<p>A sophomore taking AP Calculus BC? Just wondering...</p>
<p>Are you passive-aggressively bragging? Just wondering…</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s much of a mathematical-maturity difference between sophomores and juniors, so if you have the prerequisites you may as well take it.</p>
<p>No, I’m honestly not trying to brag. I just am not sure if I should go through with it, so I want to see some other perspectives.</p>
<p>How did you get to a point where you can take Calc BC as a sophomore, though?</p>
<p>Stuff I wouldn’t recommend:
- Taking it without taking pre-calculus.
- Cramming to test out of things so you can take it sophomore year.
- Taking it sophomore year if you will have no other math options for the rest of your HS career. Have you considered what you’ll take during junior and senior year? Dual enrollment maybe?</p>
<p>It’s definitely doable for those advanced in math. My friend took AB in 7th grade and BC in 8th, and got 5 on both.</p>
<p>Halycyonheather: The way I’m getting to do it is exactly why I’m not sure if I should do it. I did Algebra 1 in 8th grade for high school credit. This year I doubled up in Geometry and Algebra 2. Online, from now until the summer, I’m taking Pre-Calculus online. The Pre-Calculus thing is what I’m worried about. I hope that because I’m doing it in a shorter period of time and it’s more of a self-study thing that it won’t affect my performance in AP Calculus. Oh, and about your last point, I’m planning on doing dual enrollment. </p>
<p>OrchidBloom- Wow, that’s amazing! How did they pull that off?</p>
<p>^
What you could do is look up some calculus lecture videos online and watch one of the beginning ones about limits or something and see how hard it is for you to understand.
Trig is probably the most important thing to know initially. I haven’t seen most of the other pre-calc stuff (unless they teach logarithms/exponential functions in pre-calc instead of Algebra II where you live), but most of it shows up at some point.</p>
<p>No, they teach that in Algebra 2 here but review it in Pre-Calc. Your suggestion about watching some beginning Calc videos to see if I will understand it is great! I will definitely do that! Thank you so much!</p>
<p>A sophomore at my school takes differential equations at a local CC. What do you think of him :D.
I think people like you and him are both lucky and good at math. I didn’t have the chance to choose my classes in middle school as I came to the US as a high school freshman and where I come from, the schedule is the same for everyone in the same grade level. Math is still very easy and the only class I always get A+ at. As a senior next year, I will be taking the highest math class the school offers, AP Calc AB. I can take BC, but my school doesn’t offer it due to low demand. ;(</p>
<p>I’m also taking AP Calculus BC next year. I’m not too worried about it because I was planning to self study it (for the AP exam) myself this year, so I know a lot of the material already. I would suggest that you look through some of the material if you have some time so you can get ahead.</p>
<p>Lolifofo- That is pretty amazing!! Is he going to graduate early or something? And I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t get any options with your schedules. That’s one of my favorite things about high school! But doing Calculus your senior year is still being ahead compared to a lot of people! Only the really smart kids at my school normally take it their senior year, and we have over 1200 students! And even though they don’t offer BC at your school, at least it won’t be very fast-paced so you’ll learn the concepts better! My sister is doing AB right now and is planning to take calc 1 again over the summer before going to college to make sure she really knows the material.</p>
<p>Pidude- That’s a good idea. Once I finish pre-calc, before the next year starts I’m planning to start learning some of the concepts so calc won’t be so hard when I start it. I just hope that pre-calc online will prepare me enough for it…</p>
<p>At my high school, although its not common, I know of a few 8th graders in BC, and roughly half (or more) of the BC Calc class is underclassman (and mostly freshman at that). Still, I’d say you need a solid base in pre calc and algebra. honestly the calc part of calc isn’t that bad! It’s the algebra that seems to catch people 
good luck!</p>
<p>^^ Wow, you would not believe how much you just reassured me! I’m great at Algebra, so if that’s the case I shouldn’t have too much of a problem. I wonder why that is though, how people mess up more on the Algebra than on the calc?</p>
<p>I have no idea who that guy is. My senior friend who takes the same class told me about him. You are right. The only reason I can take AP Calculus AB next year is because I took double math last year :D. Still, all is good.</p>
<p>^^ I’m doubling up the year in Geometry and Algebra 2, which isn’t extremely uncommon at my school, because our Geometry class is practically an English class.</p>
<p>That’s exactly what I did my sophomore year. By the way, Pre-calculus is basically Algebra 2 review + some Trigonometry. It’s extremely easy. You should definitely take it online, or even skip it!</p>
<p>Ok, that’s what I heard from everyone else! And I was going to flex out of it, which at our school you basically just take the semester exams for it and then you get credit for it but basically you skip it, but it’s really hard to get it approved and I wanted to make sure I would learn the trig well enough.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks!! :)</p>