I have not taken pre-calc yet, but I am planning on taking it in the summer before the following school year.
Is it that difficult to take, especially with a lack of a year-long pre-calc class?
How is the exam?
I had a kid who skipped pre-calc entirely and got a 5 on AB.
It’s a first semester college calculus class made into one year at the HS level. So I wouldn’t consider it difficult, especially if you are math oriented. Precalc does prepare you for the AP Calc class, so it is important to have a decent foundation.
AP Calculus BC is harder. Twice the material in the same amount of time.
BC is not twice the material. It’s roughly 30% more material. At many schools students are forced into taking AB and BC and find the BC phase quite easy since it’s mostly review.
It wasn’t difficult for my son. His friend did BC junior year and didn’t seem to have a problem with it either. I guess it depends on the kid.
I think it depends on the student AND on the teacher. A student who enjoys math and/or puzzle solving will have an easier time than those whose talents are in a different area. A teacher who is patient and has a skill for breaking things down is going to be more effective than one who does not share those skills.
That’s like asking whether coffee tastes good. The answer is entirely in the eyes of the beholder.
It’s intended to be a college math course, taught on the high school level. So, yes, it’s going to be more difficult than a high school level Pre-calc course.
Calc is a very different animal than most high school math courses. It requires a different kind of thinking, kind of similar to the way Geometry was very different than Algebra. Once you get beyond the basics of calc, it’s a matter of sorting through all the possible approaches to a problem, and deciding which one to work with-- as opposed to recognizing a problem type and jumping right to the appropriate formula or approach. Some kids are OK with that, some find it very confusing.
It also requires you to pull up an assortment of facts from earlier math classes. One problem may require you to solve a system of equations, the next might require you to work in radians instead of degrees or to complete the square. So you need to have a pretty good handle on all the math you’ve learned along the way.
Completely agree with @bjkmom - I was a math wiz in high school. Once I hit calculus, I was dead in the water. I got through Calc1 in college and did OK I guess, but I couldn’t tell you how. It took my son taking calc for me to finally get my mind around the concept. Maybe you’ll have a better sense of where you stand after you take pre-calc over the summer.