Calculus 1 Dual Enroll 11th or AP Calculus AB 12th?

Should I take a dual enrollment course of Calculus 1 next semester or wait till 12th grade to take AP Calculus AB? I will need to take Pre-Calculus in 11th grade but I was placed in Calculus 1 from the Accuplacer test so I could take the class via dual enrollment.

What math have you already taken?

In theory, Accuplacer believes that you are ready for calculus. You may want to try other quizzes to check your readiness for calculus.

http://math.buffalo.edu/rur/rurci3.cgi
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-subject-tests/subjects/mathematics/mathematics-2
https://calcworkshop.com/calculus-readiness-test/
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/ns46/136/ready.pdf
https://www.dasd.org/cms/lib/PA01916467/Centricity/Domain/3793/Calc.Summer%20Math%20Packet%20for%20Students%20Entering%20Calculus.Title.pdf
https://langara.ca/admissions/diagnostic-tests/math-stats/pdf/CalculusReadinessUNB.pdf

After this school year, I will complete Algebra 2 with a 99.

My daughter took the accuplacer test at the end of 9th grade when she was in math 2 honors. She was placed into calculus 1 by the test. I would really look at it to help decide if your ready to skip precalculus. My daughter did not take dual enrollment math but we were surprised by the results.

In general, I would say take AP Calc over DE Calc unless you have a particular reason.

You are taking Calculus 12th grade, which means you are slightly ahead of the norm but not super advanced in math.
The only reason I would take DE Calc is if you wanted to be able to take Calc 2 or some other class.
But you would be taking Calc 1 in a semeseter instead of over the school year (AP Calc).

What type of college are you thinking about? If your State U, then the Calc would transfer. If private, it may not.
You also have to send a transcript from the Community College as well as your HS for college applications.

AP vs DE

AP

• AP tests are well known nationally and are uniform across the nation
• You can look on any college’s website and see what credit you will get for what scores on the AP tests
• AP Courses are given at your High School
• AP Credit is based on a test you take on one day
• AP courses generally are more spread out…e.g., AP Calc AB = Calc 1 is given over a year, not a semester.
• If you have an issue with a class, your teacher and GC can be more flexible with you.

DE
• There are more of a variety of DE courses available at a CC
• DE courses will count as a college GPA…make sure to do well for future Med school/grad school purposes.
• DE Courses may be only available at the CC…how will you get there? How will they overlap with your HS schedule? When is their spring break vs yours?
• Private and Out of State Colleges may or may not give you credit. They may not give credit for courses taken to fulfill HS requirements. You do not know what credit you can get ahead of time. Make sure to keep a copy of your syllabus to aid in determining credit.
• DE Credit is based on your grades over the semester (including final)
• Public In-state schools will give you credit for DE courses. You may be able to get up to 2 years of credits.
•• For DE classes, the “grade” doesn’t rely on one test on one day but over a whole semester.
• DE Courses may be more condensed…e.g., Chem 101 is over one semester, not a year.

The other thing to check is which type of calculus course the Accuplacer result recommended for you. If it recommended a “calculus for business majors” course, then it makes sense why it recommended that after you completed algebra 2. “Calculus for business majors” is typically a less rigorous version of calculus, so you would be able to take it with lesser prerequisite math. But it can be a dead-end in math if you want to study something in college that requires regular calculus.