Should I take AB Calc and self study BC?

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
1

<p>So I'm gonna be a senior next year and I'm taking AP Calc AB (my school doesn't offer BC). One of my graduating friends this year took AB his junior year and self studied BC this year and recommended to me that I should take the AB class and then just self study C and take the BC exam. I was thinking I should do this because colleges generally give more credit for the BC exam than the AB exam. </p>

<p>What do you guys think about doing this? Have any of you done this before? Any tips for me if you have?</p>

<p>Btw, what are the best prep books for AB and BC?</p>

2

<p>I did that, and I would definitely recommend it if you're pretty decent at math. There's only a few more things that you have to know for the ap exam, and even then, you dont have to know all of it perfectly to get a 5 on the bc exam. and none of the things you have to learn is more conceptually difficult (except for maybe the series stuff)...it's just more things to know. </p>

<p>as long as you practice past free responses and mc if you can get a hold of it then you should be gold. </p>

<p>i used princeton review and found it EXCELLENT. the practice multiple choice were almost exactly like the real mc on the ap exam. </p>

<p>if i do have one important piece of advice for you, it's that you should go ahead and finish your class's ab curriculum way early to have as much time as possible to independently learn the bc stuff. you should aim to have your ab material done by winter break, if possible...and since you're in a well-established ab class (i'm assuming that since it's the highest level math at your school), your teacher should be able to help you finish the ab stuff early.</p>

<p>GOOD LUCK!</p>

3

<p>YES! Go for it! I actually think its a waste to NOT take BC if you took AB because you get more credit for BC and BC is not that much more harder than AB. If your going to self study BC while taking AB, you have to take heyyou's suggestion into consideration:</p>

<p>
[quote]

if i do have one important piece of advice for you, it's that you should go ahead and finish your class's ab curriculum way early to have as much time as possible to independently learn the bc stuff. you should aim to have your ab material done by winter break, if possible...and since you're in a well-established ab class (i'm assuming that since it's the highest level math at your school), your teacher should be able to help you finish the ab stuff early.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>If your staying at the same pace as your AB class, you risk leaving inadequate amount of time for studying BC topics.</p>

<p>My prepbook of choice would be Peterson's master the AP Calculus (heres the amazon link):
Amazon.com:</a> Master the AP Calculus AB & BC (Peterson's Ap Calculus Ab & Bc): Peterson's: Books
though AP Calculus is pretty easy to study for, so usually any prep book will do.</p>

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<p>Hey thanks for the advice guys! Anybody else?</p>

<p>Oh, and what is the CC consensus on the prep book for BC?</p>

5

<p>Yes, just prepare throughout the year for the few topics that are unique to the BC test, and by test time in May you should be able to do fine.</p>

6

<p>Do it pitch, I also recommend it :) </p>

<p>Use PR, they have excellent practice problem sets with very good explanations. I didn't use their practice tests though so I can't comment on those. </p>

<p>But I do have a TON of calc MC from previous years, if you need those send me a PM :)</p>

7

<p>what about jumping from precalc to calc bc? is this a wise decision or would it be too overwhelming?</p>

<p>my current math teacher says we should only do it if we're very comfortable with trig and precalc...the only difference between ab and bc being that bc goes a little faster and skips over a lot of the introductory stuff</p>

8

<p>Yeah, you should do it if you found AB to be easy. There are only a few new concepts in BC that are not covered in AB.</p>

9

<p>BC calc is just the same as AB, except it covers a little bit more, like integration by parts and taylor/maclaurin series. So it would be easy to self-study it.</p>

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<p>what if i didn't get the greatest grasp on trig/precalc? would jumping straight into BC be too much without taking AB first? i would definitely be willing to self-study so i can master the material</p>

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<p>what about jumping from precalc to calc bc? is this a wise decision or would it be too overwhelming?</p>

<p>That's what I'm doing. I'm in my school's version of Precalc right now. Next year I'll be taking the class for AB while self studying BC.</p>

<p>So what do you guys think about prep books for ab/bc? </p>

<p>So far we've got:</p>

<p>PR - 2
Petersen - 1</p>

12

<p>
[quote]
what if i didn't get the greatest grasp on trig/precalc? would jumping straight into BC be too much without taking AB first? i would definitely be willing to self-study so i can master the material

