Take BC Calc exam or AB exam?

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1

<p>I am asking this q for son. He's in BC Calc, but not doing that great in the BC part. He says that he can take the AB exam in May or the BC exam. We know that the BC exam has a separate score for the AB material, but what we're wondering is whether it would be better for him to just take the AB exam (more q's and more forgiveness of mistakes?). </p>

<p>This wouldn't matter for college admissions, as he is a senior. He would like to get credit for one semester of college calculus, though. </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>"(more q’s and more forgiveness of mistakes?). "
Its based on a curve, so that isnt true.
He has 2 months to review so let him see how he does.</p>

3

<p>I know the test isn’t coming up immediately, but he told me he has to make his decision on which exam he is going to take by (I think it is?) March 26. I think he needs to talk to his calc teacher about it! I was just wondering if there were any students on here who made the decision to take the AB exam or who wished they had done so.</p>

4

<p>I think it’s worth taking the BC exam…the separate subscore for AB can count for credit anyway, and since it doesn’t matter what his score is on the BC part, he might as well take the test for the class he’s in. Sure there are more AB questions on the full AB exam, but as gmailblows said above, the scoring is based on a curve, so I’m skeptical about how much of an advantage it is to take the AB exam instead of the BC. Also, the BC stuff–that I’ve done so far–isn’t all that terrible; if he’s good enough at math to be in the class, I’m sure he can make some progress on it in the next two months. Anyway, I’ll be taking the BC exam with him!</p>

5

<p>I concur with Penser.</p>

6

<p>^ ditto.
there is always the possibility of getting more credit with the BC part, and he still has the AB subscore for credit even if he does horribly on BC.
He has nothing to lose by taking it, so I say go for it.
Also, like penser said, the BC stuff isn’t THAT bad, so it may just take a little extra time (like…2 months maybe?:)) for it to click</p>

7

<p>Thanks so much for the input, everyone. I have passed the information on to my son.</p>

8

<p>Be careful with relying on the subscore though, because some colleges I think will only accept credit for the AB exam but not a subscore. So I would check with all the colleges your son is looking at first.</p>