Reply to Does taking AP Calc freshmen year in HS give enough "bonus" points to make it worth it?

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Reply to "Does taking AP Calc freshmen year in HS give enough "bonus" points to make it worth it?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If your kid is truly ready for AP Calc as a 9th grader, then they should not be taking both AP Calc AB and AP Calc BC -- they are way too repetitive. How are they doing in AP Precalculus this year?

I would recommend taking AP Stat in 9th, then AP Calc BC, then Multi/Lin, then a college course like Diff Eq, etc.

If you are pushing them ahead on this path to "make them stand out," then you are making a mistake.[/quote]

[b]I agree there’s no point in taking AP followed by BC, but I would caution about taking AP Stats before calculus. While college board says it’s an algebra based course essentially everything is underpinned by calculus concepts. While the material might be learned at some superficial level without calculus, I think in the end it’s a disservice to the student to go that route.
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Grades and mastery of material is more important than trying to make the student stand out. If the previous classes were honors and they got easy As, next in the sequence should be Calculus BC.

It’s fine to take multivariable, linear algebra, and diff eq in high school and repeat some in college.
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My DC’s school requires AB calculus before BC Calculus. This is not uncommon. Also, AP Statistics does not require knowledge of calculus. 
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There’s about 80% overlap between Calculus AB and BC. Our school also require AB before BC because lots of kids get accelerated beyond their capabilities and can’t keep up. They do make exceptions for some students to go straight to BC.

AP Statistics does not require knowledge of calculus if you are fine with a plug and chug approach to solving problems. If you want to understand the foundation at a deeper level some knowledge of calculus will be tremendously helpful. Any probability density function and probability calculation uses calculus, but the class relies heavily on tables and graphing calculators to mask it. Also useful is some better understanding of inverse functions covered in precalculus. [/quote]

Yeah…why would you take calc AB and BC.  It is practically the same exact class with BC going only slightly further in depth toward the end. I’ve been told only take AB if they don’t plan on taking anymore math in HS and aren’t going to pursue STEM? If you plan to continue on, take BC. [/quote]
Different high schools organize these courses differently, with many requiring AB as a prerequisite to BC. And teacher quality varies widely.[/quote]

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