<p>I'm from an international school in Asia and the math level here is killing me...
I'm not bad at math (800 on SAT II Math Level 2)
but math at school is just too hard for me...</p>
<p>Here's my high school MATH life:
Geometry with Proof B/B+
Honors Alg II/Trig A-/B
IBHL Math Yr 1/Honors Precalc C+/B- <-worst decision ever
IBHL Math Yr 2/AP Calc BC</p>
<p>I currently have a C+ in Calc BC and I'm wondering whether I should just drop down to Calc AB.
I'll most likely get at least an A if not A+ in AB because 2/3 of AB materials were covered in honors precalc.</p>
<p>So should I stay in BC and get a B/B- at best,
or drop to AB and get an A and prove to colleges that I'm actually not bad at math??</p>
<p>Any comments and suggestions will be appreciated. THANKS!!</p>
<p>Are you a junior or senior? Many students here take AB junior year and BC senior year. And what is the rest of your schedule like? If you're taking other AP classes, I think it would be OK to drop to AB. Both are considered rigorous classes - many students take 4 years of math that does not include calculus. Your SAT II score proves you're very good at math so you don't need to prove you're "not bad at math."</p>
<p>I dropped from BC to AB when I found the workload too rigorous. Got an A in AB, and did well in BC the next year, and got into some excellent programs including Berkeley EECS. Most colleges don't give a damn about when you do calc. as long as you finish at least ab by hs What my trouble with BC indicated to me though was that I was quite as strong at math as the top people who seemed to breeze through without trying, and was one of the factors that dissuaded me from picking berk.</p>
<p>I don't understand this... about the posts above mine - you all say that people take AB one year, and then BC the next year [or some people do anyway]. Isn't it true that BC simply covers AB and more?! What in the world would be the point of taking both of the classes? It would be like.. taking 3/4 of AP Euro one year, then the next year doing the whole class. What a waste of time!</p>
<p>Anyway,
to the OP, only drop down if it's too hard in the aspect that it's moving too quickly for you. As far as I know, BC covers the exact same material + more, because it moves faster. If the concepts are simply too hard, I dunno what to do, because they do the same things in AB, and that won't help you.</p>
<p>It's different for every school AB correlates to 1 semester of Calculus and B/C correlates to the 2nd. Some schools treat AB and BC as 2 separate classes, some treat B/C as the (high calculus) that overlaps A/B.</p>
We have AB one year, and then C/Multivariable Calc the next. We'll be done with the C material in, like, maybe less than a month, and then we'll spend the rest of the year on Multivariable (and probably screw off fairly often.) The teacher is amazing; most people get 4s and 5s on both tests.</p>
<p>What on earth are you doing in Calc B/C with your grades in precalc? Yes, I think you should move to Calc A/B so that you get a solid foundation in calculus.</p>
<p>My understanding was that (and I admit that this is based entirely off of the course names, although it agrees with what goes on in my school lol) there are like 3 subsections of calculus, section A, B, and C. AB covers the first two, BC the second, so first semester BC will be the same as 2nd AB, and BC will expect that you know A already, and so on and so forth.</p>
<p>That said, if your pre-calc class covered 2/3rds of AB, then you maybe would have had 1/6th of B (assuming you went in alphabetical order ;D ), so you shouldn't have any problem with the beginning of the B section -- shouldn't it all be review at this point anyway?</p>
<p>Plus, being bored and already knowing the material in a math class realllllly sucks, trust me. You'll have more fun in BC, haha.</p>
<p>^Lol, even the stuff at the very end of the year? I looked at my course syllabus, and the WAAAAAAAY last month deals with some stuff that I didn't learn in Pre-Calc, although maybe your school's precalc class prepped you better than mine did?</p>
<p>(ps, I was kind of addressing the OP more than I was you, haha ;p )</p>
<p>I DID manage to learn something new in this past unit of calculus though (the one I just took the test one ;) ), and that was the homogeneous function. Never picked that one up in pre-calc (or AB self study)...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Yeah our school only allows 6 classes each year, and most of those are required
[/quote]
Oh ditto to this, so I can't take the courses that I, Invoyable, surprisingly want to take (a shocker...there are actually classes in school that I like to take..).</p>
<p>For example, computer science / making...etc that focuses on computer applications, some game-making and a variety of interesting stuff. (just slack off, learn some stuff, use the computer and get an A).</p>
<p>I was trying to drop a class but my counselor won't let me (granted, I could probably technically drop out, but it's fairly difficult and my counselor pretty much won't let me). </p>
<p>"Can I drop precalculus?"
"No."
"How about chemistry or history?"
"No."
"...At least I can drop french II?"
"No."
...And PE is required. ...And same for English (grad req or some bs).</p>