AP Calc AB or BC?

[Anonymous]

Universities want the top grades in the hardest classes.

If he is already in an honors track and suddenly drops down to AB, it's going to be noticed, even if he does get an A

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Universities want the top grades in the hardest classes.

If he is already in an honors track and suddenly drops down to AB, it's going to be noticed, even if he does get an A

Absolutely false.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a college Freshman at VT who took BC calc in 10th, MVC in 11th and was tapped out of what the school could offer. He declined to take LA or DEQ at nova his senior year. The problem is since he took calculus 2 soooo long ago he has to spend a lot of time reviewing and absolutely had to retake MVC this year as. a freshman because the AP classes do not even compare at all to college rigors. At least not at VT.

with my 2nd kid i absolutely would not let him take calc 2 so early. it really hinders them in college since the material is so old by the time they get there. I would do AB in 10th BC in 11th and MVC in 12th and then retake MVC freshman in college since they will have a very strong and much more fresh calculus background and use that as a GPA booster in college.

BTW my son is a math major and in the honors college and got 780 on his SATs and still had to retake MVC in college due to the lack of rigor that AP offers. If he could do it again i probably would have seen if he could have done all of his calculus HS classes at George Mason. If that had been the case a huge chunk of his college major would already be retired and he probably could have very very easily slipped in a 2nd major.

MVC is not an AP class. It is a high school class or a dual enrollment class at a college.

yes i am aware, he took it in high school via NoVA and it was very very watered down. He got an A extremely easily. He said his AP and DE classes were noting close to the rigors at university. For starters all of his homework needs to be turned in using LaTeX, which he was given exactly 2 days to learn at the start of the semester.

That's not mathematical rigor, that's hazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming the school is following the AP curriculum and not going rogue, AB will not prepare as well for multivar. Take BC.

This. If he takes AB, he runs out of classes

That's not true. If he takes AB, he can take BC afterward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here, thank you.

I didn't know AP classes differed between privates and publics. My son is in public school.

So I suppose the next question is: how does it look for college admissions to have a B in Calc BC, rather than an A in Calc AB?

Not great. But I’d still have him do BC and have a tutor lined up to make sure he gets an A. The only reason to take AB is if he doesn’t plan on going into a stem career and doesn’t want to take any math above calculus.

Not true. This is hysterical striver parent paranoia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does your son think he can learn at a college pace as a 10th grader? BC Calculus teaches the material as fast as if you were learning it in college (each semester in BC is equivalent to a semester of calc in college). AB stretches an entire semester of calculus over a year.

I second the idea of talking to the math department chair. They will have an idea of how well honors pre-calc prepares kids for the faster pace of BC.

AP Calc BC is part of an overall *faster* pace than college. College students take 4-5 courses per semester. High school students take 6-8.
Most AP courses are one semester of credit for one year of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming the school is following the AP curriculum and not going rogue, AB will not prepare as well for multivar. Take BC.

This. If he takes AB, he runs out of classes

That's not true. If he takes AB, he can take BC afterward.

That's not a sequence that someone who excels in math (i.e. someone taking calculus as a sophomore) takes

[Anonymous]

I would make sure DC has the strongest foundation for college math as possible and even though they might be fine taking AP BC their sophomore year, I would likely go with AP AB in 10th, AP BC in 11th, and Multivariable in 12th. AP Stats was sort of a joke class for our DD who was very strong in math and she took it at the same time as multivariable with no problem. DD got A's across the board and is now a math major at top ten school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would make sure DC has the strongest foundation for college math as possible and even though they might be fine taking AP BC their sophomore year, I would likely go with AP AB in 10th, AP BC in 11th, and Multivariable in 12th. AP Stats was sort of a joke class for our DD who was very strong in math and she took it at the same time as multivariable with no problem. DD got A's across the board and is now a math major at top ten school.

PP and forgot to say that DD was behind where your DC is (because of the school where she was for MS) so she took honors Pre-Calc her 10th grade year and then AP BC her 11th grade year with MV and Stats her senior year. I don't think it would have been a good idea for her to take only Stats her senior year in HS. Math at a top university is a whole different animal than HS AP classes or classes at MCC.

[Anonymous]

I would do AB, BC, and then MV. Take Stats as an elective. This will reduce stress and build solid calc foundations that will still be remembered by college. Lighter path next two years will also free up time for other classes and ECs that will help distinguish his college application and hopefully also make him happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is in 9th grade taking Honors Precalc, with usually a 95% average. If he takes AP Calc BC in 10th, the school offers AP Stats and multivariable calculus with differential equations as extra classes for 11th and 12th grade.

His math teacher told him to pick what he wanted. DS is worried about getting a lower grade than a 95% in Calc BC, but also likes taking the hardest tracks, because he's very competitive. He's had no trouble so far with the advanced courses he's doing this year and he wants to have a good enough profile to be considered for top schools (we know it's a lottery). Most days he finishes his work in a few minutes at home, because he does most of it at school.

