<p>Next year, I will be a senior and I am currently doing very well in Precalc (A+ average). I am scheduled to take AP Calc AB next year, but I want to take BC. Is there anyway that I can skip AB without losing much information, such as taking it at a community college or studying the topics over summer? And how much more impressive is BC than AB for college? Is it worth it to skip AB or should I just keep AB in my schedule?</p>
<p>Mmm, different high schools treat their calculus courses differently. For mine, it used to be that BC was AB in addition to the C component of the course, so it was totally possible to take the former without AB preparation. If you like math and since you already have such a high math average, with a little bit of work and some self-studying over the summer you should be able to catch in BC just fine :).</p>
<p>(If you mean whether it’ll make any difference for college, don’t worry about it. I took Calc AB in senior year of high school and made it to almost all the colleges I applied to, so it’s totally fine to take either.)</p>
<p>yea im in the same sorta pickle you are. i have a 95 in honors precal im either thinking of taking calc ab at a community college, or having the ab teacher teach me the stuff over the summer. i’m not required to take ab before bc at my school but im kind of afraid of the pace it takes. math has always been one of my easiest subjects but it takes me a little time to 100% understand the topics</p>
<p>Math was always an easy subject for me like for you guys, but calc destroyed me…</p>
<p>You only learn three things in calculus AB: limits, derivatives, and integrals. It may be the easiest math you’ve ever taken, or it could annihilate you. It’s hard to say.</p>
<p>Alg 2/Trig -> Calculus BC.</p>
<p>You learn the first three things at a faster rate… but you’ll get it.</p>
<p>Calc AB is a cakewalk for me. My last hw assignment took all of 15 minutes for 25 problems… But I know a lot of people struggling in that class.</p>
<p>If you are in pre calc honors in our school, you can go into BC. If not, go to AB.</p>
<p>It’s hit or miss. Our teacher has said how you will either get some things or you won’t, and there isn’t much he can do about it. Try BC</p>
<p>I took it in 10th grade and it wasn’t easy. Requires effort.</p>
<p>It depends on your teacher to be completely honest. The actual calculus is a cakewalk but the tests are of varying difficulty. Its not really the calculus that will murder you, its the trig and the stupid mistakes etc. It all depends on how good you are at problem-solving and how fast you are at math without making dumb errors.</p>
<p>Like everybody else here, it really depends on you and your commitment to math. I know of several people who took alternate Calc AB courses to get into BC, some are doing better than others. Also, bear in mind, that at some schools BC is more like ABC, whereas, at others it’s more like C, so that really does make a major difference. If you’re going into one of the former, if you enjoy calculus, you should be fine, but if it’s the latter, you’ll need to work quite a bit to make it a reality. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but i would say it is rather difficult to Skip parts A and B and go straight to second semester college calc. Remember, AB is first semester, BC is the full year equivalent.</p>
<p>Ok but how much more impressive is BC?</p>
<p>It depends on the teacher. If you truly are sure that you are a math person, go for it. BC is not more “impressive” than BC it just goes at a faster pace because you need to cover 2-4 extra chapters (depends on your textbook and teacher). For me, BC was brutal for chapters 2-6 because of intense pacing, but from there on, I got the hang of it. I know I would have gotten an A+ in the BC class, but I do not regret taking BC. If you don’t care about getting A’s but care about challenge, then take it. If you choose your classes by how impressive they are, then do what you want, b/c both of them are supposed to be challenging AP courses and both tests are recognized by universities :)</p>
<p>Calc AB is like a cakewalk, at least for me. I know it’s difficult for almost everyone else in my class, but compared to AP Physics C or AP Chemistry, it’s pretty easy.
Definitely one of the easiest math classes I’ve taken. Even easier than Geometry when I took it in 8th. Like someone said earlier, all the class is is Limits, Derivatives, and Integrals.</p>
<p>Calculus is hard, but at my school AB is much easier than BC. They cover less material in a greater amount of time, so I think they make it so that you truly understand the concepts. However, in BC, we fly through the concepts. In the first semester we covered 7 chapters while AB only covered about 4. It really depends on your school.</p>