I am a current junior in high school, and am taking 5 AP Classes (AP Bio, AP English Language, AP Computer Science, AP Mandarin, and of course AP BC Calc). First quarter for BC Calc was a bit rough, got an 87 (B+) at the end of first quarter. I understand that that is not a bad grade for BC Calc by any means, but I would rather have the A instead of a B…For some reason I struggle a lot with the tests despite understanding the things taught in class.
I recently did pretty badly on a test and I am worried that if I finish the year with a B, it will look bad on colleges that I want to apply to. I want to apply to good STEM, computer science, or engineering schools such as Carnegie Mellon and I am wondering if that B in BC Calculus will hurt my chances. I have talked with my teacher about switching to AB Calc, and he did not recommend it…Should I switch and have an easier time in AB Calc, or should I just keep on working at getting a better grade in BC Calc? Will it matter too much when colleges are looking at it?
This is a variant of “A in an easy course versus B in a hard course?” question. The answer is “study better so that you can earn an A in a hard course”.
Seriously, you are two grade levels ahead in math, since you are taking calculus in 11th grade. So you should be a top student in math. Be aware that math courses in college will cover material at the same speed that high school BC covers material (high school AB covers material at a slower pace).
@ucbalumnus Thanks for the reply, but say that I get a B+ by the end of the year max. Will the B look bad if I’m applying to top STEM colleges? People that apply to those colleges and get accepted probably get at least an A in the course and take a bunch of advanced math courses…
A B grade will not look as good as an A grade. Nor will dropping down to the less rigorous course, even if you get an A grade in it. An A grade in the most advanced and rigorous course available to you is what you should strive for if you are applying to super-selective colleges.
I agree. If you’re planning to major in CS, engineering, etc., at places like Carnegie Mellon, you definitely shouldn’t level down to AB Calc—even if you get an A, it will look worse than getting a B+ in BC. If you were planning to major in the humanities or social sciences (or if your high school simply didn’t offer BC), that might be an acceptable choice, but not as a prospective STEM major. Your college counselor will be rating the rigor of your course choices, and by leveling down, you won’t have taken the most rigorous courses available—and in a field you need for the majors you’re considering! You’ll basically be telling the admissions committees that you may not be up to handling the work at their schools. If you can’t pull up the grade on your own, try to find a good tutor or read other calc books. Whatever you do, don’t drop BC—you’ll seriously jeopardize your chances of getting into anyplace like Carnegie Mellon.
You phrase this as if its the capricious hand of fate at play. Here’s the deal. You are not learning the material. Like many kids, you are probably confusing recognition with recall. When the teacher goes over something in class, in a carefully worked out order, it all makes sense. You indeed understand it. However on a test you are expected to be able to apply what you have learned. This involves several steps including recognizing the appropriate tool(s) to use and then using them correctly, both tied up in recall.
Life is handing you a golden opportunity here. While it still doesn’t count too much it is telling you that you do not have the study habits you need, at a time when they can be improved. But instead of asking “how can I learn the material better” you chalk it up to “for some reason” and ask how to game things so that highly selective colleges, in which there will be no escape from failing to learn the material if you get in, might not learn of your deficiency.
Doing badly on a test does not mean you do not understand the material. There are some teachers in college that give tests where the average is 35 out of 100. Strive to learn the material. Math is not a foot race. If you will learn more in the AB class take AB. Too many kids take math classes that are too hard and burn out and drop out. It is better to learn at a pace you feel comfortable with and not to try and impress somebody or some institution. There are also some teachers that are just awful. No matter how hard you try to learn the material with an awful teacher you will not. Don’t waste your time in a situation like that. Just make careful choices that fit your learning style.
Sorry to disagree with Naval but there is no proof that if you take AB as a junior it will hurt your chances. There are too many variables at play here. I would note that taking math classes that kids are miserable in usually has very bad results including kids not taking more math classes. There have also been lots of studies to indicate that these bad results can be more pronounced if you are female Terrence Tao perhaps the top mathematician in the world has in some of his blogs written about math not being a foot race.
Dropping from BC to AB because you got a B+ the first quarter will look BAD. It means you can’t/won’t/don’t stick with challenges. I would say competitive colleges would not look kindly upon that attitude.
Look, you’re not far from an A. It sounds like you are not doing enough problems and/or fully understanding the concepts. If the former, get a calculus workbook for more problems (yes, you are giving yourself more math homework). If the latter, seek out the teacher and ask for help, get a tutor or start up study group.
If you were getting a C, maybe I would advise moving to AB but an 87? Give me a break. You can raise it to a 94. It won’t be easy and it may not be pleasant and you will have to work hard but when you do make the A, you’ll feel fantastic.
