Reply to Please post where your DC is headed and the highest math course taken in HS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What is the difference between AB and BC Calculus? Can you chose whether to take AB or BC Calculus at most schools? My DC goes to a private school and I don’t think you can do BC Calculus unless you are on the advanced math track. Confused.[/quote]

Same here.  My kids
My kids' "top" private school heavily gate-keeps calc BC.  You really can't take it unless you're in the group of 10 kids who started down the honor math track in 8th grade. 
I have one kid on this track and one kid not on it.

It doesn't effect Ivy or other top30 admits.  Plenty of top 30 admits this year from our school of kids who maxed out at non-AP calc or calc AB (and even pre-calc).   
Every school is not Thomas Jefferson. [/quote]

A year or so ago I read that the colleges really don’t want the kids to advance past (or even to) BC.  They want them to take it at the college so they can be sure the rigor is there.  The professor who wrote the piece talked about kids advancing too quickly just to advance and not having a deep understanding.  I can’t remember where I saw it.  It could have been posted here.[/quote]
This is a big issue for math reformers right now, advocating for kids to wait until college to take calculus. They also note that since some kids opt to repeat calculus in college anyway, why bother take it in high school. However, their same studies show that kids that retake calculus in college do better than peers who are taking calculus for the first time in college. Also, calculus can be taken at a slower pace in high school with more direct teacher contact, so others would argue that it's best to see calculus the first time in high school. Math reformers also interview colleges and report that calculus is not required for admissions. However, when people look at the stats of kids entering competitive colleges, the overwhelming majority have had calculus. So while it may not be required, most have taken it.[/quote]

Especially if you will need to take a Calc course in college.  It's hard (especially if you are not a math person).  Similarly, I encouraged my kids who were stem majors to take the AP science courses they would need in college---even if you don't get/take credit for AP Chem or AP Bio or AP physics, it would really suck to hit college physics and have only taken an algebra based Regular physics back in 9/10th grade.  So if you are able, you take the APs as prep for the college courses.  For my kids it worked out, they got 5s on the tests and took the college credit.  But many just use it as prep for the harder college course. [/quote]

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