<p>Well I'm a rising junior and wasn't sure if I should take Calculus AB Ap now and then take Calculus BC AP in senior year, or just skip Calculus AB entirely and take Calc BC now (thus giving me more room senior year to take other classes). I have a pretty good background in math and got A+ in all my math classes, but from what I heard, BC is hard to grasp without a foundation in AB.</p>
<p>Does it really matter to top colleges which one you took (would colleges see taking AB, the "easier" one instead of BC, the "harder" one as not challenging yourself enough)?</p>
<p>And do colleges like to see that you show consistency in what classes you take (i.e. keep taking a foreign language throughout high school)? See, if I take Calc BC senior year, then I won't have room in my schedule to continue take AP Spanish 5, which is the highest level of Spanish. Would stopping a language after 4 years be considered "inconsistency?"</p>
<p>Btw I'm aiming for mostly ivy league and other top schools - Wharton, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, etc.</p>
<p>Take BC, skip AB. Looking at your grades, my math skills are way worse than yours, but I still got a B first semester, A second semester in BC and a 4 on the test. Mostly because you should keep Spanish.</p>
<p>Take BC, skip AB. I never took AB and got a 5 on the BC exam, no sweat. (Though combining it with physics C helps both courses.) It’s a bit faster paced but you still go through the same material and then the extra BC stuff. They don’t leave anything out that was taught in AB, they just go through it faster.</p>
<p>Where does your BC calculus course start? (I’m trying to get a sense, because at my school, one took AB or BC, but not BC after AB. It seems that your BC course may assume an understanding of the 75% of single-var topics covered in AB, meaning you’d need to do a lot of self-study. It’s also possible that BC starts from the beginning, in which case you’d be fine.) 4 years of language and then stopping isn’t inconsistent, especially if Spanish is not your main interest, although taking an AP course would be nice for potential credit and to show you’re capable of doing “advanced” (by high school standards, anyways) work in the language.</p>
<p>^according to my counselor, the BC course doesn’t overlap too much with the AB course, and that taking AB before BC would “give me a better foundation.” But I do know plenty of people here who took BC w/o AB. </p>
<p>And for Spanish, i guess it wouldn’t really make too much of a difference if I took 4 years as opposed to 5 years (i’m not planning on focusing on spanish or language for college).</p>
<p>if you’re not planning to do anything math-y in your future, is there a point of taking BC? Wouldn’t it be better if you take a less challenging course in something you’re not so interested in then take more challenging courses in things you are interested in?</p>
<p>If you’re a rising junior, I suggest AB. I have a really good math background, but the fundamentals of calculus are critical, and I personally thought it good to take AB my junior year, even though I was taking AP Physics as well. I got A/A+'s during the year, and since there’s a lot of overlap I’m self-studying BC, getting help as I need it from my AB teacher, plus other students who are taking the BC class. That gives me the room to take another science. That’s just my input.</p>
<p>I remember a lot of people who took AB were unhappy because they realized that BC covers only 30% more material. Its a big difference for a decent more amount of work - go for it.</p>
<p>Well, if there is no math class beyond Calc BC at your school, then I don’t see why you wouldn’t take AB. Otherwise, just skip right to BC, then you can take another math class senior year.</p>
<p>well what if you do not know what you want to major in in college and the only other math after BC is multivariate calculus at my school which isn’t high on the list? AB or BC? Coming from honors precal where grades were A to A+ but with lots of work to get that. Can get a tutor to help with BC but at our school, grades are not weighted. Might be better to get an A in AB than potentially a B in BC with all the stress. Many kids in BC at our school don’t even finish the tests and 2 tests count 70% of the quarter grade. No curve. May be better for colleges to see an A in AB instead of a potentially lower grade in BC? Do you think colleges even look at what classes you took or screen you based on GPA and SAT? AB and BC use the same book in our school but BC is much faster and covers 2 semesters of college calculus instead of 1. Many kids in my class are seniors who already took AB and some of the juniors probably took some calculus over the summer to get ahead and I didn’t. so not sure if i should take AB or BC. I am taking 3 other AP classes too! Advice? thank you!!!</p>
<p>If you have the talent and privilige to be 2 years more advanced than the average student in math, then you should be more than capable of taking BC. If you are not ready for BC then you probably shouldn’t have been this far ahead of schedule in the first place.</p>
<p>OP is aiming for Wharton, a school that expects BC from its applicants (assuming it’s offered). There’s no reason to take AB AND BC, as you will be repeating 60+% of the course.</p>
<p>Take BC Junior year, but if you plan on applying as a business/econ/engineering/math major, take a math course senior year as well (even if it’s just AP Stat).</p>
<ol>
<li>If the honors precalulus teacher did a better job preparing the kids for calculus, then yes, it would make sense to take BC.</li>
</ol>
<p>or</p>
<ol>
<li>if other classmates did not secretly take calculus I over the summer to ‘get ahead’ and make BC calc easier, then it would make sense to take AB if you have not taken summer calculus.</li>
</ol>
<p>In the end, it is important to get a solid foundation in calculus while excelling in the 4 other AP classes, and maintaining strong extracurriculars and maintaining straight As in this competitive private school.</p>
<p>So, AB calculus it is! Wharton is a graduate school and i wouldn’t expect them to analyze a high school transcript. thank you!</p>