Personally I feel that he's up to it, but I don't want to stress him out.

Any insights on how hard Calc BC is compared to Calc AB, or any advice, is much appreciated.

Let him take BC - it's AB plus two units. Also skip stats in 11, instead take linear algebra in the fall and diff eq or multi or both in the spring of 11th and more advanced classes in 12th. Or don't bother and instead focus on math competitions / summer programs. Or do both! If he wants to try math competitions he should go through the AoPS volume 1 and volume 2 books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here, thank you.

I didn't know AP classes differed between privates and publics. My son is in public school.

So I suppose the next question is: how does it look for college admissions to have a B in Calc BC, rather than an A in Calc AB?

At top schools, course rigor is the #1 priority. If he doesn't choose BC when his school allows him to, it will not be a good look. He should ask his counselor if they would consider AB in 10th followed by BC in 11th to be the "most rigorous" course rigor. That's a specific question in the counselor recommendation form.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a college Freshman at VT who took BC calc in 10th, MVC in 11th and was tapped out of what the school could offer. He declined to take LA or DEQ at nova his senior year. The problem is since he took calculus 2 soooo long ago he has to spend a lot of time reviewing and absolutely had to retake MVC this year as. a freshman because the AP classes do not even compare at all to college rigors. At least not at VT.

with my 2nd kid i absolutely would not let him take calc 2 so early. it really hinders them in college since the material is so old by the time they get there. I would do AB in 10th BC in 11th and MVC in 12th and then retake MVC freshman in college since they will have a very strong and much more fresh calculus background and use that as a GPA booster in college.

BTW my son is a math major and in the honors college and got 780 on his SATs and still had to retake MVC in college due to the lack of rigor that AP offers. If he could do it again i probably would have seen if he could have done all of his calculus HS classes at George Mason. If that had been the case a huge chunk of his college major would already be retired and he probably could have very very easily slipped in a 2nd major.

If you take MVC in 12th, or take MVC in 11th and therefore don't need to take calc in university, or go to a school that doesn't accept transfer credit and do a bit of review over the summer, it won't be an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a college Freshman at VT who took BC calc in 10th, MVC in 11th and was tapped out of what the school could offer. He declined to take LA or DEQ at nova his senior year. The problem is since he took calculus 2 soooo long ago he has to spend a lot of time reviewing and absolutely had to retake MVC this year as. a freshman because the AP classes do not even compare at all to college rigors. At least not at VT.

with my 2nd kid i absolutely would not let him take calc 2 so early. it really hinders them in college since the material is so old by the time they get there. I would do AB in 10th BC in 11th and MVC in 12th and then retake MVC freshman in college since they will have a very strong and much more fresh calculus background and use that as a GPA booster in college.

BTW my son is a math major and in the honors college and got 780 on his SATs and still had to retake MVC in college due to the lack of rigor that AP offers. If he could do it again i probably would have seen if he could have done all of his calculus HS classes at George Mason. If that had been the case a huge chunk of his college major would already be retired and he probably could have very very easily slipped in a 2nd major.

MVC is not an AP class. It is a high school class or a dual enrollment class at a college.

yes i am aware, he took it in high school via NoVA and it was very very watered down. He got an A extremely easily. He said his AP and DE classes were noting close to the rigors at university. For starters all of his homework needs to be turned in using LaTeX, which he was given exactly 2 days to learn at the start of the semester.

LaTeX is not a good reason to delay math by a whole year. It can be learned in a few days, and definitely over the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a college Freshman at VT who took BC calc in 10th, MVC in 11th and was tapped out of what the school could offer. He declined to take LA or DEQ at nova his senior year. The problem is since he took calculus 2 soooo long ago he has to spend a lot of time reviewing and absolutely had to retake MVC this year as. a freshman because the AP classes do not even compare at all to college rigors. At least not at VT.

with my 2nd kid i absolutely would not let him take calc 2 so early. it really hinders them in college since the material is so old by the time they get there. I would do AB in 10th BC in 11th and MVC in 12th and then retake MVC freshman in college since they will have a very strong and much more fresh calculus background and use that as a GPA booster in college.

BTW my son is a math major and in the honors college and got 780 on his SATs and still had to retake MVC in college due to the lack of rigor that AP offers. If he could do it again i probably would have seen if he could have done all of his calculus HS classes at George Mason. If that had been the case a huge chunk of his college major would already be retired and he probably could have very very easily slipped in a 2nd major.

MVC is not an AP class. It is a high school class or a dual enrollment class at a college.

yes i am aware, he took it in high school via NoVA and it was very very watered down. He got an A extremely easily. He said his AP and DE classes were noting close to the rigors at university. For starters all of his homework needs to be turned in using LaTeX, which he was given exactly 2 days to learn at the start of the semester.

Did he actually go to NoVA or was it some "college in the highschool" thing?