I’ve heard plenty of times that calculus bc is just a review of ab with a few extra weeks of material. I plan on taking ap physics c my senior year and i want to get a good solid foundation of calculus my junior year before i do physics c. Would ap calculus ab suffice physics c or should i skip to bc instead? If i were to take ab id just take physics c and calc bc concurrently.
Wrong!
Calc AB is Calc 1 (a single semester of integral calculus at the college level) stretched out so it take a whole year to complete.
Calc BC covers both Calc 1 and Calc 2. (Integral and differential calculus respectively.) BC covers substantially MORE material than AB does in the same amount of time.
Which PhysC sections will you be taking? If just PhysC mechanics–then Calc AB ahead of time will be enough. If you’ll be taking Phys C E&M, then you’ll need to know how to differentiate (which is covered in Calc 2 or the second semester of BC).