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I didn't have the greatest grasp on trig/precalc either... I still self studied for the BC test and came out fine :D
BC has only about 4 or 5 more topics more than AB, and perfect knowledge of trig usually wont do you much good once you get that far, so just study for BC.</p>

<p>The BC test won't test you heavily on how well you know trig material - there wont be incredibly hard trig identities you have to prove or things like that (but you WILL have to know how to do trig identities; make sure your knowledge of this is GOOD - does not have to be PERFECT but just good).</p>

<p>I would say if you have at least a B in trig, you'll get by in calc just fine. If you got a C, study up a little, and you should still be fine - again, getting a 5 on the BC test does not require you PERFECT knowledge of trig, just the basic knowledge.</p>

<p>The majority of the trig you need in calculus is:
knowing the graph of sin,cos,tan, and their inverses
doing stuff with trig identities (sinx+cosx = 1 comes up alot, but non of it is hard)
****if your taking the bc test, make sure you know how polar, parametric, and composite functions work also... usually this only takes about a day or 2 to get down.</p>

<p>every once in a while, youll be tested on stupid stuff like hyperboles and cone sections, but these are very minor and really nothing to worry about. </p>

<p>If theres ever a trig topic that is re-introduced in calculus, its very likely that your teacher / book will give you the trig identities and procedures needed, so there really shouldnt be a problem if you have the basics of trig down pat. Once you actually start calculus, the trig that is required is so minor that you might even think one does not need a pre-calculus course to do calculus!</p>

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<p>I'm thinking about doing the same thing. So if i start studying for AB at the beginning of the summer, i should be done by winter break, as heyyou said. But can you really learn BC in just 4 month? i mean, how hard exactly is the material? and if i start studying for in december, how fast do i need to go?
thanks for the info!</p>

14

<p>the BC material is pretty simple... After learning all the AB stuff, it should only take you about 2 months (maybe less if you study alot) to get the BC stuff down (theres not ALOT of BC stuff; just about 5 more chapters). I went at a pace of about 2 chapters a week.</p>

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<p>I never even learned trig at school (apart from triangle ratios) because of a messed up curriculum.</p>

<p>I did a pretty crappy job at self-studying it to place into Precalc freshamn year too.</p>

<p>Yet after this year of BC I got REALLY good at trig.</p>

<p>You use it so much, you will learn fast. Don't worry if you're not so good right now.</p>

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<p>the thing is i don't plan to <em>completely</em> self-study BC...i was asking if i should take the BC class and not take AB at all straight from trig while still self studying on my own so i can get a better grasp of BC...i actually plan to work with a calc prep book over the summer just so i can get a feel for the subject</p>

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<p>awesome, thanks alot ftc!! i'm going to try and self study bc! btw, how did you take both exams, since they are given out during the same day. did you take the make-up ab test?</p>

18

<p>
[quote]
the thing is i don't plan to <em>completely</em> self-study BC...i was asking if i should take the BC class and not take AB at all straight from trig while still self studying on my own so i can get a better grasp of BC...i actually plan to work with a calc prep book over the summer just so i can get a feel for the subject

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yes, you should still go straight to BC without AB. BC covers AB stuff + a little more; its not harder than AB, it just has (a little) more stuff than AB.</p>

<p>
[quote]
awesome, thanks alot ftc!! i'm going to try and self study bc! btw, how did you take both exams, since they are given out during the same day. did you take the make-up ab test?

[/quote]

i took AB in my junior year and BC in my senior year (self studied for both). You cant take both calculus tests on the same year.</p>

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<p>I'm gonna be a senior next year...what's the point of taking both the AB and BC exam if I'm going to be taking the BC class?</p>

20

<p>There is no point :D
I took AB in my junior year because I didn't feel like covering the extra material needed for BC. The summer after, I realized that it was a pretty dumb decision because the BC material isnt really hard. In my senior year, I went back and covered the BC material and took the BC test.</p>

<p>Since your taking the BC class, just take the BC test (your not allowed to take both the AB and BC tests on the same year, but you can take them in different years); I can't really think of a reason why a person taking a BC class would take the AB test.</p>