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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My daughter is taking AP Pre calculus in Sophomore year and is doing fine (grade hovers between B+ and A-). For Junior year she has the option of taking either Calculus AB or BC. Any suggestions on the factors to consider in making the decision of AB or BC?[/quote]
In our school district, AP Calculus AB is listed as a prerequisite to AP Calculus BC in the course catalog. You normally take them over 2 years unless you choose the block option and do AB in the Fall and BC in the Spring.

It seems though that in other school districts BC is offered directly with just a precalculus course as a prerequisite.  This raises questions about the role of AB and what spiraling is done here.

Is requiring AB before BC the norm or is the norm to allow direct access to BC for qualified students?[/quote]
Strong math students with an intensified precalculus course can go from precalc to BC and have done so for decades. Many districts offer this option. However, it usually assumes accelerated content is delivered in earlier courses. A common path would be Alg2/Trig, Intensified Precalc (which covers intro calc), and then BC.

FCPS's old pathway did this. They used to offer A2/Trig and prior to this year, they offered honors precalc/trig which covered intro calc in the spring. However, there is a big push in math to make it easier for students to enter math pathways anywhere along the path to avoid tracking. However, that can't happen if an earlier prerequisite course has covered accelerated content. So slowly, districts are removing accelerated content from math courses. The new AP Precalc (even AP Precalc BC) does not introduce intro calc which will make it tougher for students when they take Calc AB and Calc BC the following year. Given this, it's likely that you will see more students do Calc AB one year and then take Calc BC the next as you describe, as a response to AP Precalc's reduced content rigor relative to the old honors precalc/trig.[/quote]

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