<p>Next year I have the choice to take either Calculus AB or BC. I'm not sure which to take. Would taking AP Calculus BC have a greater effect on college admissions than AP Calculus AB? BC covers 2 semesters of college calculus compared to just one for AB however the teacher for BC is very difficult. The averages for his tests are F's. So should I take the chance of ruining my GPA or just play it safe? (Btw if I were to take AB I would also take AP Stats). Thanks</p>
<p>BC. People exaggerate the difficulty compared to AB.</p>
<p>Are you strong at math? Both S and D took BC and did well, but both were strong math students who had no trouble with previous math courses. D’s school only offered BC so all students normally take it if they want an AP Calc course. S’s school offers both, but the strong students take BC.</p>
<p>If you want a taste of how fast an actual college math course covers material, BC is more reflective of that than AB.</p>
<p>In my school, AP Calc is just one big lump. We have Calculus, which covers all of the AB material in the first semester, and in the second semester, which actually has the label “AP Calculus”, the BC material is covered.</p>
<p>When taking the test, as my teacher explained, we will have the choice to take either the AB test or the BC test. The BC test contains a great deal of the questions taken directly from the AB test, but then also has questions from the BC material. However, she also explained that in taking the BC test, due to the similarity of most of the questions between the two exams, an AB subscore will be provided as well, so if you don’t do well on the BC portion of the exam, but do well on the questions that are also included in the AB test, you can still get college credit for at least the first level of calc, if not both. That’s something to think about. (:</p>
<p>Have you decided on a college, or narrowed it down to a few? I’d advise you to check on their policies for accepting AP credit, to see if you can get credit for the first two levels of Calc, barring you do well on the test. Some colleges may not accept both scores, even if both are good scores, because they want you to take their program, especially if you’re going to be a math-related major, so you may only want to take AB, so you can take statistics.</p>
<p>Just do BC if your course load isn’t insane already, unless the BC teacher is atrocious and the AB teacher is excellent. And defiantly do BC if you’re a future math major, or even intend to major in a science such as physics that contains a lot of math courses.</p>
<p>I want to major in finance but possibly minor (double major) in math. Would it affect apps significantly? The only bad thing about BC is I don’t want to jeopardize/stress out about getting a B and risking my valedictorian over the class during senior year (he is a known valedictorian breaker). He is a great teacher though! Also taking BC would mean 3 classes vs 2 classes for AB (plus stats).</p>
<p>I wouldn’t take BC. These other posters seem to not understand the huge detrimental effect that a bad teacher can have on one’s grade, regardless of the subject he or she teaches. I’ve been there…and as far as I am concerned, colleges really do not care much about the difference.</p>
<p>Take BC if you’re confident in your skills in math</p>
<p>Take AB if otherwise</p>
<p>good luck, don’t let your success come down to a teacher</p>
<p>Thanks for the posts guys. I’ll probably take AB unless I destroy precalc BC this year hahaa. chance me if you want to <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1431373-chance-top-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1431373-chance-top-schools.html</a></p>
<p>I don’t think that taking AB instead of BC will have much of an effect on your applications. You should be fine.</p>