<p>My S had Pre Calculus Honors last year. Can he take AP Calculus BC without having AB first?</p>
<p>BC is the same as AB except with added stuff and is a little harder. AB is by no means a prerequisite.</p>
<p>/seconds.</p>
<p>At the school I go to, one would take one or the other, never both. It wasn't until I read some threads @ CC that I found out that people were taking both classes.</p>
<p>I took both AB and BC. In my BC class, I wasted a complete semester reviewing AB materials. If you r capable, then it is recommended that u go straight on to BC without taking AB.</p>
<p>My son took AP Calc BC without taking AP Calc AB. He did just fine -- got 5 on the exam.</p>
<p>well...you'll get a higher grade in each class if you take both AB and BC. AB goes at a slow pace so there's plenty of time to absorb material. BC is essentially a review of AB and a little more stuff added on.</p>
<p>Take BC, all of AB is included in the curriculum.</p>
<p>I'd do it, to take MVC in my senior year..</p>
<p>how about AB without precalc</p>
<p>I would not take AB without precalc, as much of the conceptual thinking is developed there.</p>
<p>As to the original poster, I would check to see how AP is structured at your S's school. At some schools, the BC course presupposes the taking of AB and extends those ideas further after completing the BC curriculum, doing only minimal "review" of AB. At those schools, I wouldn't recommend taking BC instead of AB.</p>
<p>But it sounds like more schools offer the "take AB or BC" type option, in which case, success in the Honors Precalculus class at a high level should well prepare him for BC.</p>
<p>BC is like 2/3 AB with a few things added on, like parametric/polar equations, integration by parts, and taylor series. Definitely find out if your school's BC class reviews AB material and base your decision off that. Taking AB and then BC the next yr if BC reviews AB material is a waste of time. But definitely do not take calc w/o precalc. Nothing like a solid precalculus background will prepare you for calculus.</p>
<p>I took AB without Precalc in my sophomore year and it turned out fine. The only new concept in precalc was a little bit of trig, but if you participated in any math competitions, it should be easy enough. Of course I wouldn't skip pre calc unless you could already test out of it.</p>
<p>I'm taking AP Calc BC right now and it is SO CONFUSING!!!! Diverging/Converging tests are a pain in the butt!</p>
<p>yeah everyone says Pre-calc is the biggest blow-off class. I dont want to take it and waste a whole year with it because i can be doing something better like internship (co-op) instead.</p>