<p>I am finishing up sophomore year in ap calc ab, and the plan is for me to take ap calc bc next year online or somewhere because my school doesn't offer it :(. However, I have heard that ap calc bc is ap calc ab, but a little more. I have actually learned some of the material covered in calculus bc, such as vectors and polar coordinates, but I haven't learned all of what is new in calc bc. I really don't want to relearn what I've learned already. Basically, is Calc III like Calc II in that it covers material from the previous level of calculus and has a little more extra material?</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>Calc III is multivariable calculus and applies the principles learned in Calc I and II to equations and systems of equations of multiple variables. You do not want to skip Calc II and go into Calc III. You probably wouldn’t be hurting too much in Calc III (it draws more heavily from I than II if I remember correctly) but you will be hurting later on if you haven’t learned about things like series, especially the Taylor series.</p>
<p>BC Calc is equivalent to Calc II. Yes it’s sort of like building off of AB/Calc I, but there is no way you can skip it because it is essential. It’s also difficult, so online might not be the best way to take it. Calc II is multivariable calculus and it will be hard to learn new things in multivariable if you haven’t mastered em in single variable.</p>
<p>Take the AB now, and then take Calculus II at a community college next year if possible. Even if you take the BC and do well enough to pass it, chances are you will not learn enough material and fall behind in your advanced courses. This has nothing to do with you, it’s just the nature of AP Calculus BC; a lot of material that you learn in Calculus II in college is left out of the BC exam.</p>
<p>Does calculus III review anything from calculus II? for example, algebra II reviews slope and other concepts learned in algebra I… If I were able to pick up the concepts quickly from the material in calculus III, would I do okay?</p>
<p>DO NOT TAKE CALC 3 BEFORE CALC 2!</p>
<p>They put them in order with numbers after them for a reason. I don’t know how much plainer it gets than that.</p>
<p>You may be able to get away with learning simpler concepts in say, precal, later on in your career but that is because they are simple (clearly). You will have an extremely hard time doing this with something like calculus. Think about it, if Calc II is considered by most the hardest of the three calculus classes then what hope do you have for achieving good foundations by skipping it?</p>
<p>what concepts are so important in calculus II that I would be missing? I mean I could probably self-study them over the summer if possible. Btw, thanks for everyone giving their input so far.</p>
<p>No one is going to let you take calc III before II.</p>
<p>If you think you can self-study, go for it. Buy an AP BC book, study for the test, and your score will qualify whether you can take III or not.</p>
<p>Or just take it at a community college.</p>
<p>You were asking about some of the topics: [Pauls</a> Online Notes : Calculus II](<a href=“http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcII/CalcII.aspx]Pauls”>http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcII/CalcII.aspx)</p>
<p>I’m not trying take calculus III before calculus II. I’m trying to skip past calculus II directly into calculus III just to clear any confusion</p>
<p>Self-study likely won’t cut it unless you are a prodigy or something. If you want to be an engineer, you have to be decent at calculus, especially Calc II. If you want to be a good engineer, you have to be very good at calculus. If you want to be a great engineer, you have to own the material and have a pretty deep understanding. There are a ton of engineers out there, a decent number of good engineers, and only a handful of truly great engineers. Which do you want to strive to be?</p>
<p>So basically… take calculus II and learn it well?</p>
<p>Yes. Calc II is regarded by most to be the hardest of the 3 major calculus classes, largely due to the section on series. However, the integral and vector portions of the class are very important in all types of engineering and certain aspects of the series portions of the class become more important in upper-level classes. You can be a successful engineer with only a basic understanding of Calc II, but you will not be nearly as good at it as someone who gets it better.</p>
<p>so going through every lesson in my calculus book wouldn’t be enough to understand calc II?</p>
<p>I managed to take the AP calc bc exam in high school without the bc part taught to me, and managed to get a 5 with only 2 weeks of preparation. </p>
<p>Get James Stewart Calculus series. The end of the single variable book and the beginning of the multi variable book cover calc II very well. </p>
<p>I never really had any trouble with calc III aside from mathematica(which was taught in calc II here but is no longer in the curriculum).</p>
<p>The material has no overlap really, aside from using the polar coordinates in three dimensional space in calc III(if you consider that overlap). It does use alot of calc I though…</p>
<p>Also, depending on what you want to do(engineer, physicist, mathematician,business, etc), would also change what I recommenced you do. Electrical engineering(among other things) in particular uses calc II a lot, so if you plan on doing something of that nature it is best to learn calc II <em>well</em> so that you don’t have to play catch up later.</p>
<p>I find Calculus, Physics, and Computer Science APs to be graded far too easily to qualify you to be able to pass. I mean sure, if you don’t ever need to take a science ever again, knowing 35% of Mechanics will qualify you to skip it, but as an engineer there is absolutely no way. Same with Calculus, as the poster above me said, it’s quite possible to get a 5 on the exam and not know much about Calculus. It’s very easy to get good grades on these exams without putting the kind of effort in that will allow you to master the material and do well in a college level class.</p>
<p>Listen chroni, it’s clear you already have your mind made up. Go ahead and sel study and just skate by. Just don’t design any bridge/plane/car that I am using.</p>
<p>All right I will take these opinions and consider them very seriously, mainly because most of you have given me completely opposite answers to what my friends have told me. thanks very much though!</p>
<p>come on dude, it’s only one extra semester of math!</p>
<p>If you are going into your senior year, take a fall semester of calc 2 and spring semester of calc 3 at community college.</p>