<p>I am a Junior and I am going to take the AP Calc BC exam this year. The last math class I took was Precalc Honors. I didn't take the class because I heard the teacher was bad and I felt like I could teach it to myself. I'm pretty good at Math and I love to self-study. I really want to know the optimal way to self-study for the AP Calc BC exam. I haven't started any preparation yet. What materials should I get? Do I have to get a Calculus textbook or are there other alternatives? I don't really like textbooks very much to be honest. What suggestions do you have for me to help me self-study BC calc? I really appreciate your help. Thank you!</p>
<p>If you haven’t done any prep yet and you haven’t done AB Calc then I would say get a textbook. I’m not sure which one would be best, as I myself am self-studying this year (but I’m taking the AB class, so it’s only about 40% self-study heh xD)…
Also, I believe there are already a couple forums about this, so I would check around those if I were you. I know I’m going to!
I haven’t really prepped for BC all that much, but it sounds like you will want at least one of the big prep company books (PR or Barron’s, I think, is what people have said are best for calc) since you’re learning ALL of the material.
MIT has open courseware for calculus I/II somewhere on that site; you should check that out. And even better, it has additional calc stuff that’s not even on the AP exam, so you could potentially look into even more advanced math later.
Honestly, I’ve also found that textbooks don’t really help that much UNLESS they have good practice problems. Imo the best way to ‘study’ for calc is to SOLVE SOLVE SOLVE. The more problems you do, the better off you will be for the exam.
On that note, try a practice exam after you prep for say a month or maybe two. See how that fits and, if you’re not satisfied with your score, you may want to drop down to AB (but honestly, AB is so easy you could self-study in less than a semester :P). Try to spend all of April reviewing for the exams since Calc is in the first week of the AP exams in 2013.
Also, maybe try looking at some other free online resources to help speed along your prep. Sparknotes (which I think is down temporarily but should be running again soon), Hippocampus, Course-notes, iTunesU, Coursera, whatever it is, but don’t just get all of your prep from one sole location.
Even if the teacher is bad, you should consider asking him for some BC resources around March/April (review those materials a TON during spring break!!!). If he doesn’t have ANY materials whatsoever to help you, he officially sucks. xD No sane AP teacher would ever work that way.
So yeah, try to keep April (or at least the last two weeks) open for review for the BIG test. Do a released exam (CollegeBoard has those on its website somewhere… xD). Ask friends who are actually in the BC class to study with you. Maybe compare each other’s notes or something?
Best of luck! I’ll be cheering you on in May! (while trying not to freak out over my own exams ;P)</p>
<p>I don’t really want to use a textbook, but I heard Calculus by AoPS is really good. I’m probably going to get that. </p>
<p>I did look at forums and they helped me get an idea of what I should do. </p>
<p>I’m probably going to get PR as a prep book because I’ve used PR for many other APs and its been good so far. </p>
<p>As much as I hate to do practice problems, I guess I have no choice but to. I’ll do some from the Stewarts Calc book I have and some from the PR book that I will get. </p>
<p>As for websites, I’m going to use Sparknotes, PatrickJMT, MIT OCW, Hippocampus, and Paul’s Online Notes. I think I have enough resources haha. </p>
<p>The AP Calc BC teacher at my school doesn’t like me because I wanted to self-study the class instead of take her class. I don’t want to ask her for help haha. </p>
<p>When it comes to study-groups, I don’t know if I could join any because I’m way too behind (haven’t started studying yet). </p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! I’ll be cheering for you as well! Let’s 5 this exam!</p>
<p>I am self studying this year too! We can have a CC study group, because I need one ha.
I am using a lot of Khan Academy videos to study. I even made an account on his site to track my progress. His videos are the greatest gift to self-studiers.
I am also finding Wolfram Alpha helpful in finding answers.
Today I ordered my copy of Princeton Review. I am hoping for the best. I do not know if I am going to an Ivy League school, (or have any clue that I will get into any of the ones I applied to), but I do not want to retake Calculus. I am taking BC to be sure of that.
I have my final for Calc I (a community college course) this month. I will be done with AB.
If you have any practice problems you are stuck on, I would be glad to collaborate! I need the practice as well.
My teacher doesn’t want to tutor/help me because he thinks his Community college course is sufficient for every U.S. college’s requirements. I am on the same boat as you.</p>
