AP Calculus - AB or BC - Which to Take?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A bit of a different take. Given that your student is interested in engineering, what is their interest in taking AP Physics (either mech or E&M)? If they are an engineering major, and they want to take AP Physics, they should considering taking BC Calc jr year.. Because usually you can't take AP physics without being concurrently in at least BC (or finishing it). Taking BC Calc in jr year would give an option to take AP physics jr or (better yet) sr year.

But if AP Physics isn't of interest, then doing AB or BC can be its own independent decision.

There is no need to finish AP Calculus before starting either AP Physics C.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fascinating to me that APS (?) is directing kids to take Calculus AB junior year followed by BC senior year. Am I reading your post correctly? Why? BC is an offshoot of Calculus AB since all of the topics in Calculus AB are also included in Calculus BC, plus some. It’s basically taking the class over again plus some additional material. I view this as an admission that they are accelerating too many kids. Kids get to junior year and aren’t ready for BC Calc so this is the solution?

Every math class reviews and extends previous math class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He doesn't need classes higher than BC for admissions to engineering.

I also thought the AB/BC sequence was weird when it was recommended for my son, a very strong math student. But he took the math teacher's advice and did that. As I understand it, the way APS teaches it, BC class blows through the review of AB concepts really quickly to get to new material. Also, keep in mind he'll likely have other challenging classes too. Junior year is hard. A slightly easier math class, and then more review early in senior year while in the midst of applications can be a better balance.

You will get a more solid understanding of calculus doing the sequence. And that is far more important going into a math heavy major. With 5s on the AB and BC tests, DS skipped Calc 1 at VT but took Calc 2 in college for review and to be sure he understood it the way VT teaches it. Got an A (and As in the subsequent math classes) while many students struggled. Don't rush through math classes.

Thank you. This is very helpful feedback and advice. We had heard that you need to take the highest level math sequence available at your school for the competitive engineering programs (which, at APS, is MV/Linear Alegebra), but you make very good points. The reason I think he is even remotely struggling with this decision is because, in our experience, APS routinely directs students to easier routes/pathways versus the more challenging routes/pathways. For example, after taking Algebra 2 in 9th grade and getting a very high A, his teacher/counselor recommended that he take Algebra 3 instead of Pre-calc in 10th grade! I told him to ignore his teacher/counselor and sign up for Pre-Calc because their advice was absurd. This was obviously the right decision. He would have been bored to tears in Algebra 3. APS also discouraged him from taking too many higher-level courses/APs his sophomore year but he took them anyway and knocked it out of the park. Junior year will definitely be harder but he has the bandwidth for more work. He did not feel like he had to work very hard this year.

Ignorant gunner parents spread the myth that colleges care about post-AP math. They dont. It happens (not entirely a coincidence) that students who have national level extracurricular achievements in math (which does impress colleges) also often have post-AP math.

While I don’t disagree that the math competitions, etc. trump, it seems like at the MIT and Carnegie Mellon level, it would be strange to take BC after AB where one’s school offered higher MV/linear classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fascinating to me that APS (?) is directing kids to take Calculus AB junior year followed by BC senior year. Am I reading your post correctly? Why? BC is an offshoot of Calculus AB since all of the topics in Calculus AB are also included in Calculus BC, plus some. It’s basically taking the class over again plus some additional material. I view this as an admission that they are accelerating too many kids. Kids get to junior year and aren’t ready for BC Calc so this is the solution?

Every math class reviews and extends previous math class.

Ahem but that’s not what Calculus AB and BC is. Calculus AB is meant to be first semester college calculus. Calculus BC is meant to be first and second college calculus. So you are saying that every math class is actually a full repeat of the first semester? You aren’t right about this. Sorry.

What APS is doing is really weird in my view, and it’s happening because they have accelerated too many kids at a young a grade who aren’t actually math geniuses. They don’t have anywhere to put these Juniors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An E School will be very happy with Calculus BC in senior year from an admissions perspective.

If DC takes either AP Calc exam the year before and gets a good AP score (i.e., 4 or 5) then it would strengthen the E School application.

Are you sure?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this is a strong math student who wants to do engineering, I'd suggest BC junior year followed by multivariable senior year. And yes to the person who suggested AP physics senior year. Engineering is a really competitive major so most schools will want to see highest available math for that particular school. However, if the student does not have a natural affinity for math, then it's probably best to tone it down to AB followed by BC. Junior year is tough so every student needs to take stress and time management into account.

Myth myth myth.

Can you explain? This seems like excellent advice to me aligned with what I saw in this admissions cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A bit of a different take. Given that your student is interested in engineering, what is their interest in taking AP Physics (either mech or E&M)? If they are an engineering major, and they want to take AP Physics, they should considering taking BC Calc jr year.. Because usually you can't take AP physics without being concurrently in at least BC (or finishing it). Taking BC Calc in jr year would give an option to take AP physics jr or (better yet) sr year.

But if AP Physics isn't of interest, then doing AB or BC can be its own independent decision.

There is no need to finish AP Calculus before starting either AP Physics C.

Calc BC is required as either a prerequisite to or concurrent with AP Physics C. DC was quite glad they had taken it as a prerequisite. That’s what most did. A couple took it concurrently, and at least one of those had a really tough time. As in struggling to pass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fascinating to me that APS (?) is directing kids to take Calculus AB junior year followed by BC senior year. Am I reading your post correctly? Why? BC is an offshoot of Calculus AB since all of the topics in Calculus AB are also included in Calculus BC, plus some. It’s basically taking the class over again plus some additional material. I view this as an admission that they are accelerating too many kids. Kids get to junior year and aren’t ready for BC Calc so this is the solution?

Yes, that is exactly what they recommend and what most students do. I find it very odd.

What else would you suggest they take?

[Anonymous]

At YHS they have just this year split APCalc C into 2 separate classes. So this year many juniors took just mechanics and plan to do therm/mag next year as seniors. My daughter did this concurrent with BC.

I haven’t heard of being recommended to do AB and then BC at YHS. She went from intensified pre calc right to BC and the teacher communicated that was the pathway.

[Anonymous]

At WL, kids that take IB math and get a high A are recommended to take IB math HL next, which corresponds to AP Calc BC (most take tge AP test in additionto the IB exam). Kids who get a B or lower are recommended to take IB math SL, which corresponds to AP Calc AB. Same with DE precalc - strong A students can go to AP Calc BC, all others to AP Calc AB. I have never heard of students taking AB followed by BC.