<p>I'm first in my class now as a Freshmen and thankfully because of our semester system ( instead of quarters ) I was able to double math. Last year in middle school I took Algebra 1, now this year I doubled taking Geometry Honors in the fall and Algebra 2 Honors in the spring ( right now ). I heard that one of the kids battling to take over my number one spot is going to skip Precalculus and go straight to Calculus AB AP to bump up his rank. I could do the same but I'm worried that I'll miss out on information found in Precalculus and fall behind in AB next year as a sophmore.</p>
<p>How much more information is in Precalculus than Algebra 2? Should I take the course or maybe even self-study? Are there any good self-studying Precalculus websites out there?</p>
<p>Are honors and AP weighed the same at your school? If they are, I recommend taking honors precal. You would probably get a better grade than in AP Calculus. If not, you should consider self-studying it. At my school, the first 2-3 weeks of any math class is always review, anyway.</p>
<p>an A+ in AP = a B+ in Honors = a C+ in Regular</p>
<p>To match the kid's other AP class, i'm thinking about doing Macroeconomics AP alongside US History Part 1 AP instead of Calc and US Hist because I've heard econ is pretty easy at my school. I'm just thinking going from Alg2 to Calc AB probably looks a lot better to colleges.. hmm</p>
<p>Precal is pretty much a review course. It's April and the only new thing we've learned is Polar Coordinates. Basically it's just a Trig, Geometry, and Algebra II review course.</p>
<p>So if you've taken those courses recently, review them over the summer and then you'd be good.</p>
<p>I don't know why you'd want to take AB Calculus if you're going to take BC as well, though. You'd probably be better prepared for college math if you take Precal then BC.</p>
<p>BTW, your school's grading system is idiotic. And stop worrying so much about your class rank. For most places, there is very little difference between #1 and #2, and many colleges prefer salutatorians to valedictorians (notably Wash U).</p>
<p>yeah wow i just realized how bad i botched the grading system</p>
<p>an A+ in honors is only equivlant to an B+ in AP. ( each 19 points, making an A+ in AP 22 points. )</p>
<p>I'm probably just going to take precalculus as a sophomore, AB\BC as a junior, and then do Calculus 3 as a senior if our school has enough enrollment in it to get it back. I just hope that looks good enough for top schools :</p>
<p>Seems pretty crappy that you plan your class scheduling around grades/rank rather than what you want to learn about...if that kid just willy nilly hops into AP Calc and has no idea what he is doing as far as pre-calc is concerned, he will not help his GPA...he may just hurt it...plus freshman ranks are useless....just pound out a good junior year....I was like #30 or so until the middle of junior year and am now #2, so they fluctuate a lot, don't get too comfortable but don't kill yourself for it.</p>
<p>in my school, pre-calc is all of the trig and everything too-rather important</p>
<p>At my school it is rather important. Trig is introduced and can be a very complicated subject. In AP Calc, they'll briefly go over it and he'll be lost from not successfully understanding the concepts or the point of trig.</p>
<p>you should probably talk to your teacher about it. at many schools, it'd be okay to skip precal but at my school, the teacher is awesome and we cram so much into precal, calc 1, and calc 2 that to skip any one would be a fatal mistake.</p>