MATH - Calc AB or BC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also perfectly acceptable option to do AB junior year and BC senior year (this is from multiple sources).

Lol the kid doesn’t want to do BC. And who are these “multiple sources” and why should we care what they think?

Has! Parents are crazy, pushing there kids to make them miserable. I don't need a "source" to tell me AB junior and BC senior is ok. It's also really ok to just take regular calc senior year, and do calculus in college. My own kid did just that and got an easy A in college calculus, but no way in hell they'd have even passed AB in HS.

[Anonymous]

Why not wait and see how he does in pre calc/trig? That's what fcps recommends. At least at my kids' HS, there is a flow chart based on your grades in the preceding class. If you are getting an A in pre-calc/trig hons, the you move on to AP Calc BC. If you are in reg precalc or you are iffy in precalc honors, then you go to AP Calc AB.

You need to let this play out before making conclusions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also perfectly acceptable option to do AB junior year and BC senior year (this is from multiple sources).

My kid took AB as a junior and BC as a senior. Because much of the material is the same/similar, he thought he got a good foundation doing it that way. He is currently a Math/CS double major at William and Mary.

Same. Our district highly recommends taking AB first, then BC. Typically there is only 1 kid out of 40 that didn't take AB first. Because of that, BC is taught differently, with the AB portion "covered" as review the first 4-5 weeks, then moving onto the new material. Unless you have a true budding genius on hand, most kids can benefit from doing it that way. It's much better to have a strong foundation in Calculus if kid is headed into Engineering/Math/a major that actually uses it. My kid is extremely strong in math but BC was the first they struggled with. Finished strong and got 5 on the AP test, so starting in Calc 3 this fall at uni.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not wait and see how he does in pre calc/trig? That's what fcps recommends. At least at my kids' HS, there is a flow chart based on your grades in the preceding class. If you are getting an A in pre-calc/trig hons, the you move on to AP Calc BC. If you are in reg precalc or you are iffy in precalc honors, then you go to AP Calc AB.

You need to let this play out before making conclusions.

I think Honors Pre-Calc is the prerequisite for going into AP Calc BC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also perfectly acceptable option to do AB junior year and BC senior year (this is from multiple sources).

My kid took AB as a junior and BC as a senior. Because much of the material is the same/similar, he thought he got a good foundation doing it that way. He is currently a Math/CS double major at William and Mary.

Same. Our district highly recommends taking AB first, then BC. Typically there is only 1 kid out of 40 that didn't take AB first. Because of that, BC is taught differently, with the AB portion "covered" as review the first 4-5 weeks, then moving onto the new material. Unless you have a true budding genius on hand, most kids can benefit from doing it that way. It's much better to have a strong foundation in Calculus if kid is headed into Engineering/Math/a major that actually uses it. My kid is extremely strong in math but BC was the first they struggled with. Finished strong and got 5 on the AP test, so starting in Calc 3 this fall at uni.

This is not true everywhere. Some places have AB and BC tracking starting at Algebra 2, with almost all kids in Pre-Calc BC going to Calc BC without having taken AB first. It works out fine for almost all of them.

[Anonymous]

Choosing courses based on where you think you might like to apply some day is a recipe for significant stress. Sure there should be discussion about which level to take if the student is capable of doing either successfully, including what the advantages of doing so might be with regard to admissions. But why would anyone want to push their kid to take courses they have no interest in? Make sure they're fully informed and then let them make the decision.

[Anonymous]

Not sure what you mean by “top” school, but your son has two advantages he should be building on: he is male, and he is on track to be a humanities major. He should spend any extra energy he has developing those interests, which will help him far more on any college application than having taken BC vs. AB calculus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what you mean by “top” school, but your son has two advantages he should be building on: he is male, and he is on track to be a humanities major. He should spend any extra energy he has developing those interests, which will help him far more on any college application than having taken BC vs. AB calculus.

Edit: I am not recommending he develop interests in being male! Pure humanities. And extracurriculars to support them. You get the drift (but avoid any drift into stereotypical male social sciences like econ).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO (and based on college office guidance), AB Calc is fine for non-math major, particularly if he will get a better grade and AP score.

I agree, and regret our older (a social sciences oriented kid) having taken BC in 11th- he got a B and a 4 on the exam and I think that affected his college chances much more than if he had taken AB and gotten and A and a 5 on the exam (his BC subscore for AB was a 5).

You have absolutely no idea if that's true, and I seriously doubt that it was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also perfectly acceptable option to do AB junior year and BC senior year (this is from multiple sources).

My kid took AB as a junior and BC as a senior. Because much of the material is the same/similar, he thought he got a good foundation doing it that way. He is currently a Math/CS double major at William and Mary.

