Getting a B in AP Calculus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks to everyone who replied. DS is extremely strong willed and so have to I pick my battles carefully. If I forced him to drop he would blame me until my dying day for “ruining his life”.

For those who asked, he is taking Calculus AB.

There is literally no reason to take calculus in 10th grade. None. Taking calculus in 11th is fine for STEM fields. Call the school first thing in the morning and have him put in precalculus. Explain he self-studied and is not prepared for this class. Let your kid blame you until his dying day. Parent him, OP.

[Anonymous]

Sucks to be stubborn. This is a stupid decision and will hurt him in college admissions where gpa is impt. I’d make him drop down and let him blame me for life

[Anonymous]

It will be life-altering based on my experience.

[Anonymous]

All i know is my kid got a C+ in AP Calc and it really messed up the transcript and likely impacted the outcome. Do not push your kid in math at the risk of a crappy grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume this is AB Calculus. A lot of pre-cal is a reinforcement of AlgII-Trig and introduction to Calculus A. So it's not a stretch to skip precalc. If he went into BC then he needs to drop back. Most schools allow it for the first month of school.

He'll need to take BC in a future year.

If he knows the material, sure, he can skip it. But if he knows the material, he wouldn't be struggling to reach a B.

Not always true. Our school curves to a B, even when the class only has 12 kids. Even C students get 5s on the AP exam.

And some old ladies live in a shoe. When someone posts on a public forum, we assume they are operating in a normal, sane environment unless otherwise specified.

[Anonymous]

If that is the way he feels, he should drop down to precal and take AP Calc as a junior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks to everyone who replied. DS is extremely strong willed and so have to I pick my battles carefully. If I forced him to drop he would blame me until my dying day for “ruining his life”.

For those who asked, he is taking Calculus AB.

So you'd rather he ruin his own life?

Absent further evidence, your kid is acting stupid. I wonder in what other ways he walks over you to make bad decisions.

What's his plan for next year and the year after?

If he's going to take BC later, there's no point in doing poorly in AB instead of doing well in precalc and then well in BC.

If he "learned" precalc by himself in the summer, why can't he handle BC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks to everyone who replied. DS is extremely strong willed and so have to I pick my battles carefully. If I forced him to drop he would blame me until my dying day for “ruining his life”.

For those who asked, he is taking Calculus AB.

There is literally no reason to take calculus in 10th grade. None. Taking calculus in 11th is fine for STEM fields. Call the school first thing in the morning and have him put in precalculus. Explain he self-studied and is not prepared for this class. Let your kid blame you until his dying day. Parent him, OP.

This is literally a great reason to take calculus in 10th. The reason is doing well in precalc in 9th. Taking calculus earlier unlocks advanced math and science in college earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every kid is different as far as studying, commitment, time, etc. My DS goes to a T20 Engineering school and did skip some math. I don't think getting a B is going to knock your child out of the application pool.

What math did they skip and what low grades did they get?

The B is less of a problem than the C it might be if "B is the goal" and the year barely started, and C it might be next year and the year after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks to everyone who replied. DS is extremely strong willed and so have to I pick my battles carefully. If I forced him to drop he would blame me until my dying day for “ruining his life”.

For those who asked, he is taking Calculus AB.

Yeah. Sometimes parents have to make unpopular decisions. Suck it up. You let him try it his way. It didn’t work.

And if he can’t even get an A in the first month of AB, BC & MV are going to be a mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks to everyone who replied. DS is extremely strong willed and so have to I pick my battles carefully. If I forced him to drop he would blame me until my dying day for “ruining his life”.

For those who asked, he is taking Calculus AB.

I’m a math teacher. I agree, 15 year olds can be stubborn and you can’t win as a parent. I have a high schooler of my own.

This is the problem with open enrollment. The school should not allow anyone to skip precalc and then let a 10th grader into calc of any sort. There isn’t any reason to do this.

It’s only September. Try to have a logical conversation with him about dropping down Have him repeat the course again next year if he won’t and if it doesn’t go well.

Don’t listen to all these people worrying over all As for college. You can’t worry about that right now.

[Anonymous]

Just curious - what are the reasons that a student would take calculus so early in high school? What types of advantages does in confer to the student?

[Anonymous]

Wondering why op started this thread if she is unwilling to do anything about the situation. Also wondering how he managed to skip a class without getting parental consent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a sophomore who decided to skip pre calculus and go straight to taking AP calculus this year. Now he tells me it’s his goal to get a B in the calculus class.

I have not said anything to him about this because he is a motivated student and is taking charge of his own education. Also, he is extremely strong willed. His school counselor advised him against it, but left the final decision up to him.

I am wondering how getting a B in this class will affect his college applications. Is it no big deal? Or will it hurt him?

I don’t want to put pressure on him. But I don’t want him to be making bad decisions. He is an only child, so I don’t have experience with today’s application process.

My kid got his only B in BC. Went to an average public school and somehow still made it to a T10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a sophomore who decided to skip pre calculus and go straight to taking AP calculus this year. Now he tells me it’s his goal to get a B in the calculus class.

I have not said anything to him about this because he is a motivated student and is taking charge of his own education. Also, he is extremely strong willed. His school counselor advised him against it, but left the final decision up to him.

I am wondering how getting a B in this class will affect his college applications. Is it no big deal? Or will it hurt him?

I don’t want to put pressure on him. But I don’t want him to be making bad decisions. He is an only child, so I don’t have experience with today’s application process.

My kid got his only B in BC. Went to an average public school and somehow still made it to a T10.

OP’s kid is in AB, not BC. And can’t even hang in September. And has two much harder years of Calc after this. It may not B a B. It could be lower. And if it is, next year and the year after will also be Bs, at best.