<p>Lol im on track to take BC calc in 12th grade and I feel dumb here… lol</p>
<p>To imagine that i had trouble with fractions all the way back in 7th grade, while half the people here at CC were finishing with Pre Calc</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore taking Pre Calc and I have to say that some of the freshman in my school are in Pre Calc. LOL. I feel so behind. Then they’re going to take AP Calculus BC the following year…UG!</p>
<p>Well, CC isn’t the most accurate representation ever.</p>
<p>Except for the 2 or 3 child prodigies that sped through schooling here (one took calc in 8th grade, the kid just graduated last year and is at MIT…except he’s been taking classes there for years), we have 1 AP Calc BC class (which has <10 students), 1 “normal” Calc class of ~20 kids (and they take the AB exam at the end of the year), and everyone else is either in Pre-Calc, Trig/Stats, or Personal Finance. </p>
<p>Basically, you either end up on the normal Calc track or the Pre-Calc/Trig-Stats/Personal Finance track. I would’ve been on the former, but my fate was decided by the fact that my middle school conveniently neglected to teach me pre-algebra in 7th grade, so I ended up bombing Algebra I and re-taking it freshman year.</p>
<p>I think there’s nothing wrong with being a senior in pre-calc.</p>
<p>That’s true, but it can be annoying to be a junior in Algebra 2/Trig. I’m suppose to be taking the SAT Subject Test Math II in June but I will have not learned any of the pre-calc that is on the test. It makes me feel behind.</p>
<p>Meh, I skipped out on the subject tests, but otherwise i’d be feeling that pain.</p>
<p>For me, the frustrating part was constantly being stuck in a math class with kids a grade younger than me. Except for Algebra I, all of my classes have been predominantly 2014’ers, and there are like four sophomores in my pre-calc class. Luckily none of them ever get wise with me about being a year behind, but it’s a drag when my pre-calc teacher feels the need to do tons of SAT I practice questions (and in my algebra II class, it was the standardized tests, which us juniors were done with forever), even though a junior in pre-calc really doesn’t need it…</p>
<p>Sure, there are a handful of students that have taken Calculus as a freshman or sophomore at my school, but I do give credit to the seniors in Calculus AB.
—A lot of people don’t push through their math sequence far enough to reach Calculus in the end, or they opt out to take AP Statistics instead. That leaves 10-15% of the seniors in Calculus… Now roughly 1/5 of these seniors get A’s. These are the smart people of the bunch.</p>
<p>Take the what year you take “Insert Upper Level math course here” with a grain of salt. At my HS, we had 2 different levels of Calc. IB Math HL, IB Math SL. I took HL my senior year, because my parents made me retake Calc though I finished Sophomore year. It all honesty, it depends on what you’re ready to take and handle. As a math major, I’ve learned everyone has different levels of mathematical maturity, and their ability to handle taking upper level math courses. </p>
<p>In other words, DO YOU. You’re not going to be far behind or too far ahead.</p>
<p>For the past couple of years at my HS, Juniors mostly take AP AB/BC Calc or Precalc, occasionally a few seniors(like me!) in BC Calc. Though the smart kids usually do MVC. I do know one freshman who will be taking MV next year and will probably end up doing a year of Math at UMD, at least he is motivated and good at math, so props.</p>
<p>Well, to be fair, Kypdurron, I see what you’re saying, but, at the same time, if you’re going for competitive schools and are at the top of the curve (and your school offers rigorous coursework for students at this percentile), it doesn’t really matter how poorly the rest of the school is doing.</p>
<p>Just like the US despite its lagging primary/ secondary school system still has the best universities and attracts international students, we can look at what a high school offers for our own percentile (however high it is) and ignore the other 95% of the student body.</p>
<p>Our school has the IB program, so you have to be a junior to do any IB/AP classes.</p>
<p>@Draconic Sheep</p>
<p>Yes, but still roughly 25-40% of the Advanced Math course takers i.e. BC/MVC/LA still have to take either remedial or Precalculus courses in college because at the high school they only depend on calculators. They almost only solve equations by plugging numbers into the calcs.</p>
<p>And because of this, When these students go to college and have to take math with minimal use of Calcs, then it seems that a handfull of people actually understand the math they are taking</p>
<p>So how can you know if you’ve really learned calculus?</p>
<p>Wow, people are whining that they are “only” two years ahead and had to take calc III as junior? At my first high school, they didn’t even have calc and we never even heard of IB or BC or whatever. I still don’t know what HL is or MVC. </p>
<p>It’s not going to matter once you’re done with high school. You can comment on how you’re above the 95% not taking those classes, but the classes themselves aren’t the reason for this. Someone who is smart but took Trig I only cause that’s all that was offered will still be competitive in college math. Believe it or not, some have even fewer opportunities and get on fine in life.</p>
<p>^ HL in International Baccalaureate(IB) Stands for Higher Level. Our courses are broken down into Standard Level and HIgher Level. HL Math is typically seen as a hard exam, on par with the AP Calculus BC exam. </p>
<p>MVC stands for Multivariable Calculus. </p>
<p>Quite honestly, I know people who’ve taken all of these courses, retaking them at college to get a better theoretical field. You miss out on certain things in HS when taking some of these courses.</p>
<p>I wish I could take MVC in high school. For some odd reason, my county does not allow anyone who is not a senior take AP Calculus because, to put it in their words, “colleges want to see kids take a math course in their senior year.” I keep asking my science and math teachers why they do not offer an MVC course, but it seems like its because we do not have enough students who are proficient enough in math (Seriously, my AP Calc. course isn’t even on the BC portion and we have several students who already flunked out.)</p>
<p>The sequence in my school is like this:
Algebra I (Middle School) –> Geometry (1 semester) –> Algebra II (1 semester) –> Precalc (1 semester) –> AB/BC Calc (2 semesters) –> AP Statistics</p>
<p>Usually, the “good” students take geo freshman year, algebra II and precalc sophomore year, AP calc junior year, and AP Stats senior year. If you took Honors Precalc, you go to BC, but if you merely took level 1 precalc, you go to AB. I’ve even heard of people who took two semesters of math in freshman year, and actually took Algebra II and Precalc concurrently second semester. Those students took BC sophomore year.</p>
<p>I took BC as a freshman, and when I go to competitions like HMMT it seems like everyone has.</p>
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<p>My BC teacher BANNED calculators for most of the year. We only got to use calculators maybe 2 months before the AP exam, perhaps because of that reason.</p>
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<p>AP BC Calculus covers more calculus than IB HL math (not as much as further math though). However, the IB exams are undoubtedly harder than the AP ones, as I’ve heard that it actually takes some effort to get a 7.</p>
<p>The percent worldwide for IB Test Takers that get 7s is under 10%.
Also, the only thing we didn’t do in HL was Parametric, Polar, and Vector functions. Literally everything else I did in BC I did in HL.</p>
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<p>You’re forgetting Taylor series as well (though that may have been taught in your IB Math HL class). I wasn’t aware that the percentage of students getting a 7 was that low. Maybe it’s because IB isn’t as widespread as the more standard curricula?</p>
<p>So for HL Math there are different options that are taught.</p>
<p>Series/DE (Taylor Series covered here)
Sets/Groups/Relations
Further Statistics and Probability
Discrete Math</p>
<p>Most American schools tend to teach the Series/DE option as I’ve come to believe. </p>
<p>Part of the low scores is due to how strict the markscheme is.</p>