<p>Right now I'm a Junior in AP Calculus AB, and I was wondering if I should take AP Calculus BC next year.</p>
<p>My school has it as a prerequisite to take AP Calculus AB before BC, and that's why I couldn't take BC this year. My math teacher for AB is absolutely amazing if not the best math teacher I've ever had. He is the one who set the prerequisite, and teaches BC as well.</p>
<p>Would it look good if I took both, or is it not recommended? In my school I heard that my teacher basically starts from where AB left off, and just goes off from there, covering a lot more material than what is actually given on the BC test. I plan on going more into math when I get into college.</p>
<p>I would suggest you look at the colleges you are planning on attending and see what their policies are on advanced placement credit. Some will not offer credit for Calc AB. For them BC would be a good choice. </p>
<p>That’s very interesting. I’m taking AP calc BC now, our school doesn’t require AB before taking BC. Our BC course teaches almost the same things at a faster speed.
Some colleges offer more credit for AP Calc BC.</p>
<p>I do not think advanced credit will matter as much for me, as I want to get into the math/science/engineering fields in college. So either way I’m going to have to take just as many math classes in college. Which is good, in my opinion, I enjoy math.</p>
<p>I’m just wondering if colleges would look down at me for taking both AB and BC.</p>
<p>If you are going into math, science, or engineering, taking BC should be especially helpful, since you could potentially get a full year of placement in math courses (instead of a semester as you would with AB). This can allow taking physics and other courses earlier in college, which can give you more schedule flexibility in later semesters (some majors have long prerequisite sequences, so being able to start them earlier can help). However, it would be a good idea to review the college’s freshman calculus final exams before deciding whether to go directly to a more advanced math course as a freshman.</p>
<p>In addition, it may look strange to an admissions person if a student interested in math, science, or engineering did not take the most advanced math course available to him/her in high school. Taking both AB and BC in sequence when that is required by your high school (which seems to be fairly common these days) does not reflect poorly on you – it may reflect poorly on your high school, but the admissions person should realize that you have to work with what is available to you in your high school.</p>
<p>You are going to have to take the equivalent of BC Calc eventually, so why not next year? If you did not take BC Calc, what would you take instead?</p>
<p>If not Calc BC, I’d probably take Honors Discrete Math. Right now I’m self-studying for the AP Stats test in may, so I do not think there’d be much of a point in taking the class if I already know it. And, … That’s the only other math class really.</p>