Math Placement vs. AP Test?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>So I took my Math Placement exam today. The beginning was trivial stuff, but there was a section if I wanted to place out of Calculus 1 and a section if I wanted to place out of Calculus 2.</p>

<p>I received 4s on Calculus BC (and 4 on Calculus AB-subscore), but the questions on the placement exam for seemed almost impossible to do.</p>

<p>It kinda concerns me, especially as an Engineering major, when classes I can skip has material that I'm clueless about. Is it normal for these admission tests to be ridiculously impossible?</p>

<p>What should I do? Accept the credits from my AP exams and go on to more advanced Calculus classes, or re-take the curriculum to reinforce the fundamentals. I'd like to mention that my high school teacher was mediocre and only focused on getting a good score on the AP rather than focus on the concepts of Calculus.</p>

2

<p>I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just retake Calc 1 and 2.</p>

3

<p>As an engineering major, do you get credit for a 4? At my school for Engineering you need 5s on all the Math, Chemistry, and Physics to get credit.</p>

4

<p>Just retake the course. If it ends up being nothing more than a repeat you should get an easy A and a GPA boost.</p>

5

<p>^^True. Retaking them might be the best solution. Not only that I’m sure you will get a good grade, you will also strengthen your knowledge in calculus. At the end of the day, even though you will be “behind schedule” in your own standards as you had the opportunity to skip those classes, you will become more likely to do well in advanced math classes.</p>

6

<p>Hey, I took AP Calc in high school, got a 4 on the AP as well, but I more than gratefully took my place in Calculus 1 my first semester freshman year. (I go to Poly too btw). You need all the easy A’s you can get - trust me on this one!! :p</p>

7

<p>Retake it. The AP tests are really not a wonderful indicator of how well you know the subject because, like any other test, most people just cram and forget, and because AP curriculums are taught so differently across the country.</p>

<p>If you really want to, it may be safe to skip calc 1 and go straight into calc 2 safely, but I definitely wouldn’t o farther than that, especially if you describe the placement exam as “impossible.”</p>