Reply to AP Calculus - AB or BC

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Reply to "AP Calculus - AB or BC - Which to Take?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.[/quote]
The switch to AP Precalc will make BC Calc harder next year. The standard approach for teaching BC is to accelerate kids steadily from Algebra 2 onward so that the latter half of precalc is spent learning introductory calculus to avoid the scenario described above where BC is rushed. However, APS has put students into AP Precalc which has slower pacing, which will leave insufficient time to introduce calculus concepts for students going to BC. So, look for BC to feel even more rushed next year. If your DC opts for BC next year, they may want to study intro calc on their own over the summer so BC feels less rushed.[/quote]

I'm concerned about this too. Maybe they will teach them the missing part of the curriculum now that the AP exam in over? [/quote]

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