Taking Calculus AB then BC?

<p>I'm not a particularly strong math student. To be honest, I'm quite clueless most of the time when it comes to math and I half-ass my work. I'm in Honors PreCalc right now with a B+ average, but that's mostly because of the teacher and how he gives points for "trying." I'm going to be a junior next year and I'm supposed to take either Calc AB or BC. Which one should I take?</p>

<p>calc BC is really only for super serious math students; if you have no desire to work in math, then there’s no reason to do calc BC- do AB so that you can focus your attention elsewhere. on the other hand, if you think calculus will be helpful to you or you plan to work in a math related field, it might be time to start trying in math and go into the more advanced class. if math is important to you, talk to your counselor or math teacher about whether they think you can handle the class. if math isn’t important, then why bother? just take AB.</p>

<p>I was in the same situation last year as well! I honestly don’t care about math. At all. I am taking AB this year and it is whipping my butt pretty well. If I could start over, heres what I would do. Get Calc for Dummies. I know, it’s shameful, but it’s worth it. Go through the “Everything you need to know before Calc” section and use the book throughout the year to help with what you are on. I find Calc hard because my algebra sucks, and find myself not being able to do problems because I didn’t know how to do the algebra. Calc is just the graphs from Pre-Calc and the math from algebra two smushed together into one mathematical name. AB next year and BC Senior Year. Just make sure you get the lower level stuff before you go on, because it truly is a “culminating class” for all the math you should of learned before. Good luck :)</p>

<p>From your description, I’d just take AB. Taking AP Calc AB junior year already is pretty impressive. However, if you really want, you could try taking Calc BC and dropping down if it’s too demanding. Ultimately, it’s your decision. You know your math ability much better than us. However, just take into account, that AP Calculus BC is MUCH harder than precalculus. AP Calculus AB should only be a tad bit tougher than precalculus.</p>

<p>I agree with Equilibrium. I know of someone who was in the same position as you and decided to take AB only because BC was too challenging.</p>