Reply to MCPS high school math- 12th grade

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]what is the difference between AB and BC?  [/quote]

AB is basically first semester engineering level calculus and BC is second semester.  I think it also (very roughly) translates to three semesters for humanities college level calculus (a semester per letter).
At my school growing up, you had to do AB before BC, but at a lot of schools, BC just moves faster and covers the A, B, and C material.[/quote]

In MCPS BC, just covers more material and is not taught as a continuation of AB, although you can get credit for both.  That means going straight to BC is challenging, but my DC who took BC after taking AB, was disappointed that BC still felt like a slog.  Having taken AB meant she was already comfortable with the conceptual underpinnings, but the class is still about the problem sets and constant quizzes, so it is time consuming no matter how prepared, e.g. taking BC two years in a row would be almost as much work the second year.

But the thing is calc is now considered HS math for anyone who's college bound.  If it's certain the goal is a college major that uses no math, at a college that doesn't have a general ed math requirement, then fine skip it.  But many people do end up needing to take math in college, in which case, a course like Stats senior year (which is more vocabulary than refreshing math skills), may make passing a college class later more difficult.  And for schools that have general ed math requirements, skipping calc entirely in HS will look like a weakness.  Also, math is becoming popular so, don't shut your kid out just because it wasn't your thing.  Math is my thing, but I was surprised that after only tolerating math in HS, my DCs favorite class freshman year of college is calc (this time it goes a little beyond BC topics and the emphasis is more formal).  Her school requires a math class even with AP credit, credit can only be used for electives.  I also heard from a math prof at another small liberal arts college, that among non-majors the number of students taking math as an elective has doubled or tripled over the course of his career, and there too calc is popular with freshmen.  So outside the engineering track there are reasons to stick it out.

Another possible pathway in MCPS: regular pre-calc, calc w/apps, calc AB.[/quote]

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