Reply to Bad for students, who apply for CS or engineering, to take AP Calc AB and then BC?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's totally fine to do AB+BC, that's the most common path for advanced math students at DS's HS and I know several admitted UVA and VT for engineering last year. DS also did that and is at VT in a math-heavy major. IMO, it's better to do that than jump to BC. No reason to rush through calculus vs. learning it at a slower and more thorough pace. [/quote]

And you want your engineers and physicists to be fluent in math.  My kid (a billion APs, high GPA, 1550+ SAT) is going into a stem field and I insisted she take AB and then BC.  I wasn’t convinced that pre-calc was firm because of COVID even though she did fine in the class. I thought that the fundamentals need to be strong so she can really use math as a tool well into the future.  Oh and I taught math heavy grad classes as a prof.  It’s better that kids really understand this stuff rather than trying to show off to some college counselor. [/quote]

This 1000x!

I never understood the rush to advance kids in math at a crazy rate.  My kid did AB in 11 and BC in 12.  That's how our HS does it, except for the rare kid who took algebra in 6th grade and does calc AB in 10 (or BC if incredibly smart).  My kid did AB and then BC, got 5s on both, and did really well in Calc 3 (except for the fact of no curve, as half the class already did multivariable calc and was just taking it in college to get credit, so no curve).  They were prepared for the class and that's good because as a chem eng, they will actually use this stuff.  A weak foundation would mean they'd struggle with the higher level courses and that's not useful. [/quote]

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