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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]AP Precalc has replaced honors precalc at many high schools. It doesn't look good or bad, it just is. It's not as though the choice were AP Precalc vs calc; the choice is AP precalc vs whatever the less-rigorous course is called at that high school (and there is a lot of variety; college algebra, precalc and trig, etc.). I haven't listened to the podcast, but I don't understand what they might be trying to imply. Yeah, we know it's not college level math, and we know it won't be among the rigorous APs that colleges care about, but so what? You still have to take it on the road to calc. Take the course and be glad for the GPA weight.[/quote]

I think the point of the YCBK discussion was that just because there now is an AP exam to back the high school precalc course, kids should not assume that taking it checks the math AP box for college admissions if their high school also offers AP Calc AB and/or AP Calc BC. School context matters.

And there is a hierarchy of rigor of AP exams — AP Precalc does not pass muster if a kid has choice to take something more challenging. They were much more focused on calling to task the College Board for creating the AP Precalc exam in the first place. [/quote]

There are two excellent reasons for AP Precalc to exist.

The first one is confusion about what is the most rigorous math path. The problem is, AP Stats can be taken directly after Algebra 2. So without high-quality advising, a kid choosing between AP Stats and honors precalculus would naturally conclude that AP Stats is the more rigorous path. This would be incorrect, because only precalculus prepares the student for AP Calculus or Calculus I in college. Students with educated parents or attending schools full of privilege are unlikely to make this mistake. But most parents and schools aren’t like that. So by having AP Stats but no AP Precalc, the College Board was inadvertently steering promising young people down the wrong road. AP Precalc solves that problem.

Second, relatively few high school students get beyond precalculus by junior year. California state schools no longer look at the ACT/SAT, but they do look at AP scores. So the AP Precalc exam gives students who take precalc junior year a way to demonstrate math competence for college applications. [/quote]
The CLEP precalculus exam fills the latter role[/quote]
CLEP is also College Board so in that sense the College Board is cannibalizing its own market. [/quote]

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