Hi, I need some advice. As a Junior at a regularly-sized school, I’m self-studying for AP Calc BC while taking AP Statistics (as well as AP Physics I, AP Compsci), however, I recently brought it up to my counselor who mentioned that if I followed through with this, I wouldn’t have any math courses to take next year that are offered at my school. The issues is twofold, though: 1.) I’ve already spent a decent amount of time and effort studying, and my counselor’s response to this was that I’d just be more prepared for next year (which would be the year that I’d take AP Calc BC if I follow the regular schedule), and 2.) I’d prefer to put this score on my transcript when I apply to college, and during my senior year, I’d like to take a more advanced class at a community college to challenge myself. My counselor also brought up that they would have to talk about it with the rest of the math department, and if needed, find some way to get me a refund for the AP exam. It seems, based on the way that they worded it, that they’d prefer that I don’t take the exam, but instead wait until next year. Can my counselor get an AP exam refunded and stop me from taking it? And what can I do, if this is the case, to stop this from happening?
Per the College Board website, you can still get a refund for everything except about $15. If your school offers the test, I don’t think they can force you to withdraw, regardless of what your counselor wants.
However, I’m very confused about your situation. Are you self studying Physics and CompSci, or just Calc BC? Have you taken precalculus? Why are you taking AP Stat right now? Why didn’t you talk to your counselor about this beforehand?
No offense, but if you’re not taking an actual calculus class right now, it’s unlikely you’re learning the material well enough to either pass the exam or continue on with Calc III. If you have, though, you’d be bored in Calc BC next year.
What was/is your motivation for self-studying Calc BC? This could go a few different ways, but it’s hard to say without more info.
I’m taking Physics and CompSci regularly, as AP Stat (taken because there were a lot of aspects of it that I found would be helpful in robotics as well as in personal programming projects of mine).
I’m currently taking Precalculus as a class offered by my school, but I’m not finding it very challenging. I get a lot of the intuition behind why and how what I’ve studied so far in Calc BC works, as well as how to apply it, so I’m curious to know what some of the challenges that I might experience if I took Calc III would be.
As for why I’m self-studying Calc BC, math usually comes pretty easily to me, and I was given a brief introduction to the basics of calculus last year (taking derivatives and how the limit definition of a derivative worked, as well as what integration is), and continued learning on my own because I found it interesting. I’d ideally like to continue studying more advanced maths than my school offers out of interest for the subject (as well as to understand how many equations from statistics can be derived), but many courses that I can take at a community college have Calculus or the equivalent as a prerequisite.
Take the class/exam now. Don’t not take a class just because your school doesn’t have a class for you next year. Your reasons are well thought out. If you can handle the class now press on and put it behind you. There is no valid reason to slow your sequence down.
Next year you can either take a math class at community college, online or not take a math class. I know someone who did this with history in the same reason and didn’t take a history class his senior year.
I don’t agree with the above advice. You need to work with you GC on this. In many states you need four years of math to graduate HS and can’t just skip math your senior year. Many school ms don’t count “self study”.
I agree with the poster who said this should have been a conversation with the GC at the start of the year.
IMO, I would take BC at your school as a senior.
could you take the calc AB test to show on your college apps? Then take calc BC next year?
my kiddo took calc ab jr yr; and calc BC sr. yr. He knew he was going into a math-related profession and he had a solid background, got 5s on his tests, and started in calc 3 in college and pulled As. If you are doing something math related, no big need to rush through this all, right? (this is coming from a non-math person btw; just my thoughts.)
Take the math AB exam this year, BC next year.
Hmmm. What materials are you using to self-study? Have you taken a practice test for AP Calc BC? I would take a look at the MIT Open CourseWare curriculum or something similar for Calc I and II to see if you could do or at least recognize most of the concepts. There’s a lot more to it than just integrals and derivatives. If you feel comfortable with it, maybe try taking calculus at the community college over the summer, both to reinforce the skills and to “prove” to your school that you know it.
Have a talk with your GC about whether you could count an online or community college class as your math class next year. Most schools have at least some options for dual enrollment. Check to see how it would be listed on your transcript too.
If you’re bored in precalc and have some handle on calculus, Calc AB would probably be boring for you. Also, AFAIK, Calc III is actually a lot different from Calc BC (aka Calc I&II) because it uses things like vectors, etc. that aren’t used in BC.
Just to let you know:
Colleges don’t really take AP scores into acocunt for admissions. Many students don’t have AP tests or take them senior year. They do use them for credit. It would be better to take AP Calc BC as a class with grades…which is what colleges do look at.
However have you looked at Dual Enrollment in your local Community college for taking Multivariable Calculus if you did finish Calc BC?