Will taking both Calc AB and BC put me at a disadvantage when applying to college?

Hi, I’m a freshman currently taking an integrated math course of Algebra 2 and Precalculus. I know I want to take some form of AP Calculus next year, not sure yet whether to do AB or BC. I want to go into STEM so having a strong foundation in Calculus is kind of a must. At my school, because of the insane competition, they made this new rule where you have to get your math teacher to approve the course you want to do next year. I went and told my teacher that I wanted to do BC and she looked horrified and began discouraging me strongly. I thought doing BC would make more sense because it’s just 2 more units than AB and I don’t want to end up being bored in math, but being that I’m already taking 2 years worth of math in 1 year, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get the strong foundation I need with just BC. But I also keep hearing that taking both AB and BC isn’t very impressive, so I was wondering if doing both would put me at a disadvantage when applying to college.

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I’m not sure where you hear that taking AB and BC isn’t very impressive. Very few people get to take AP Calculus BC in high school, and if you do well it is especially impressive. At my school, AB is a prerequisite for BC so I cannot go straight to BC. But for your situation, it depends on your standing, and you have to be honest with yourself. Are you academically talented in math? Do you like and know the teachers for AB/BC? Can you see yourself getting a grade you want like an A or B? I currently have a horrid AB teacher and have had to utilize outside resources to supplement my learning. Keep in mind AB is far from easy. I doubt you would be bored. But it’s definitely not a disadvantage- really not sure where you heard that from because it’s highly incorrect. You’re in high level math as a sophomore and are taking more years than required of math. That’s never not impressive.

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I didn’t take calculus until I was a freshman in university. That did not stop me from getting a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from MIT.

If you are strong enough in mathematics to be this far ahead, then you are very likely to end up in a major where both algebra and calculus are very important. You would be best off to make sure that you know these subjects very, very well. I have said that high school algebra should be about as difficult to you as tying your shoe laces. Of course it takes some time and effort and study to get to that point.

Whatever level of math you take next year, remember that you are still very early in your education, and that you want to take a level where you are able to do well. There really are some math classes that you are not ready to take yet. It sounds like you will be ready to take a lot of them at some point in the future.

If you get to calc BC while you are still in high school, and if you do very well in your math classes, then you are doing well and are way ahead of where I was at the same time.

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Is your current math class all accelerated 9th graders or is there a mix of grade levels?

I would just take AB next year and get a strong foundation and ace the test. Then BC the next year as that sounds like what your school normally does based on the teacher reaction. What does your school offer next in the sequence? Or do you go DE?

Pace yourself and enjoy the point you are in life instead of racing to the next thing. Take other classes to broaden your interests or do ECs that matter to you

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My own daughter took AP Calc AB and AP Calc BC in high school. She got into very selective universities and attended Brown. In college, she didn’t take any math classes. For graduate school, she needed two math courses for admissions and she used her two AP scores from both Calc classes in high school for that admissions requirement and got into grad schools like Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and attended MIT.

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What is the normal progression for your school for a student who takes the math class you are in now? What is the highest level of math your school offers? Schools have different ways of doing AB/BC, do you know whether they overlap in your school? Is there any other student skipping AB? I am thinking that the horror on the teacher’s face was there for a reason, but it is hard to know without more context. Sounds like you need her to sign off on it, though, so do you really have the option of taking BC? Are you that much of a math rockstar beyond the other math rockstars in your class that you can skip something the school is advising everyone else to take?

My kid was in a similar integrated math class his freshman year. The path was a calculus class sophomore year (wasn’t called AB, it was a continuation of the integrated program), and calc BC junior year that was proof-based. Then senior year a starter multi-variable calc/linear algebra course with AP stats. Kids on this path are not bored, and have more than enough math for the top STEM colleges. AB/BC don’t cover the same material.

Do what the school advises and/or what other students in your class do. You have to take four years of math no matter what, and the most important thing is what you take senior year, not sophomore year. You are basically 2-ish years ahead, you don’t need to be 3. You don’t want to have gaps in your math foundation.

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Anecdotal: D20 is MechE and took Calc AB as a Sophomore and BC Junior year. Every college she spoke with, including MIT, empasized the importance of strong fundamental calc skills, not just a good grade, but the ability to apply the concepts to classes like AP physics C AND the ability to quickly recall that information and calculate. Every single engineering school encouraged working knowledge over advanced courses. @momofboiler1 has an older engineering student at Purdue. What calc path did your DD take in HS?

