<p>Our local high school offers regular and honors pre-calc, calculus, AP Calc AB, & AP Calc BC.</p>
<p>My daughter went to 2 high schools. The first, an excellent New Jersey school, had regular calculus and AP calc. She's not great in math but I heard that competitive colleges want you to take calculus in high school so I thought she'd take regular calculus. We moved to Ohio in her sophomore year and they had 2 tracks. The less challenging track didn't lead to calculus. We were determined that she should take it. She ended up going to CTD which is the Center for Talent Development or something at Northwestern for summer school 2 years in a row and took honors precalc over the summer and then honors precalc again in school and then honors calculus over the summer and AP calculus as a senior. She got into the college of her choice and may have not if she hadn't had the calculus. She also enjoyed the summer programs (not the math per se) but the social milieu of what they "proudly" call "nerd camp".</p>
<p>Our independent high school offers AP Calculus BC, AP Calculus AB, and "regular" Calculus.
I call the latter "Calculus for Poets." ;)</p>
<p>Our public high school offers AP BC, and AP AB. Also offered is regular Calc which is designed for students who want to advance in mathematics with the study of Calculus but don't want to go at the pace of a college course.</p>
<p>^^^ amazon's solution was innovative, but alas not an option if you can't afford such expensive summer programs.</p>
<p>I can understand not having CP Calc, since calculus is inherently a college-level course, but every school should at least offer honors calc or honors something-post-pre-calc.</p>
<p>Our big public school system only offers AP Calc. (AB and BC). No such thing as regular here. We used to have a class called Pre Calc. Concepts but the sch. dropped it because the state no longer approved it as one of the four maths needed for college admissions (in our state u. system). So there is only Honors Pre-Calc. now. A lot of the kids who get through Honors Pre-Calc but don't feel they can tackle AP Calc. opt for Honors Discrete Math to fulfill their 4th yr. requirement.</p>
<p>I am not a math person but grew up in a math family and have spawned a math family.</p>
<p>I truly believe that Calc is one of those things where the quality of the instructor is the single biggest factor in a kids success. The Mathy kids can "get" calc from anyone; the non-math kids need a truly talented instructor.</p>
<p>I hated math throughout elementary and HS. I was required to take remedial math in order to pass calculus as a condition of admission to grad school. I had the most phenomenal professor and discovered that I loved math, particularly calculus... a little late in the game.</p>
<p>OP- I share your pain, but better to have your D enjoying and understanding her math class, regardless of where it ends, than to have her frustrated and angry and hating math. She can take calc in college... or like me, years after college, in order to start a grad school program. I was a little sad at all the doors my math aversion had closed for me.... and was determined that my kids wouldn't share my fate.</p>
<p>Alas- all of them love math and are good at math; none of them (at the moment) are pursuing a technical or scientific discipline. Go figure.</p>
<p>Our smallish (950 students) HS has a surprisingly good selection of math classes and all students must take four years of math up to Alg II. They offer: Alg I, Alg IA and Alg 1B, Geometry, Honors Geometry, Applied Geometry, Applied Alg II and Physics, AP Physics, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, AP Calculus, Pre-College Algebra, Trig, AP Stats, AP Computer Programming, Visual Basic Programming and C++ Programming. Some of these offerings are also dual-credit classes with the area Community College.</p>
<p>In addition, very advanced students have the option of taking College math at one of the nearby classes (including Lehigh) at a reduced rate.</p>
<p>3 Calculus choices at our HS:</p>
<p>Intro to Calc
Calculus
AP Calc</p>
<p>The schools that I know that offer non AP calculus usually only cover one semester of college calculus. AP CAlculus AB covers the standard college Calc 1 which is a semester of calculus that covers differentiation or derivatives. This is followed by Calc 2 the next semester which covers integration. The "A" in AP Calculus AB represents the standard college Calc1. The "B" in the AB and the BC represents the standard college calc2. The "C" in AP Calculus BC represents the standard Calculus 3 which is a third semester of college calculus, also often called vector calculus and covers Green's and Stoke's theorems which are not usually covered in the first two semesters of calculus. </p>
<p>It is also possible for plain old calculus to just gallop through both Calc 1 and Calc 2 without going into theory but just focusing on problem solving. Such course is not usually sufficient to prepare a student for the AP Calcus AB exam unless he does additional work independently. I saw a non AP calculus course offered at one school with Differential Equations offered as a course beyond calculus. This was very deceiving as it appeared as though the school was providing very advanced math when the truth of the matter was that it was not going into the theory and just going over problem solving. A kid going through those courses would be in big trouble if he assumed he had covered college Calc 1, 2 and college Differential equations. </p>
<p>A lot of kids who take Calc BC find it wise to retake Calc 3 in college because the AP course CalcBC does not cover some of the theory that a rigorous CAlc 3 college course would. If the student is intending to take more advanced math courses, particularly those in theory, it would be wise to take that college Calc 3 course. Many high school Calc BC courses spend a lot of time teaching differentiation as there are often kids who go into that course straight from pre Calc. When that happens some of the Calc "C" material gets a short shrift. I believe that the "C" material does not extensively cover a thorough college Calc 3 course most of the time.</p>
<p>Our big suburban Chicago public offers regular Pre-Calc but only AP Calc AB and BC. Our sequence mirrors that offered by archie above -- not sure about the electives/sequences for non-honors.</p>
<p>Yes, we do.</p>
<p>Our high school offers honors precalc and regular precalc. The offer AP Calculus and honors calculus. I guess they figure that anyone who gets to calculus deserves the honors weighting at least. I agree!!</p>
