I’m currently in my freshman year of high school, and I’ve been thinking about my plans for next year. I’m currently taking Honors Chinese 3, AP Human Geography, AP Biology, Honors English, Adv/ Alg Trig, and Band as my classes. The problem is I wanted to take AP Calculus AB this year, but my counselor strongly recommended against it as my 8th grade class was Geometry. However, my 8th grade teacher was a really good teacher, and taught us many things way ahead of Geometry, including almost all of my current math class and some AP Cal AB topics. Because of this, I’ve been extremely bored in my current math class and have been self studying AP Cal AB.
Do you think it would be too challenging to take AP Chinese, AP World History, AP Chem, and then skip AP Cal AB and take AP Cal BC next year? Most people at our highschool take AB and then BC.
I would advise against skipping AP Calc AB. If a tight schedule is your concern, I would suggest taking Calc over the summer at your local CC. Also, if you do skip the class, are you still planning to take the AP exam in May? Some colleges might not give you credit for BC unless you take the exam from AB. These are all things I’ve heard from my older friends who attend college now. Geometry and Algebra are different from an AP Calculus class. Also, you probably need AB to do well in BC. Both AB and BC classes are at a college level - meaning they’re rigorous and intense depending on your familarity of past math concepts, how well the teachers carry out the subject, and how much time you’re willing to study for the class. Good job with your schedule this year. Do you know what colleges you’re interested in applying to in the future? Some colleges like Cal States and UC’s don’t take your freshman year grades into consideration for your GPA, so I would make sure that you’re planning this out wisely. Sophomore and junior year are the most important years of HS. You need to make sure you can do well in your classes.
What’s your strongest subject in school? Do you like science and history? I would personally focus more on the STEM classes, so if you think you can handle AP Chem, go for it. You seem like an academically bright student. Keep in mind that AP Chem is considered one of the toughest classes in any high school. I took AP World History - it just involves a lot of reading and memorizing names and places, so it might be a bit time consuming if you’re not a fan of reading. This is coming from a senior in high school. If I had to change one thing from my past, I’d drop AP World and take Honors instead. Focus more on your math and science classes. I’m not too sure about AP Chinese, but most of my friends who were pretty fluent in the language took it without major difficulty. Remember that it looks better to have good grades in non AP classes than to take a bunch and get straight C’s. Good luck!
@selfconfidentgal colleges give you credit for BC without AB. BC actually has a “AB subscore” that shows how you did on the AB topics, so it includes AB.
@snowfairy137 Thanks for the clarification. ^ In that case, you can skip AB. I believe you can do it since your current schedule already seems very challenging.
Feel free to prove me wrong, but I am aware of no college that does this. As one cannot take both the AB and BC exams in the same year, I cannot imagine why a college would even suggest this.
There’s a reason. What’s the rush? What options do you have for math after BC?
Regardless, the BC exam contains about 60% of the topics from AB, so you really need to have them down pat to do well on the exam.
Thank you all for replying and for your advice!
@skieurope , I plan on taking AP Statistics and then multivariate for my junior and senior years. Part of the reason I do this is to show dedication to colleges, and to challenge myself.
@snowfairy137 and @skieurope I also saw the AP College board website stating that you are not allowed to take both the AB and BC calculus AP exams in one year.
@selfconfidentgal I did not know that some colleges like Stanford ignore the freshman year transcript!
Again, thank you all for replying! I think I’ll talk to my counselor about BC next year, as our school will be forecasting soon!
Challenging yourself is fine, but don’t do it to simply to show something to colleges; they’re not going to care.
@skieurope My friends seem to be saying the same thing… A junior advised me saying that I will have time to take multivariate and AP Stat both in my senior anyways, so in your opinion would colleges still value me pushing for BC instead of AB next year?
Also, skipping AB would mean a loss of another AP, which will affect my class rank. I’m really in conflict on whether this is worth it or not.
IMO, not a reason to choose classes. The effect of one AP class on a 4-year GPA (and rank) is akin to a pimple on an elephant’s butt; it’s not going to skew it that much.
Colleges will not care when you take BC, or if you skip AB to do so. There is no gaming the admissions system, so just do what is right for you instead of worrying about what it will all mean.
After some thought, I have decided I will most likely be still going with AB. Looking at my friend’s AB work, it still seems quite challenging. I’m now thinking on whether next year I should AP Chemistry or AP Physics 1. I do not have a specific idea what I’m going to major in yet, but I think it will be something technology or engineering related, so I think AP Physics would probably be the better choice for me, but I’m not sure.
It’s the most reasonable solution - AB, BC, multivariate is a very rigorous load.
Apply physics 1 is a good choice if you’ve never had physics.
Have you taken honors chemistry already?
Don’t forget top colleges expect 4 units of English, 4 units of history/social science, and a foreign language up to level 4 or AP - on top of math and science.
What math class are you taking this year? Algebra 2? Precalc?