The college you end attending: Is this actually determined in middle school?

[Mom2aphysicsgeek]

@ucbalumnus

What would non-AP calculus be like?

Not all courses billed as just cal mean they are inferior to the AP equivalent. AoPS cal says right up front it is not an AP prep, but the content is actually more complex than your typical AP BC class.

A course in single-variable calculus. This course covers limits, continuity, derivatives and their applications, definite and indefinite integrals, infinite sequences and series, plane curves, polar coordinates, and basic differential equations. At the conclusion of the course, students should have sufficient preparation to take the AP Calculus BC exam; however, “AP exam preparation” is not the main focus of the course.

Part of AP prep is prepping for the exam structure and FRQ format. My ds did take the AP exam, but he had to spend time on his calculator skills bc AoPS focuses on proofs, not calculator type problems.

So, students can have mastery exceeding what is taught in a typical AP class and still not be prepared to take the AP test without spending time mastering format. The courses content needs to teach to the AP test to be billed AP.