<p>What exactly IS the differenced between Calc AB and BC? I am taking AB/BC next year and want to know exactly what it is I am getting in to. Is the difficulty significant? I think my school is running the two classes back-to-back, so, I am not sure how it will work. We had a block schedule for years and it used to be that a student would take AB for the first semester and BC the second. Not so anymore becuase they decided to switch to a 7 period day next year. I'm just trying to get an idea of what it will be like. Thanks for you input!</p>
<p>Oh! also..does anyone recomend supplemental books for the course? Math isn't my strong point and I'm a little worried.</p>
<p>BC=AB+
1. polar/parametric (vectors?) w some calculus
2. L'Hopitals Rule
3. More Integration Techniques (Parts, trig sub, partial fractions...)
4. Series stuff (most significant difference).
5. Euler's Method
6. Some more applications of integration (arc length, surface area, shell method...)
It isnt too hard.
You dont need special books though i hear stewarts is a classic textbook for calc and schaums outline ive heard is pretty good as well.
Good luck and you will succeed.</p>
<p>Most commonly, AB is one semester of college intro calculus spread through an entire high school year and BC parallels the college curriculum by having 2 semesters of college calculus in one year of high school.
The stewart book has quite a bit extraneous information thats not in the ap curriculum. Both of my high schools (Memphis and New Orleans) use the one by Larson, Hosteller, and Edwards. I think it's a great book and has barely any extra sections in the book beyond AP exams. I recommend that book for textbook and Princeton Review for test prep.
By the way, AP Calculus BC has the highest percentage of testtakers to get a 5 among all AP exams. Approximately 40% of BC students get 5's in their exam. There is a huge curve (app. 72 out of 108 points = 5).
Good luck if you take it.</p>
<p>i dont think its automatic. after all, it is (i suppose) possible to get all AB questions wrong and get all BC right and end up with a 4 on BC total score.
solid background in AB will just give you more time on the second half of BC. so you have a year to learn othe second half, while many other BC kids spend a year to learn both halves of BC.
either way. prepare to work VERY HARD in BC in order to get a 5.
exam tip: #6 is always (or it has been for the past 10 years or so) on taylor/mclaurin series. keep that in mind.</p>
<p>Just a note on a previous comment. Although most schools say calculus AB is a semester of college calculus and BC is a year, that really isnt true. Even the college board admits AB is really 3/4 a year of college calculus, as they added some material not taught in a traditional (average difficulty) college class (not MIT/HARVARD), such as differential equation (mostly separable) and some volumes of revolution.
So the additions of BC over AB are NOT significant. Just 1/4 or so of a year in a college class.</p>
<p>No taking BC and getting a 4 does not give you an automatic 5 AB subscore, I got a 4 on the AP BC, but an AB subscore of 3. =( Don't ask me how. I'll blame it on the fact that I had take the make-up exam which is "of course" harder.</p>
<p>Actually, Mathwiz90, even 1/4 of a year is very significant. BC got me 8 units of college credit, whereas AB would have gotten me only 4, sooo...</p>