<p>I was thinking, if I failed the AP Calc AB exam this year as a junior, should I retake the class or something and give it a second try with hopefully better results my senior year? Would top colleges look at that as something negative?</p>
<p>It's really, really hard to fail an AP test.</p>
<p>If you sit down, and spend some quality time with a prep book,
you can manage a 4.</p>
<p>Once you finish AB, don't bother.
BC is essentially AB, except for a few more topics of interest.</p>
<p>See if your school offers Linear Algebra or Multivariable Calc.</p>
<p>I'm having a really hard time with it right now. I've been studying for the past week and a half trying to get things better and it's ok...</p>
<p>We took a practice AP exam last week...and I got a 1. So I don't think my chances of passing are that great.</p>
<p>You don't have to report the scores if you don't want to.</p>
<p>I'm going to address the issue from a sanity perspective. How the colleges will look at this is something that a guidance counselor could address better than I can.</p>
<p>You don't say what your grade in the class is, but if the grade in the class is low, find out what your school's policy on grade replacement is. At some schools, if you retake a class, your new grade replaces the old grade. At some schools, they both count. At some schools, the better of the two grades counts. This could be an incentive to retake the class.</p>
<p>If the grade is fine, and you're really not feeling comfortable with calculus topics, you might consider taking AP Calculus BC next year if your school offers it. Because BC only has a limited number of new topics, it's somewhat like retaking it, but the college you're applying to might consider it to be a more challenging class. Further, if your grade is fine, and retaking the class forces you to replace the grade, this might protect losing a decent grade that you already have.</p>
<p>I would try to make the best of this year regardless. Go through the practice exam and find out what your mistakes were. Sometimes, making one very general mistake can cost you a lot of points, is easily fixable, and can help improve your chances dramatically.</p>
<p>I knew this one girl who had scored a 1 on the first practice exam that we conducted. After looking more carefully at the practice exam mistakes, this student discovered that she had almost never properly used the Chain Rule on the whole exam. Two practice exams later and she was getting a mid-range 3, and has a good shot at a 4 or a 5.</p>
<p>I consider this example rather extreme, but you might find that there are some low-modification, high-reward mistakes that you are making that you might be able to fix and improve your chances.</p>
<p>I have a current B- in the class right now. It's just that I want to get more comfortable with the topic of Calculus before going to college so maybe I have a shot at getting the credit and moving on. </p>
<p>But I've been reviewing and just having an overall hard time. My teacher this year didn't know what was going on herself and all she did was give us answers to the problems she assigned with hardly any explanations. I'm mostly reteaching myself some of these topics right now. I just don't know if there's enough time to cram all that knowledge and do okay on the exam by the time it comes...which is soon.</p>
<p>^I know how you feel, I had an EPIC FAIL AP Physics B teacher last year; I had to self-study 3 weeks before the AP, and I luckily passed--3 :/ </p>
<p>If you're going to go into any science, math, or engineering major take Calc BC again next year, else, still take BC, it'll help you undersrtand the fundamentals, and have a strong foundation...</p>
<p>does your AB teacher now, teach BC, if she does then, make sure you DON'T have her, or else your'e not solving anything...</p>
<p>TOP COLLEGES WILL look down upon your AP SCORE FAIL more than taking Calc BC, at most high schools A LOT of students take both AB and BC, so you'll be fine..</p>
<p>GOOD LUCK!!!!</p>
<p>Ah thanks for the response but the problem is that my school does not offer BC so I'm wondering what type of options I can have in case I fail. My original plan was to take AP Stats if I pass, but now I'm not so sure.</p>
<p>hmmm...that's quite a quagmire, a failing grade in the AP will definitely have an adverse effect on schools like the Ivy's, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, etc...</p>
<p>TRY YOUR F***ING best to atleast 3 the exam....
What did you get on the SAT MATH, SATII MATH1/2? Maybe they can makeup somewhat, but not entirely...</p>
<p>Well, sign up for AP Stats now, and go on from there, when you get your, hopefully good, AP Calc score in july decide...</p>
<p>If you have any concept clearing, or confusion on anything CALCULUS related I'll be more than happy to help you out....I'm an "A" student in Calculus BC, and I've been getting 85-90%'s on past-BC practice Tests, so I should be able to help out :)
/bragging</p>
<p>Well I was just referring to failing the exam, the grade itself is okay I suppose.</p>
<p>Ah yeah I will def try my best, and I haven't taken the SATs yet only the ACT which was yesterday.</p>
<p>And thanks for your offer! I'm probably going to go over some practice soon...and if I have issues, I will try to ask. Thank you!</p>