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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Good discussion.  As a high school math teacher, I would question taking both Calculus with Applications and AP Calculus AB.   There is a huge overlap in content.  Students usually don't need a year of limits, derivatives, and integrals, followed by another year of the same general content.  If they are seeking an AP course after 11th grade Calculus with Applications,  then they might better take AP Stat, which is applicable to more career paths in college.  If they see themselves becoming an engineer, physicist, etc., it might be best to take[b] AP Calc AB[/b] or BC in 11th and multivariable in 12th.[/quote]

Can students actually take Calc AB in 11th and then MVC in 12th? I thought Calc BC was a prereq for MVC.

What are your opinions on AB in 11th and BC in 12th? [/quote]

You will want to check with your specific school regarding going from AP Calculus AB to Multivariable Calculus.  We allow this at our school because the Multivariable Calculus teacher will review the relatively few prerequisite skills that are needed for Multivariable but are not taught in the AB course.  That said, few students choose this path, as the students most likely to be interested in Multivariable Calculus would have taken AP Calculus BC in the first place.

In my opinion, taking both AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC, similar to taking both Calculus with Applications and AP Calculus AB, would not make sense for most students.

With the exception of an objective here and there, the first 8 units are identical in the AB and BC courses.  The BC course then has 2 additional units.  A student going from AB to BC would have to sit through the exact same course content throughout the majority of the BC course.  I love calculus, but this seems boring.  The student's math knowledge would grow relatively little by doing this.

At my school, most 11th grade AB students take AP Statistics in the 12th grade, a few take Multivariable, and no more than one or two - and sometimes zero - will take BC.[/quote]

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