I am an entering junior, this is going to be my first academic year in America. I took a math placement test and they said it showed I should take AP Calculus AB. I am not in math, not at all, but I scanned through college websites and it looks like they don’t even give credits for that. Is the course so easy? I plan to take four more APs (Lang, Bio, Chem, Psychology) and prepare for two more by myself. But wouldn’t it be kind of shameful if I take AP Calculus BC only as a senior?
P.S. I hope to be a biochem major.
Not true, many colleges give out AB credit.
No.
It’s not really that easy. Most of it is pretty straightforward in terms of the difficulty of the computation, but actually understanding the underlying processes behind it isn’t that easy.
I think a lot of top colleges give credit for AP Calc AB. You may need to get a 5 though. At my college (Tufts) a 5 on AP Calc AB or 4 on AP Calc BC places you out of Calculus 1, but a 5 on AP Calc BC places you out of both Calculus 1 and 2.
Yes, it’s too easy. Calculus I is taught in one semester at most universities. Taking a year to learn derivatives and basic integrals = lol
(Don’t take my comment too seriously.)
AB is far too easy to be a year long course. The concepts are basic and are mostly just being able to apply things you memorized and not so much abstract thinking. Also calc BC isn’t that hard unless you are bad at math and with an exam that has a 5 rate of over 40% unless you are not meant to do math you should have no problems with it. Also since you want to be a biochem major BC will be much more helpful when you start to learn about different analytical techniques which are based on Fourier transforms.
P.S. if you decide BC instead of AB you should try and take differential equations at a local college the following year (community colleges usually will take 4s on the exam for placement). This will give you a good introductory to higher math and integral transforms (most cover Laplace but some cover Fourier)
I’m curious, what does this mean?
“But wouldn’t it be kind of shameful if I take AP Calculus BC only as a senior?”
Even Harvard offers pre-calculus and intro calculus for those who have not taken it.
Shameful is not an appropriate word. Be careful if you will be writing an essay in English.
“Is AP Calculus AB too easy?”
shoving first failing quiz grade into my purse I need to leave right now immediately
But in all seriousness, NO, it’s not seen as too easy by any college, and taking AB junior and BC senior year is a lot of schools’ most advanced math sequence. Taking AB as a junior will still look very impressive.
For many high school students, no it is not “easy.” Most colleges will give Calc 1 credit if you get a 4 or 5 (though a lot of selective colleges will only accept 5s if I remember correctly).
And no, it’s not embarrassing to take BC as a senior lol, plenty of people do that (I did!) and for many schools that is the most accelerated sequence.
You might want to check how AB/BC works in your school: at my high school, BC was taught with the assumption that everyone had already taken AB, so we didn’t cover any AB material and just learned the BC material in one semester. We spent the second semester taking AP practice tests. Also, if your placement test shows that you should take AB, then you should trust that placement.