kid went straight from AP Calc AB into linear algebra in HS – without either Calc BC or MV (hers was an AB or BC program.

9

Once you get past Calc 2 (Calc BC), the other math courses are pretty divergent with the Calc 2 as a prereq. As an example my kid hasn’t taken MV calculus (officially) or Diff Equations but has taken Linear Algebra and currently taking Discrete Math.

Also the definition of a good teacher can be very subjective so I wouldn’t take just anyone’s word on that.