Has anyone taken AoPS Calculus?

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm a sophomore in pre-cal and I have around a 97.</p>

<p>My school only offers AP Calc AB and I want to go above and beyond by taking AoPS next year (which apparently covers more than even BC Calc). I'm pretty interested in Calculus but I'm wondering if it would be too hard.</p>

<p>The classes are online and 1 hour a week.</p>

<p>Has anyone taken AoPS Calculus online? How was it? Insanely difficult? Do you recommend it?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I haven’t taken the AoPS Calculus class, but I did take the Precalculus class and studied from the AoPS Calculus textbook, so I guess I can help a little.</p>

<p>(Assuming the course follows the textbook fairly closely…)</p>

<p>It will definitely be hard for all except probably USAMO winners or IMO participants. You’ll most likely see a few Putnam problems in the problem sets, to give you an idea of the level of the students taking it. Don’t sweat it, though; they certainly don’t expect you to solve every problem, and you’ll learn a lot from doing the problem sets. Just make sure you have the time to dedicate to the class. It’ll be harder than any math class you could possibly take in high school (except for upper-division university math, I guess), so be prepared for that.</p>

<p>If you just want to get BC out of the way, then self-study it. But if you want to learn more math while being challenged to your limits (unintended pun!), then take the AoPS course; it’s far more rewarding than just going through a normal textbook/prep book and doing routine problems.</p>

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<p>Yeah I mean I’m not good enough to qualify for AIME or anything, but math really interests me and I want to be challenged.</p>

<p>I’m just wondering what would happen if I sign up for the class and end up sucking horribly at it =P</p>

4

<p>If you end up sucking horribly, then you can just choose not to do anything. They won’t really care that much. Sure, you will have spent a few hundred dollars on it, but whether you choose to participate is left up to you.</p>

<p>You can also ask for help on the forums if you get stuck on a problem, so there’s that, but if you really can’t handle it, then just leave it alone (or pop in every once in a while).</p>