I plan on being a bio major and math really isn’t my thing. I’m not horrible at it, but I have no motivation in my math classes and don’t enjoy being in them at all. I was in honors pre-calc this year and plan on taking honors calc next year, but everyone says that if you’re going into STEM, you need to take AP Calc. I understand that I will have to take a similar course eventually, but for right now I wanted to take it slower, build up a base at my own pace, and then move on to harder calculus. Is there are specific reason that I should take AP Calc if I don’t feel ready? Am I screwing my self over without even knowing it?
For Biology, I think you would be fine taking regular Calc. If you need to take Calc in college, you will take it again.
I would definitely say to take some kind of Calc in HS, but it doesn’t have to be AP.
If you decided to be pre-med, for example, you would need Calc in college.
Unless you are gunning for the uber-competitive colleges, honors calc should be fine. You might want to talk to your guidance counselor to be sure that the overall academic rigor of your schedule next year is appropriate for the colleges you plan to apply to.
Biology will require calculus in college. If you have AP credit, some colleges may allow exemption from a semester or year of calculus in college.
If you intend to do pre-med, many medical schools require college course work to fulfill pre-med requirements, although some do not require calculus, and some that do allow AP credit for calculus (but usually not other subjects). But if you do pre-med, you should assume that you need to take calculus in college, though you can opt to take a more advanced course if you have AP credit.
Here are some on-line quizzes to help you determine if you are ready for calculus, or if you need to review some topics from precalculus:
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/rur_index.html
For AP calculus, you should be able to do well on the “are you ready for calculus 1?” quiz.
Non-AP calculus in high school is often modeled on a calculus for business majors course, so the “are you ready for business calculus?” quiz may help you check your readiness for that.
Often, if you can grind through AP Calc in high school and get credit with the AP test, you might never have to take a math class again come college. I’d check with the school and see how much math you need in college. If Calc 1 is the furthest you have to go, then I would push through it now rather than later.
Thanks Everyone! This made me feel a lot better about not taking AP.