<p>I've heard Calc II is significantly harder than any other calc. Is that true?</p>
<p>It’s not so much that BC is harder than AB, but you’re completing approximately 25% more in the way of topics in BC than in AB, so the pacing of the course sometimes drives people crazy.</p>
<p>I was hoping AB would have already covered some of ‘B’ and would leave BC primarily with the ‘C’ so it’d be less work/material than AB (if that makes sense). Alas.</p>
<p>^That’s actually true, except that BC classes review AB since often the people in it don’t take it.</p>
<p>oh. in my school they have a choice: AB or BC, but people don’t really do one after the other. (99.999% of seniors in my school are in Alg 2 or Trig) So I guess you could say BC is actually more like…ABC?
lol. but this is the first year they’ve even had enough people to make a separate BC class.
before this year, everyone took AB and then if you wanted to do the BC stuff, you learned it on your own.</p>
<p>But it’s really not that much harder, it’s just dealing with things that most people don’t like…like SERIES. I HATE THEM. lol i’ve never found anyone who liked series/sequences. lol
the rest of BC was totally fine, other than that :)</p>
<p>I would recommend taking the BC, at least the AP test if you don’t want to take the class. Ths nice thing about AP Calc BC test is that CB gives you your AB subscore, which alot of colleges will look at if you didn’t do too well overall on the test. BC isn’t too bad, except the pacing can be hard at times. If you don’t want to take the BC class, I would reccommend to take the AB and look over the stuff in the BC stuff, and take the BC AP exam. That’s just my opinion. I would say go for it and take BC. Good luck with whatever you chose. :)</p>
<p>I <3 series =]</p>
<p>I think series are pretty easy…which is good since there is almost always a series free response question. :)</p>
<p>I hate Lagrange error with a passion.</p>
<p>^ last year there were like two problems with it on FR. I doubt there will be that much this year. As for the OP questions I would say BC is not much harder than AB. I mean your BC score is 2/3 AB material and you have an AB subscore. Also I believe you need around a 50% for a 4 on the BC exam. Which means you only need 75% correct on the AB material to get a 4 on the entire BC exam. If you think you can get a 5 on the AB exam, mostly likely you will be able to get atleast a 4 on the BC exam.</p>
<p>haha I’ve got series down now, but that doesn’t mean I like them lol :]</p>
<p>@an0maly…well, you’re an anomaly [lol] XD</p>
<p>There were two Series questions on the FR last year, and only one included the Lagrange error (which I skipped).</p>
<p>It’s good to get series down now. I started studying them 3 days before the test.</p>
<p>“I hate Lagrange error with a passion.”</p>
<p>This.</p>
<p>series is always in the FRQ, often in question #6…</p>
<p>I believe there was also a subsection where you had to use the Taylor series, perhaps as part of #2?</p>
<p>For the record, the FR questions are the same with AB and BC (which is why you can’t take both tests) but what they ask you to do with them is different.</p>
<p>BC is not only harder material wise, but it forces you to have a deeper understanding of the concepts. It’s “trickier”. </p>
<p>But that said, the curve is nicer to compensate and, clearly, many people get 5’s.</p>
<p>@ ThisCouldBeHeavn - Are you sure? I thought it was just 3 AB questions word for word, and then 3 BC questions.</p>
<p>Concepts on the BC test that test you on AB material is of comparable difficulty.</p>
<p>And An0maly is right about the question contents. There are three questions that appear word-for-word and number-for-number verbatim on AB and BC, while the other three questions are totally different.</p>
<p>how hard is BC’s MC? Is it like the AB except with some newer concepts such as improper integrals, trig subsitutions, polars etc?
i hope its gonna be a breeze ~</p>
<p>I am self studying BC (started to do most of the stuff a bit late but the only thing I have left is a few last topics with series and sequences). Glancing over the BC test, it doesn’t look that hard. Nothing looks tricky, and as long as you know the different rules for integration and differentiation (along with some of the short cuts), you are basically all set for the AB or the AB subscore. As for the BC part, it doesn’t seem like theres a whole lot that is very tough on there after the AB topics, and the only thing that is nearly a completely new topic is series. For most of the AP tests you only need to get 2/3rds right to receive a 5. So as long as you know your AB material (ie can get around at least 3/4 of that right) and you have a firm understanding on series + extra BC topics (ie you can get at least 3/5ths of those right), then you should be able to pull off a 5. At this point if you are aiming for a 5 on the BC exam, you should at least be into series if not finished with them, that way you can spend the next four weeks doing review book practice questions and practice exams. Also, if the FR had two series questions last year I also doubt that series will be heavily tested on the FR this year. BC MC is pretty much like the AB MC.</p>