Hi, I am going into junior year is fall and is debating on what I should take. I have a solid foundation on math classes prior to Precalc. I have received As on all past math classes including honors Algebra 2 (A very intense math class in my school and covers a lot of the materials in precalc).
I have the choice of taking regular precalc and honors precalc. The teacher for regular precalc uses a series of video lectures in which I have finished watching all of them during the summer. The honors precalc class is very hard and takes a lot of time and effort. Originally, I wanted to test out of precalc and go straight to AP calc. However, due to some inconveniences, test out is no longer an option.
Frankly, I would like to finish AP Calc BC in high school so I would not need to take it in college (save tuition and college Calc will be harder). Along with the rest of my schedule (AP Lang, AP Chem, AP Economics, AP Spanish, AP Stats), I am having trouble on deciding whether it is worth it to take regular precalculus with AP Calculus together even though that disturbs the order of the classes in which they SHOULD be taken.
My choices are:
take regular precalc (easy year for math, I will have more time for my other AP classes, SAT/ACT, and extracurriculars)
take honors precalc (very rough year along with the rest of my classes but firm math class for future math classes but won't finish Calc BC)
take regular precalc with AP calc (it will take a lot of work and convincing (counselors) but then I can wrap up Calc BC senior year)
It’s not even that it “disturbs the order.” Pre-calc is called pre-calc for a reason, and I doubt the counselor will be convinced otherwise. It would be like taking Spanish 2 concurrently with Spanish 3.
I too, agree with Option 2. It is okay that you take BC in college…all college curriculums are set up so you can start with Calc 1 (AB). If you did manage to get through BC you would not save tuition…the only way you can save tuition is if you have enough AP/DE/IB credits to be able to not have to take classes for an entire semester. If you take 12, 15 or 18 credits a semester it costs the same if you are full time student. So only if you have 15+ credits could you save money…you still have to graduate with approx 120 credits from college…so if you don’t take Calc BC you end up taking something else. Also assuming, of course you get a 4 or 5 onthe AP test.
There is no easy answer as to knowing if taking ap BC will exempt you from math in college. Some colleges will simply want you to take the next math class to get math credit in college unless your extremely advanced in math beyond the AP BC level. Also some colleges (could be many) will give math credit/exemption for AB Calculus AB with a test score of their specification.
Taking precalculus and calculus together isn’t logical. Also if doesn’t really make sense that you want to do Cal BC but are worried that honors precalculus is too hard. That doesn’t sound like it would help you at all to convince a guidance counselor. Go with option 2.