<p>Missypie, it might be a good idea for your daughter to take the algebra course offered at your CC that may prepare her for the Pre Calc that is a precursor to APCalc AB. My son will be doing despite having taken the honors advanced Algebra 2 course that includes trigonometry which is the prereq for getting into the honors Pre Calc that is the prereq for the APCalc AB. Though his school will permit a student who has an "A" or "B" in the non honors courses to move up to the honors level, it is not recommended unless the kid is willing to really work hard and has an aptitude for math. My son struggled with the honors advanced Algebra 2 course, and barely got his B. He got a "D" on the final exam, and I don't think he understands a lot of the fundamentals in that class. Neither does he. A review of those items would be useful for him even if he decides to take Trigonometry first term junior year, and then Pre Calc second term junior year which would put him on track taking non AP Calculus, which I believe is called Intro Calc at his school. If he wants to take the Honors PreCalc next year, he HAS to review that trig and know his Algebra very well. There is a community college course here that addresses his needs perfectly. None of the material will be brand new to him as he has had trig within Alg2, but the course will go over all of that. Maybe this time he'll get it. It'll also be a forshadowing of the honors precalc class at his highs school so he would be in good shape to take that if he gets through this cc course with a thorough understanding of the material covered. He is taking a bit of a break this year by taking regular Geometry rather than the Honors, but that will not affect his eligibility for the honors Precalc which is determined by the honors Alg2 grade.</p>
<p>What the courses are called are not important. It's what is covered in the courses. Pre Calc is a catch all term that can mean anything. Of all the math courses, it is the one that is the least consistent among schools. You can pretty much figure what is being taught in Geometry, Algebra1 and Algebra2. The exception there is whether trigonometry is covered in Algebra2. There are schools that have two tracks of Alg 2; with and without the trig. There are schools that cover Algebra 2 in two years rather than one because of a need to cover a weak Alg 1 supplied by too many 8th grades. So they save face for everyone by putting those kids in a two year Algebra2 that reviews, Alg1 and mayb covers trig. Precalc can mean anything. Honors Precalc often covers a lot of calculus and in such curriculums, a kid can go from there to Calc BC, rather than AB.</p>
<p>D's large public high school offered three levels of Calc--college prep ("CP"), Honors and AP--until this year, when they combined the CP and Honors classes. This turn of events has left no one happy. Kids who took CP Pre-Calc are now in the same class as the better (and better-prepared) students who took Honors Pre Calc, and they are floundering by comparison. Meanwhile, the kids who were in Honors last year don't like the fact that they have lost the additional grade weighting given to Honors classes. Against my better judgment, D, who struggled with CP Pre-Calc, took Calc at the insistence of her guidance counselor that it was needed for the "better" colleges, and she is now in danger of failing, which I suspect the "better" colleges will find even less impressive than her not taking it at all. Sigh. Having never taken either Pre-Calc or Calc, and having graduated from a "better" college and an Ivy law school without any need for either, I'm grateful I escaped before the time these courses were deemed the norm for high school (when was that, anyway?). I wouldn't have survived them.</p>
<p>missypie, I feel your pain. My daughter had similar problems in HS. She tried to take calc at the local CC, but didn't pass the test (even though she'd taken precalc in HS). </p>
<p>The math teacher at our HS told me one day that she teaches calculus assuming that every student in her class is going to be majoring in either engineering, math, physics or chemistry in college. It's a very tough class, especially tough for a student whose talents lie in the humanities or social sciences. Given the pressure to take "the most rigorous schedule" everyone feels forced into taking this class. I wish there had been a "calculus for the non engineering student" at our HS.</p>
<p>Because our school offers so many math classes both of my kids avoided Calculus by taking alternate classes like pre-calc in 11th grade and then Stats or Pre-College Algebra which is like doing pre-calc again, in 12th grade. Neither child was planning to do a math oriented college major but at least had a solid math background and four years of math on their transcripts. Son actually had 7 maths because he took three computer programming classes. The programming classes are electives, so can't count towards graduation requirements, but they are in the math department.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Having never taken either Pre-Calc or Calc, and having graduated from a "better" college and an Ivy law school without any need for either, I'm grateful I escaped before the time these courses were deemed the norm for high school (when was that, anyway?). I wouldn't have survived them.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You said it, MommaJ! I actually took Honors Algebra in 9th grade, regular Geometry in 10th grade, then was done with math. Although I'm not an Ivy law grad, I did very well at a good law school and now have a terrific job. It just slays me when the faculty stands in front of parents and teachers and says that you need 4 years of HS math to succeed in college. (I try to keep my mouth shut, however, because I do think my own kids are able to learn more advanced math, if the pace is slow enough.)</p>
<p>A few years ago our school dropped AP Calculus AB and now just has honors Calculus (which is really the AP Calculus AB--it is in conjunction with College in High School--University of Pittsburgh. Kids can receive college credit and go on to take the AP test). We also offer AP Calc BC. Extra quality points for the AP class. Our CG said that when colleges look at a schedule and see (H) Calculus, it will be considered another AP class. They probably did it because the high school is very competitive and a considerable number of seniors take the class. Many many less take the BC class.</p>