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Highest math offered at my D’s high school was AB but the teacher taught beyond the curriculum. D started in Calc II at Purdue although she was scoring high enough on old tests to try for Calc III. She opted to be sure she had a solid foundation.

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DD actually backed up and took Calc 2 freshman year. She was so happy she did; there was a lot of material in the course that wasn’t covered in BC. It really improved her speed and recall.

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It sounds as though the school’s curriculum is set up for AB then BC, which means AB covers the first semester of college calc and BC covers the second. My olderD did the “most advanced “ track and did this in 11th and 12th and it was definitely challenging but she got a 5 last yr and it really helped her with concurrent APphysC last yr. The BC class teaches well beyond the curriculum and is very challenging with test means in the 70s a common occurrence. Getting an A in BC was hard hard work for her and the majority of kids, but she did it! She is not a Stem kid so doesnt need to take calculus in college anyway, but the background will help her in whatever quantitative classes she picks.
Fast fwd to D23: she is not on a standard track because the school moved her after elementary—so she took precal 9th. She asked to skip to BC for 10th! We supported her and thought it would be great! They said No because of how the curriculum is done, BC starts with college “calc 2” material. So she wasnt allowed. AB was not at all challenging, and BC now is not challenging BUT because it goes beyond the curriculum it is definitely very interesting to her. She has breezed her way to 100s on tests even when the means are low. So, she challenges herself in other math classes—took AP stats with precal in 9th, took a very challenging advanced math problem class alongside AB, and took 2 sciences per year in 10th and 11th(3AP one Hon). The lack of time she needs to spend on calc has allowed her time to double up in other areas and take every challenging class the school offers. Plus, though they have Multivariable/linear algebra for after BC, their other math electives are designed for AB as a co-req, so she would have had nothing to challenge her senior yr if she had pushed hard to self study and skip AB.

Tl;dr: take AB in 10th, then BC in 11th, and challenge yourself in other ways.

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M son took BC online in 10th, Calc 3 online as dual enrollment in 11th, but then had to take Calc 2 again in early college 12th because of a 3 on the BC portion of the AP exam, his first AP exam. Also because he bumped his head and got a concussion on the way to test out of Calc 2! But he ended up learning a lot that was explained better in the in-person class. I agree that taking both AP classes may provide a better foundation.

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If you web search for “are you ready for calculus 1?”, you will find quizzes on precalculus material to help you check how well you know it for being ready to take calculus.

Our HS requires AB before BC.

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The highest level of math that my school offers is BC. I think she was horrified because our school saw extremely low math grades after coming from 1 and a half years of online learning and I was saying that I wanted to do BC in addition to that.

Thank you everyone for the insight, I was really confused before but now, I think I’ll do AB then BC. At our school, they really recommend either doing AB then BC or going to BC directly if you earned an A in Honors Precalc or regular Calculus.

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Thank you for the insight, I think I was a little confused because everyone around me wants to advance and get to either AB or BC. It’s really admirable that you were able to study at MIT, if you don’t mind me asking, what did you study?

My class is mainly sophomores and freshmen with 1 junior. Since BC is the highest level of math, if I wanted to learn more, I would probably have to take a course outside.

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Calc BC includes accelerated Calc AB. So students who only takes Calc BC will also cover the material from Calc AB.

Most of the kids on the accelerated math track at my kid’s high school took honors pre-calc as sophomores, and Calc BC as juniors. If they were math geeks they took Linear Algebra or Calc III as seniors, while the other science kids took AP CS or AP Stats for their 4th year of math.

At my kid’s college, if you took Calc AB and got at least a 4 on the AP test, you only had to take the second of their two-term Calc series. If you took Calc BC and got at least a 4 on the test, it is considered the equivalent of a both courses of the series.

I thought that I answered this. My major at MIT was mathematics. I also took some physics and mechanical engineering and CS courses, but had a math major. My master’s degree several years later was in operations research, which is pretty much a form of applied math.

At MIT the majority of freshmen come in having already studied calculus. My freshman year calculus class was relatively small. It was also coordinated with freshman physics, which had calculus as a corequisite. They would teach something in calculus, and then use it two or three days later in physics. This went very well because I got to see how the calculus was used at the same time that I was learning it.

To me the key was that I arrived on campus very much ready to study calculus and do well. Calculus depends a great deal on the prerequisites.

Great, you will be on track to do that senior year. Good luck with all of your studies.