<p>Hey everyone,
I am going into 12th grade next year, and math is not one of my strengths (I am not poor in it though, B+ to A generally) and my options are either AP AB Calc or Precalc. I have friends who all are taking AP BC Calc now and they said it's not too hard, so I am sort of on the fence here. Is precalculus really that useful for when I have to take calculus in college? Do you need to do precalc to be able to handle AP AB calc? My friends went from geometry in 10th grade last year to AP BC calc this year so I am not sure of it but I don't know the curriculum too well. I hope someone can clear it up for me... i hear that PreCalc is useless and it doesn't really do much to help you with calculus anyway.</p>
<p>Precalc is definitely needed for a solid base.
Your friends might be math geniuses, while you may not be (idunnolol)
Definitely don’t take BC w/o precalc, but you can probably selfstudy precalc over the summer (which summer…) and go into AB.
AB’s not too hard if you have a decent math base.</p>
<p>Well, I’m a junior now, and basically, my options are either go to PreCalc or AP AB. I know for a fact that AB will help me with Calculus a lot more than PreCalc will in college… are there online classes for precalculus I can take? Or should I try a review book or something?</p>
<p>I don’t know of any online classes/books, but try looking up a curriculum syllabus (or get it from a teacher) and looking up the concepts. If you know the teacher well, you can ask for some tests to test knowledge (again, depends on teacher! some won’t let you take them home)</p>
<p>I have a friend who was kindof forced to skip precalc and go straight to AP AB (guidance messed up, and then our new department head refused to approve any independent study, and told him he had to try AP) and he is doing fine. Granted, i dont think he has an A, but math isn’t his strongest subject anyway. If the AP teacher at your school is someone who you think would really be willing to work with you (or another, past math teacher would be willing to help if you have trouble) i would say go for AP.</p>
<p>AB Calc isn’t bad if you’re a strong math student. How did you score on the SAT\ACT math?</p>
<p>Go for AB Calc. It’s not bad.</p>
<p>Calc AB goes at a rather easy/slow pace, compared to BC, and I’d say it’s manageable even with a not-so-strong math background.</p>
<p>Wow, these posters and your friends must be pretty darn competent in math. I’m impressed ! At my school, Pre-Calc is a prerequisite to regular, honors, and AP Calculus. I don’t think I would have survived AP Calculus without it because it super-expands what you learn about trigonometry and graphing in geometry.</p>
<p>As you get midway through the AP Calc course, you pretty much don’t need a lot of what you learned in Pre-Calc since calculus uses its own methods and techniques. But still, it’s useful to have the other methods and ideas you learn in Pre-Calc to fall back on. Plus, you won’t be able to keep your head above the water if you don’t have a great grasp of trigonometry. </p>
<p>But you could probably teach yourself Pre-Calc over the summer if you really want to take AP Calc next year.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the answers guys.</p>
<p>As for the self study of precalc next summer, do you think it would be a good idea to take some sort of online class or something at a college? I don’t know how well I could do studying on my own. I self studied for the AP Psych exam and that was it.</p>
<p>^Definitely. In fact, that’s an even better idea if you can afford it.</p>
<p>Precalc is just like extended algebra II. It gives you a solid algebra foundation for AP Calc, hence it’s name.</p>
<p>AP Calc AB is real calculus. The calculus concept isn’t very hard, it’s just that most of my mistakes come from algebra mistakes. Your friends might be the math geniuses who understand everything right away. You said math isn’t your strongest subject- then take Precalculus.</p>
<p>^, ^^
Exactly what I would recommend. Good luck!</p>