<p>D took AB after taking honors math the first three years. She's also more of a humanities kid but seems to do well no matter the subject. She did well in the class and on the AP exam and actually loved her calculus class.</p>
<p>There really isn't that much of a difference between AB and BC. I went to a public school that only offered one AP Calc class (it only covered Calc AB) and I studied the BC topics on my own. It's not a lot and I'm not really sure how some high schools stretch that into a year-long course. IMHO, it's a good way to knock out an extra 3-4 credits.</p>
<p>If your kid doesn't like math, however, and he's getting a B+ in precalc, then I would recommend just taking AB. It's not a big deal and it won't make-or-break college admissions chances.</p>
<p>It is just about split in our school - about half in AB and half in BC. The colleges won't know what scheduling permits ... i.e. in theory BC might not have fit into your child's schedule anyway. </p>
<p>BC is very fast paced - in fact, in some schools, an AB AP exam clone is the BC midterm in January!</p>
<p>At our independent high school, only juniors who are getting solid A or A+ in analysis, which is the top-track junior year math, are encouraged to take BC. Many strong math students take AB though many also take BC. BC is conisdered very demandingl however, the course is graded rather generously and at year's end the AP BC scores tend to be higher than the AB scores for reasons that have as much to do with specific teachers as with the actual abilities of the studnets involved. If your son is not really interested in math and is a humanities person I think AB is sufficient (especially if he is in the
B+/A- range in his precalc class).</p>
<p>That said, at our school the very strongest math students take math courses that actually are the top track for the grade level above their own, which means they take BC junior year and an even more advanced math class senior year. One or two of the super advanced kids may take AB junior year and BC senior year but generally they sinply go into BC as juniors. The seniors who take BC are thus very good math students but not among the top 6 percent or so in the class in terms of math skills.</p>
<p>mattmom - in our high school it's similar. Top 3% are in multivariate or something independent study. Remainder of top 10% is in BC. AB is for top 25%. And so on.</p>
<p>Same here Alumother. Son in Def Eq, a handful in BC (5), 20+ in AB, and more in AP Stats.</p>
<p>Would also recommend the OP's son doing with the AB.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>papa-c</p>
<p>My d's school is setup exactly the same way...Honors PreCalc junior year, then AP Calc AB or BC senior year. </p>
<p>D is in BC, but struggling because she has 4 other AP courses, plus Honors Anatomy & Physiology. One option she had, but did not take, was the ability to switch from BC to AB by a certain date. Many students at our school did give BC a try and then made the switch after finding it too difficult/time consuming. She now wishes she had made the switch because she is more interested in public health policy and possibly med school or law school. AB would have been a perfectly acceptable choice, and she feels she would have been struggling to keep an A rather than struggling to keep a B.</p>
<p>You might ask if this is an option at your school.</p>
<p>sr622 i'm just letting you know that we have had a math genius take ab and bc the same year... the kid hated school, but got into ga tech w/ 2.1 gpa, 1580 old sat, and 5's on every ap test he took (all math and science)</p>
<p>we don't offer linear algebra at our school, even though my teacher made it a class last year during his planning period for 2 kids that were extremely gifted</p>
<p>Linear algebra is the only math course I took where the only numbers in the book were page numbers.</p>
<p>BC Calculus is very hard. Twice as hard, pace-wise, as AB. A 5 on the AB test will place you out of Calculus 1 at the college level, a one semester course. A 5 on the BC test will place you out of Calculus 1 and 2, two semesters' worth.</p>
<p>My son took Calc BC, but my daughters will probably take AB. I struggled with this a lot too, because I thought it made a big difference. I was interested to note though, that Stanford gives the same number of credits, and places kids in the same first-year math class (Math 51, linear algebra/differential equations), if you get a 5 on EITHER AB or BC. (Although a 4 on BC will also get you in to that level). That made me feel that the differences were probably not that great.</p>
<p>Just taking AP Calc will be sufficient. When senioritis sets in, both you & S will be very happy with that decision! </p>
<p>I know of an athlete, who while recruited and accepted at an Ivy school, cannot enroll in the business school because of no AP Calc in high school. Had he been in AB, it would not have shut that door.</p>
<p>My son was at a public high school. Only Calc AP offered was BC. He took it and did fine, though was work. The good thing was that when you take the AP exam it is scored for both AB and BC (if u sign up that way) He was able to pull a 5 on AB and a 4 on BC. He really was hesitant about taking the class, but glad he did as no more math requirement in college in his major.</p>
<p>My D. is a junior taking AB, which is the most advanced math class offered by her school. She's planning her schedule for next year and can take BC as an independent study or she can take AP Statistics. </p>
<p>I did not realize there was so much overlap between AB and BC. What would look better to a selective math/science college? The independent study or taking stat?</p>
<p>well, mombot, if your daughter can handle it, maybe she can do stats and independent study. i mean, there is so much overlap within AB and BC that the majority of the course would be review for her if she took independent study.</p>
<p>She won't have time to do both--has to be one or the other.</p>
<p>i think it depends on what schools she may want to go to. some may not give credit for ap stats and others may give the same credit for ab as bc.</p>
<p>It is very possible to take AB and BC in the same year....</p>
<p>I just figured the math "geniuses" are probably in like Diff Qs, Linear Algebra, Real Analysis, etc.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It is very possible to take AB and BC in the same year....
[/quote]
why would anyone take AB and BC in the same year, why wouldn't you just take BC...</p>
<p>Why don't people who add to threads bother to read sensible posts earlier in the thread first?</p>
<p>eulen, are you referring to my post b/c i have read the entire thread and i still don't understand why anyone would take both in the same year.</p>