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<p>When I was in high school (a non-elite public high school where about a third of graduates went to four year colleges, mostly state schools), the only calculus course there was BC, offered to students who were a year ahead in math (i.e. precalculus as high school juniors). It was not considered excessively difficult, and the better students did score 5 on the AP test and go on to subsequent math courses in college without repeating calculus in college.</p>