I’m a junior. I took precalc freshman year and got a B. Despite much dialogue with my teacher, she refused to recommend me to take AB sophomore year, so I took Honors Calc. I got a 100 in the class (99.6) and thought it would prepare me for AB, because it’s supposed to be the same curriculum (mostly).
However, I quickly realized that Honors Calc did not prepare me for AB at all. My Honors Calc teacher simply showed us exactly what to do and what formulas to use. My AB teacher is the opposite: he makes us derive every formula and equation that we use before we use it, and even then he tells us not to use the formulas and just go through it intuitively. My way of thinking has been challenged and beaten down, but my mind has stretched and strengthened, which I appreciate. What I don’t appreciate is my grade in the class–if I’m very lucky, I’ll manage to have the lowest A possible in the class at the end of the year. If I’m lucky.
This brings me to my point, which is not to gripe about a perfectly fine grade, but rather to ask this: what will AdComms (in your opinion) think of me going Precal > Honors Cal > AB > BC instead of Precal > AB >BC, especially when they have plenty of kids that just go from Precal > BC? Will it hurt me? I’m not planning on going into a STEM field.
If, God forbid, I get a B in AB, will AdComms doubt my ability to deal with fast-paced classes (since I went from a 100 learning the curriculum the first time, to a–let’s assume–90 taking essentially the same curriculum again, but faster)?
Thanks in response for your answers.
Math becomes easier if you know why things are how they are, so I agree with what your AB teacher is doing, in principle at least. That being said, what made you rush into precalc freshman year? How well did you do in your math classes before that? I think that if you got a B in precalc that you’re probably not solid on some algebra/geometry/precalc concepts that would help you with the proofs in your AB class. I would recommend trying to pinpoint some of those areas of weakness and do some review on them. (It will help on the SATs too!)
(Full disclosure, I took precalc freshman year, BC sophomore year, and got in A in both… however, even for me, theirs still some spots as I move along in math were I think hmm maybe I should have paid a little more attention to precalc…)
What’s the thinking here? That if a non-stem gets to BC, it’s better?
Depends on the tier. Better to understand your interests and how top adcoms look at how you pursued them, including outside school, for majors where that’s possible.
@snowfairy137, I took CC Math II & III as a dual enrollment option in 8th grade, which allowed me to take Precalc freshman year, right on track. The issue with Math II & III was that my teacher had to leave because of some family emergency, leaving us without a teacher for a couple months. Which, considering we had to squeeze 2x the curriculum in the same year, meant that we essentially didn’t have a teacher for 4 months’ worth of material. Eventually the teacher of a computer science elective took over. I still managed, if I can remember, a very high score (98-100). But the holes in my knowledge were apparent within the first week of Precalc. As for the SAT, you’re so correct! Drilling myself in the concepts of SAT math helped me shore up on some trig, geometry, arcs, and a bunch more. I guess I should bash CB less for their “aptitude test,” because, aptitude-testing or not, it did help me understand a lot of material (albeit 2 years too late :-/).
@lookingforward You’re right, of course. If I had aced every math course up until now, though, it would have only helped me, whether or not I was aiming for a STEM major or not. My line of thought is, though, that they’ll doubt my ability to do well in courses that I don’t have an innate ability/aptitude for–that I don’t have enough motivation to push through when classes get difficult.