<p>my school is stupid and wouldn't let me skip intro to calc, so I'll have to self-study it:P Can anyone who had self studied AP Calc share his/her experience about it? What textbook did you use? Or does the PR books covers everything?</p>
<p>I didn't self-study, but i certainly wouldn't solely use PR.</p>
<p>Why not take the course at a local college? I think self-studying Calc is a bad idea. I'm not saying it's impossible to ge a 5 on the test, but I think you might miss out on some of the background necessary to succeed later math courses.</p>
<p>because youth option will take up three hours of my schedule and there's no way I can squeeze it in...</p>
<p>it's possible to self study, but you need someone that can explain to you the tougher concepts cuz not many textbooks are that great at explaining stuff.</p>
<p>I've heard of people self-studying Calculus, but unless you are gifted at math, it's tough to get a 5.</p>
<p>Calculus AB (even more so with BC) covers numerous new mathematical concepts that will take a lot of practice the first time through to comprehend. If you're skipping a core math course (e.g. Precalculus), it might be even harder for you to grasp some of the concepts. I personally skipped Precalculus and found AB to be pretty challenging even with a course.</p>
<p>I'm not saying self-studying is impossible though, but you probably need a math teacher or someone who took Calculus to help explain some of the concepts to you. I doubt solely using prep books will get you a satisfactory grade...it'll frustrate you most likely because prep books generally assume you have a working knowledge of Calculus already.</p>
<p>However, self-studying BC with a knowledge of AB is relatively easy.</p>
<p>Really? Someone told me to go ahead self study AB (my school won't let me skip either >.<). She did it and said it was really easy to do. But she's awesome at math, so maybe it only came easy to her? </p>
<p>I did take half of Pre-Cal this year, and am taking the 2nd half 1st semester of next year (I have a weird schedule hehe), which leaves the 2nd semester to self-study calc AB (since I'll have learned Pre-Cal already).. That should be ok right?</p>
<p>Hmm, someone told me that to. (the actual word was "school is a waste of time!") But he turned out to be a chemistry olympiad gold metal... I think I'll still do self-study but I'll probably get a tutor to help me.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.archive.org/details/ap_courses%5B/url%5D">http://www.archive.org/details/ap_courses</a>
The best ap calc/physics textbook ull every need for free. Great flash lessons</p>
<p>Wow.. that's an interesting website.. ::bookmarks:: thanks ^^</p>
<p>i self taught ap calc to myself and finished the material by like mid-january and jsut reviewed till ap time...found it very easy. i had a friend who was currently in BC help out wiht explaining some of the more complex concepts, but overall i am very glad i did it. a tutor would be a good idea to reinforce or explain stuff, or just have a friend or teacher spend time like once a week explaining the stuff to you that the book didnt shed enough light on in the material you covered that week. id recommend it--i took the exam 2 weeks ago and fully expect to receive a 5. good luck</p>
<p>@mbourgtennis: what did you use to self-study?</p>
<p>mbourgtennis-- that's exactly what I did, and I, too, felt pretty confident that I got a 5 on the BC test. I didn't take any calculus class while self-studying (well, if you count the Calc A class second semester... but then I finished learning everything by then already).</p>
<p>I started studying around Octoboer-ish, and I used Stewart's Calculus book. Basically I just read the book (single-variable part) from beginning to end, and then re-read stuff that I don't really understand. I also used Anton's Calculus as well, in conjunction with Stewart's. These books complement each other very well, and also with the additional help of Barron's AP Calc book, I was able to do pretty well. In my opinion, the beginnings of each big section--differentiation w/ delta epsilon, integrals, series--are the most difficult, and the algebraic parts are easier. The most important point, I guess, would be to really understand the topics and do a LOT of practice problems. Even though I didn't consult a tutor at all during the time, I found that cross-referencing between books helped me a lot.</p>
<p>After you understand a real calculus book--Stewart's, Anton's, etc., but not Barron's or PR--the AP test will really become a breeze.</p>