<p>I am going to be a junior next year and am currently taking Algebra II, but for my junior math course I signed up for Calc AB. I am a hard working individual and plan on self-teaching my self Pre-calc over the summer. I am pretty good at math, currently getting an A+ in Alg.II. however, I have read other posts which hint that Calc AB is really hard, I am not sure if I can handle it. Is what I am doing advisable? Has anyone done it before? If so, how are you handling Calc AB? With hard work, I plan to achieve around an A or A+ in calc...unrealistic?
Thanks!</p>
<p>ok that's what I did last year, algebra 2 during sophomore year, precalculus over the summer, calculus ab this year. I know I'm going to get atleast a 4, hopefully a 5 next week (based on previous years tests).</p>
<p>Its doable, but I have a phenomenal teacher which was a critical part to the year. definitely make sure you get in a lot of precalculus practice over the summer. And I think strong algebra skills are very important compared to trig, even though trig is used a lot too</p>
<p>johnba, if you could reply to this that would be great...Over the summer I plan to teach my self all of the pre-calc material on my own, there is a county college where i can take pre-calc but my GC and Math Head said its worthless, might as well throw ur $500 in the fire. Apparently they let kids take the summer course and take calc AB and they ended up doing horrible. So I had to get my parents to talk to the math head & the Principle to convince them to let me get Calc AB next year so I just need to know if this is possible. Is is possible to cover all of the precalc material over 2 months? This is self-prep so I prbly will get most my of questions answered here lol...</p>
<p>I don't really think skipping pre-calc is that bad, you just have to study the properties of the trig functions and the natural log to make up for it. If you are good at algebraic manipulation and have a good "math gut" you should get at least a 4.</p>
<p>No problem! As long as you don’t take BC, just do review over lots of trig and make sure you have precalc under your belt. AlgIIAB’s going to be a challenge, but it’s certainly achievable if you work.</p>
<p>You could consider an online pre-calc through Hopkins (CTY) or Stanford. It's pricey but if you finish before your time is up they will send you the next course. You could even whip through AB calc and take BC in school your senior year. I know it sounds aggressive, and it is aggressive, but possible.</p>
<p>Don't worry about it. Calculus doesn't really use that much pre-cal, and the stuff that is used is pretty easily self-taught. Every year several people at my school skip pre-cal and go straight into BC.</p>
<p>I actually skipped PCALC and went for Calc BC my junior year, but I prepped by going to Harvard SSP, which really didn't do much. I think Calc is much, much easier than PCALC. Most of what you learn in PCALC is really just a waste of time, and some things never show up on Calc.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for encouraging me & for ur insights, as a couple ppl have brought up, if i take AB junior year, i am sure i will be taking BC senior year. I hope it will be a smoothe transition?</p>
<p>thinkwell</a> | welcome! has a pre-calc program - cheaper than an EPGY or CTY course, but you'd have to be very motivated to get yourself to do the work. We haven't used the program, but we've been happy with other programs of theirs.</p>
<p>I may end up taking some online course to help me further...but as a side note, next year is pretty full for me. This year I am taking AP CompSci (AB) & AP History, and they are kind of challenging, but next year I have (AP's) Chem, Physics, Calc, History, Science Research. For other people who have been taking around 5 to 7 AP's how do you find the workload? Too tough? Managable to get an A average in all....Once again thanks for all of you answering!</p>
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I may end up taking some online course to help me further...but as a side note, next year is pretty full for me. This year I am taking AP CompSci (AB) & AP History, and they are kind of challenging, but next year I have (AP's) Chem, Physics, Calc, History, Science Research. For other people who have been taking around 5 to 7 AP's how do you find the workload? Too tough? Managable to get an A average in all....Once again thanks for all of you answering!
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<p>So mucb of it depends upon the specific teacher that it's difficult to answer that. I'm taking 6 APs this year and the workload is ok, but two of my teachers barely assign any work.</p>
<p>It depends on your Alg 2 class. MY kids took Alg 2 with trig. That meant that precalc primarily was analytic geometry, review and a start on the calc. It would not be that difficult skip that to go to calc. But if you are taking an ALg 2 that is just algebra, it could be a problem. You really need to know those trig functions well for calc.</p>
<p>In PreCalc just learn all the ways to graph functions. That's the major part I got out of it and know that sin squared x +cos squared x equals 1. Lol, also know a few trig indentities.</p>
<p>It's doable, but in my PC class, 5 of the 13 chapters we covered were not review from the Alg II book. See how much you cover and compare it to what you would have to learn in PC.</p>
<p>ab and go to bc! haha. if you do precalc you'll have everything you need to go into bc... i would even say it's better to just do precalc and then bc than to skip precalc and go into ab =/</p>
<p>harvard, what has your algebra 2 class covered, what's your grade in it, and how smart is your school?</p>
<p>In all honesty, the most important of those questions is the last one. If your calculus class is at all similar to the typical high school one, your teacher will end up having to re-explain precalc topics when necessary for calculus.</p>
<p>People are dumb, and act as though they've never done it, so if you just pay attention you should be fine. If my school is just extra dumb or if yours is smart, my advice may not be the best.</p>