<p>I have some qualms about taking AP Calc BC next year, as I've heard many horror stories about the difficulty of the class, coupled with the fact that our school's BC teacher has a reputation of being a very bad teacher. So I'm looking to do some self-studying in the summer and came upon some online video learning websites (for reference, the site I'm looking at now is Thinkwell, which costs $125 per AP class). The question is, would I be better off taking Calc AB over the summer online, or taking Calc BC over the summer online? Which would give me better preparation for the Calc BC class as well as the actual exam?</p>
<p>Cheaper and possibly just as good might be the calculus videos of Khan Academy. There are 60 or more videos for topics up through and including questions on Calc BC exams. The link is [url=<a href=“http://www.khanacademy.org/math/calculus]here.[/url”>Differential Calculus | Khan Academy]here.[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Khan Academy will definitely give you a great start. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, you may have to end up memorizing some common formulas. <a href=“http://prairiestate.edu/skifowit/sheets/c02.pdf[/url]”>http://prairiestate.edu/skifowit/sheets/c02.pdf</a></p>
<p>You will end up needing all of those formulas eventually. </p>
<p>I’d just go with khan academy, and each time he hits one of the formulas you see on there, start trying to commit it to memory. (don’t do it too forced and in a rote manner, if you derive it first you will be much better at remembering it)</p>
<p>And lastly, figure out the notational stuff at the very beginning. (once you know what a derivative is, that is). It will save much headache. If it confuses you, I’m sure you could ask someone.</p>
<p>I would say that you do not need to prep for this during the summer. Enjoy it. I took Calculus BC and my school covers it either AB one year and BC the next or all of it in 3 semesters. I took the 3 semester route where the last semester is 90% reviewing period apart from sequences and series. When you’re doing your homework for this class, read the lesson in the textbook before you do the homework. It goes a long way. If you really want to self study, I would suggest to check out your school’s calculus textbook and use it during the summer</p>
<p>I think you should relax during the summer. However, if you’ve forgotten some of the important precalc topics (mostly trig + parametric/polar + logs/exponentials), then you should review those topics before school starts. </p>
<p>If your teacher is bad, I encourage you to get a review book + utilize some online tutorial sites (Khan Academy is good as the others have said, I also really like patrickJMT). I don’t think an online class is necessary, as PatrickJMT + a good review book (either Princeton Review or Petersons is great) is almost equivalent to an online class. As for the actual exam, a good review book + lots of old AP problems will prepare you very well.</p>
<p>MIT Open Course Ware has the full text of Gilbert Strang’s calculus book (1991 edition) online.</p>