In the abstract (no pun intended!) that is good advice, but the source of the OP’s problems can be found by closely reading the 1st post. The OP says
Note what this does not say. The OP doesn’t tell us “I do homework problems with ease.” Nobody has ever learned calculus by sitting in class and “understanding” it. Until you can solve problems that apply what you’re learning, you don’t know the material. And that means practicing until you got it, often with a workbook as @SlackerMomMD says.
Going out on a limb, I’d wager the OP gets the homework done by flipping back to a similar worked problem in the text, makes a few needed changes, and voila. Learning math may not be a race, but until the OP improves study skills he/she won’t be ready for calculus in 3 months or 3 years.
There is really not enough info to tell what is going . Some teachers give exams which are too long and too hard and the average is 35. This does not mean the person does not know the material. Also suppose the teacher only gives A’s to ten per cent of the students. I guess the OP needs to give us more info
They won’t know you switched classes probably. Depends on how your school does transcripts. Does your school offer a class for you to take after BC? My kids took BC as juniors but our school offers multivar and linear algebra in our school as a dual enrollment senior year for kids in this situation. If BC is not clicking and is stressful then take AB then BC especially if there is nothing challenging to take after BC. It’s showing good promise to be taking AB as a junior.
Ask your GC whther, if you switch to Ab now, it’ll appear on your transcript that you switched. Often it doesn’t.
I agree that if you can take AB this year, BC next year, there’s no problem.
Just some clarifications:
I generally have not too may problems with the homework, I can usually finish it with some questions, but who doesn’t have a question with some homework problem? Overall, I feel like I am understanding the material for the first part. When I study for a test, I usually do the homework problems over and try to do some similar problems in the book that I haven’t done before to get a better feel for them. Should I get another separate book with additional problems?
I think my biggest issue on the tests is timing. I am a generally slow test taker, and can make silly mistakes. I always take the full period to do them, and even then I don’t really have time to check my answers thoroughly. Sometimes I can’t get to specific questions because I don’t have enough time to think them through. It’s really weird because I’ve never had this problem before with taking test in math but then again this is AP BC Calc we’re talking about (I came from this class called Adv. Precalculus H).
Also if I switch to AB, my transcript won’t show that I have transferred, my grade will just be recalculated.
I’m not really sure on what other people in the class get test-wise, the teacher doesn’t give us any statistics on that.
I am considering possibly getting some kind of tutoring or extra help though. I might start with a friend in the class or go to a tutoring place.
There is no bad option. Just curious, what will you take next year. Some school do not offer a version of multivariable, or are you going for AP stats?
In my case, my high school does not offer anything above AB. I took Calc 1 and 2 at a local community college (p.s. a lot harder than the AP test, as shown by students who did both). I am currently taking multivariable in high school , and it is also a struggle. There are not a lot of homework problems, but our teacher is one who will not accept work if it has too many eraser/smudge marks. She is also like that on our tests, where if your algebra is slightly unclear even if correct, you get marked down. I am happy for my 90 in her class, but that is a 3.5 on their grading scale.
Calc 1 is a lot harder than pre-calculus, and Calc 2 has harder problems but less encompassing concepts.
It is fine to struggle with Calc BC, but a B+ is commendable. An A is better, but AB is also fine. It is easier, less stressful, and great to take before BC.
I would recommend working through the hardest portion of the textbook–is it Stewart?-- and then reviewing the concepts. There are great videos for many of these concepts, and they help clear up any misconceptions. If you know the concept, and can finish the hardest questions (quickly) then it will be fine.
I did well in Calc 1, but I was not fast. I started to practice integrations for a little while for at least a week before every Calc 2 test. I got really fast at them, and then I was able to concentrate more on the concepts rather than algebraic and computational errors.
@AverageJoe22 I will most likely be taking AP Stats next year, unfortunately my school does not offer multivariable calculus courses (which is rather unusual compared to the other schools in my area).
And yeah, my book is Stewart. Not sure what you exactly mean by hardest portion of the textbook, do you mind elaborating. Also, care to recommend some videos that you think might help with understanding concepts? I just started Integration actually.
BTW: Hardest portion of the book. Our professor always gave us only red questions (the difficult ones), and that is what we practiced on.
They really remove all shortcuts and are difficult. Do a couple easy ones, reread the lesson, watch a video or two, and then attempt the difficult questions.
Plan to spend 1-2 hours a night on Calc, it is needed for that class.
Also for integration, try practicing on simple functions such as y=x. If you think of it as just finding length times width, except the length and width and functions, then it becomes intuitive. The learning curve is exponential in Calc. Good luck. Tell me if you need more resources.
@AverageJoe22 Thank you so much! Yeah I agree on Khan Academy, for some reason I get REALLY bored when watching their videos and I feel like they go too slow for some reason. Anyway, I will take a look at these.