<p>I took AP Calc BC my junior year and got a 5 on both the main test and on the AB subsection; however, I haven't actually done/studied anything calculus-related in over a year. Should I play it safe and take Calc II instead of Calc III?</p>
<p>Well, have you taken the placement test? I was pretty much in the same boat as you (junior year calc bc and statistics senior year) and felt that the placement test (it's online) was a really good indicator of what I remembered: computations were easy, but using certain rules to solve certain problems (I could not, for the life of me, associate their names with the actual processes) gave me a lot of trouble, which made me realize how much I needed to make up.</p>
<p>If I were you, I wouldn't retake Calc II. Calc III is really a lot of new stuff and for the most part you only need to remember basic Calculus things. On the first exam there is hardly any Calculus at all; that exam mostly covers lines, planes, and vectors in 3D space. So if you feel like you need to review, you can spend those first weeks skimming a friend's Calc II textbook. Since you got a 5 on BC, retaking the class would be a waste of a semester.</p>
<p>I'm sort of in the same boat</p>
<p>I took AP AB calc junior year (5 on AP).............and Multivariable senior year (1st 9 weeks covers BC).</p>
<p>Sadly, I have to take Calc II because I did not take the AP test. I suppose it will nice having a class and know what to do.</p>
<p>Ok, so maybe this question doesn't exactly follow the rest of the thread, but I got a 5 on the BC too, and I was planning on taking Calc III this fall-I'm going to be a bio major, and I was wondering if this time was the best time to take Calc.....or should I take another math like a Stat class (I got a 5 on AP Stat as well) instead? Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>well, I'm pretty sure an advanced stat class would be really helpful for a bio major, especially if you're premed or are heavy into research. Then again, calc might be more fun (yeah, I said it)</p>
<p>haha, yeah, actually I was thinking calc would be more fun too....</p>
<p>soulturtle is exactly right - For those of you who who took calc BC and got a 5 - don't retake Calc II. I got a 4 (with an AB subscore of 5) and decided the review would be a good idea... nope, it's really just a waste of time, especially if you'll have to take more math classes later. </p>
<p>johnny - doesn't your 5 on AB test you out of Calc II? If not, have you taken the math placement test? It's short and you can review a little beforehand - it's worth it if you can get out of Calc II.</p>
<p>eleph - if you're going to take Calc instead of stats, I'd suggest doing it this fall. It'll be a little harder because of the adjustment to college, but it's better than taking it with biology and chem in the spring (in the fall it would just be chem).</p>
<p>I believe that AB Calc only gets you out of Calc I. And I'm pretty sure that, like laurezer mentioned, you can try to place directly into Calc III if you take the placement test. You don't need to have taken BC.</p>
<p>@eleph:</p>
<p>Even though Calc III uses only pretty basic Calc I/II ideas, I think that it would still be better to take it as soon after Calc II as possible. Though I haven't had any statistics classes, it's safe to say that they're pretty different from Calc. To me it would be easier to do all of the Calc in order and then to move on to the other types of math.</p>
<p>What happens if you place yourself in a Calculus course without taking the placement test? Is there anyone checking?</p>