Same. Our district highly recommends taking AB first, then BC. Typically there is only 1 kid out of 40 that didn't take AB first. Because of that, BC is taught differently, with the AB portion "covered" as review the first 4-5 weeks, then moving onto the new material. Unless you have a true budding genius on hand, most kids can benefit from doing it that way. It's much better to have a strong foundation in Calculus if kid is headed into Engineering/Math/a major that actually uses it. My kid is extremely strong in math but BC was the first they struggled with. Finished strong and got 5 on the AP test, so starting in Calc 3 this fall at uni.

How do you know this? Are you stalking the entire class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also perfectly acceptable option to do AB junior year and BC senior year (this is from multiple sources).

My kid took AB as a junior and BC as a senior. Because much of the material is the same/similar, he thought he got a good foundation doing it that way. He is currently a Math/CS double major at William and Mary.

Same. Our district highly recommends taking AB first, then BC. Typically there is only 1 kid out of 40 that didn't take AB first. Because of that, BC is taught differently, with the AB portion "covered" as review the first 4-5 weeks, then moving onto the new material. Unless you have a true budding genius on hand, most kids can benefit from doing it that way. It's much better to have a strong foundation in Calculus if kid is headed into Engineering/Math/a major that actually uses it. My kid is extremely strong in math but BC was the first they struggled with. Finished strong and got 5 on the AP test, so starting in Calc 3 this fall at uni.

How do you know this? Are you stalking the entire class?

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Chill out with your “proof” demands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO (and based on college office guidance), AB Calc is fine for non-math major, particularly if he will get a better grade and AP score.

I agree, and regret our older (a social sciences oriented kid) having taken BC in 11th- he got a B and a 4 on the exam and I think that affected his college chances much more than if he had taken AB and gotten and A and a 5 on the exam (his BC subscore for AB was a 5).

You have absolutely no idea if that's true, and I seriously doubt that it was.

My kid got a 5 and a B+ and I think it is a definitely limiting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO (and based on college office guidance), AB Calc is fine for non-math major, particularly if he will get a better grade and AP score.

I agree, and regret our older (a social sciences oriented kid) having taken BC in 11th- he got a B and a 4 on the exam and I think that affected his college chances much more than if he had taken AB and gotten and A and a 5 on the exam (his BC subscore for AB was a 5).

You have absolutely no idea if that's true, and I seriously doubt that it was.

My kid got a 5 and a B+ and I think it is a definitely limiting.

This jibes with what our private counselor has told us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO (and based on college office guidance), AB Calc is fine for non-math major, particularly if he will get a better grade and AP score.

I agree, and regret our older (a social sciences oriented kid) having taken BC in 11th- he got a B and a 4 on the exam and I think that affected his college chances much more than if he had taken AB and gotten and A and a 5 on the exam (his BC subscore for AB was a 5).

You have absolutely no idea if that's true, and I seriously doubt that it was.

My kid got a 5 and a B+ and I think it is a definitely limiting.

This jibes with what our private counselor has told us.

Appreciate the insight. It is such a bummer. He attends a DC private with not a lot of grade inflation and took Calc BC as a junior (skipped AB bc grades were so high previously). And he got a 5 on the test so he knew his stuff. The tests in class were a lot harder than the AP exam.

He really wanted to take the class, but I wish I would have put my foot down rather than follow his lead bc a B+ junior year feels like it took him out of the running for several schools he really liked as that is a big hit to GPA. And he doesn't even want to major in STEM. He is a good kid and will be fine, but as a parent, you always want your kid to have the options they have worked hard for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO (and based on college office guidance), AB Calc is fine for non-math major, particularly if he will get a better grade and AP score.

I agree, and regret our older (a social sciences oriented kid) having taken BC in 11th- he got a B and a 4 on the exam and I think that affected his college chances much more than if he had taken AB and gotten and A and a 5 on the exam (his BC subscore for AB was a 5).

You have absolutely no idea if that's true, and I seriously doubt that it was.

My kid got a 5 and a B+ and I think it is a definitely limiting.

This jibes with what our private counselor has told us.

Appreciate the insight. It is such a bummer. He attends a DC private with not a lot of grade inflation and took Calc BC as a junior (skipped AB bc grades were so high previously). And he got a 5 on the test so he knew his stuff. The tests in class were a lot harder than the AP exam.

He really wanted to take the class, but I wish I would have put my foot down rather than follow his lead bc a B+ junior year feels like it took him out of the running for several schools he really liked as that is a big hit to GPA. And he doesn't even want to major in STEM. He is a good kid and will be fine, but as a parent, you always want your kid to have the options they have worked hard for.

If he's at a top DC private, a single B+ isn't going to change anything.
I'm confused how you don't know that.