<p>I have to choose my senior courses in a week and i am struggling in picking my math courses</p>
<p>Should i pick the 3 period long Multivariable Calculus or the 1 period AP stats and 2 period AP chem?</p>
<p>Personally, I think multivariable might be pretty hard so i might not get an A, but then again AP stats seems really boring so i don't want to take that either (i've already taken calc junior year)</p>
<p>What are you interested in? I think chem + stats looks better overall than MVC, but if you took calc then you’ll probably find stats too easy and it most likely will be boring.</p>
<p>i just found out that MVC was 1 period and not 3. </p>
<p>So now the question is MVC or stats? </p>
<p>I will probably get a lower grade in MVC, but do you guys think it is worth it?</p>
<p>Yes. I think MVC will stand out more than AP statistics would.</p>
<p>Take MVC(im assuming your school weights it the same as “AP”?) It’ll be far more interesting and if you take it again in college; so much easier</p>
<p>Ignoring the question of which course is an easier A I’m inclined to encourage you to look at which of the math courses is the more useful for the courses you plan to take not just in senior year, but in your freshman year in college.</p>
<p>Advanced calculus is a course that is essential for all rigorous science and engineering courses. It is unlikely that whether you take it or not that you’ll want to place out of an equivalent class in college. Such courses are taught at much deeper level in selective colleges. And they often become more intuitive when they’re taken concurrently with science (e.g. physics) or engineering (e.g. EE, ME) courses. If science or engineering are not your career direction it’s unclear why you’d want to take an AP MV Calculus course.</p>
<p>Statistics on the other hand is fundamental to many disciplines, including economics, marketing, psychology, and science/engineering. In practice the application of statistics to real world problems is extremely difficult, so thinking of the AP statistics course as an easy A is missing the point.</p>
<p>I think you would do well to take the AP Statistics + AP Chemistry. It is hard to imagine why admission committees will see this combination as anything but the most rigorous coursework.</p>
<p>It matters whether your school offers MVC. I’m a junior taking Calc BC. I planned to take MVC, but I learned that it was only offered at the local community college. I can’t drive yet, and the course would require me to wake up early and commute. </p>
<p>Admission officers will look to see whether you took the most rigorous courseload available to you. If your school offers MVC, then you might want to take it. However, stats is also useful.</p>
<p>ok guess, i’ve made my decision. I’m taking MVC. (it’s not a AP tho. 1st term i take MVC and 2nd term i take differential equations)</p>
<p>It seems interesting and since i think it will help more than it will hurt in college applications (and in college), I think taking MVC is the better option</p>
<p>Thanks again</p>
<p>^Just curious, is MVC offered at your high school? Or have you decided to take the class at a local college?</p>
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<p>I agree a lot with this poster. My experience says that people usually don’t understand MVC when they take it early on. I never used it in advanced science, and wish I had, and actually when I understood the subject to the point where I remembered what was going on was after I studied relatively advanced coursework later on that generalized it – in mathematics. If you really want to get something out of MVC, learn vector calculus and MVC and make sure you pick up a good book like Purcell’s physics book on electromagnetism and actually work through it seriously. If you really want to do this properly, you probably can’t take many AP classes in that year. </p>
<p>Else you’ll see a bunch of formulas, but someone like me could probably summarize what you end up learning by glancing at the formulas in MVC once…and trust me, I don’t know that subject very well. Maths does not stick unless you know what it’s for.</p>
<p>@espeon, ya its given at my high school. My school is specialized so you have to take a test to get in. After that, you take another test that determines what math you take. If you really well on that (10% of the students do) then you get to take MVC or another extra math class in your senior year</p>
<p>@mathboy98, How many AP classes do you consider to be “many?” I was thinking about taking AP LIT, maybe a AP history class, probably AP chem. Is that “many?”</p>
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<p>If you are trying to follow my program of learning multivariable calculus, you’d do best to take it easy on the AP’s simply because maths doesn’t get absorbed well without time put in. I think 2-3 APs plus my plan is doable if you work very hard. Reduce the load based on if you find it getting insane, and if you find you’re doing problems but not really understanding what’s going on properly. Plan on being really brisk with your AP Lit / History reading if you’re going to learn the math and really remember it.</p>
<p>AP stat is a complete joke, just keep that in mind.</p>
<p>AP Stats is not a joke, and it’s certainly useful for many fields, but I believe it’s regarded along the lines of AP Environmental by adcoms–not necessarily easy, but not the most rigorous courseload. Think of it as an elective.</p>
<p>I meant it is a joke in terms of difficulty. Some of the stuff has been interesting, but it’s not exactly going to impress colleges</p>
<p>^That depends largely on the school. It’s not particularly well-taught at mine, so kids have difficult on the exams, but you can certainly get by just memorizing formulas with little comprehension. Like I said, I think it should be regarded as an elective.</p>
<p>^Yeah that’s true. It should hardly be considered a replacement for multi, but it could be a good supplement</p>