<p>Hello all, I have a quick question regarding how colleges will view the rigor of a portion of my courseload. Browsing through the many "chance me" threads here on CC, I notice that a lot of top applicants take AP Calculus BC directly after pre-calc. At my school, it is status quo to take AB first-- in fact, before coming to CC, I had never heard of someone "skipping" AB, so to speak. I'm curious, will schools frown upon me for not having taken BC after pre-calc? For what it's worth, I'm a junior and am in 2 years accelerated math (assuming Algebra II is the standard for juniors), and I took pre-calc over the summer, so they hopefully wouldn't see it as a lack of interest in math... Anyway, what I'm getting at is, will schools have any way of knowing that I took AB because that's just how it's done at my school?</p>
<p>It depends on the school. In many cases, if you do honors precalc/trig, you qualify for BC.
Then you have the B****y schools like mine, and won’t let you skip just because they want the money (you spend an extra year in the math program).
Talk to your counselor if you want to skip AB; perhaps a summer or online course would suffice for the credits.
Also, there is nothing wrong with AB, and it won’t really matter to colleges which one you take. A good score in AB is much better than a bad one in BC, and I’ve know friends who have finished BC but they are less competitive than AB students. Calculus is often repeated in college anyways, especially if you are math/science/engineering major.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, I’m already in AB right now. I was in honors math classes beforehand, it’s just that skipping AB at my school doesn’t happen. I’m a junior anyway, so I’ll have completed BC by the end of my senior year. I’m just wondering if colleges will interpret my taking AB as a lack of work ethic.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, I’ll make this change to the last sentence: will colleges have any way of knowing that I took AB because that’s just how it’s done at my school?</p>
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<p>A student two years ahead of the standard math sequence should be able to handle BC (which approximates a year long college freshman calculus course; AB approximates just the first semester) in one year immediately after precalculus. However, if your school’s BC course starts where AB leaves off, you don’t really have a choice, other than to go to a community college for a real college freshman calculus course.</p>
<p>It is somewhat of a disservice for schools to require students two years ahead in math (the best students in math at the school) to slow-pace calculus by forcing them to take AB one year and BC the next year. Seems like the schools are double-dipping the count of AP courses and tests for their school profiles.</p>
<p>Back when I was in high school, less than 10% of the class was ahead in math by a year, and one student every few years was ahead in math by two years. All of these students went directly from precalculus (honors) to a one year BC course in senior year (junior year for the rare student who was two years ahead in math), which was the only calculus course offered at the time (they now offer both AB and BC, but the usual expectation is to take either immediately after precalculus).</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree with you, ucbalumnus. Someone two years ahead very likely has an interest, or at least general affinity, in math… I certainly see the sense of going from pre-calc to BC. Unfortunately, you are correct in saying that at my school, BC starts where AB ends, so protesting to a counselor would be futile.</p>