I teach both. I would never suggest a kid take both unless they took AB instead of BC for whatever reason as a junior but want to pursue a math heavy major in college...generally AB is a seniors only class though (with a few exceptions), and BC has a mix of juniors and seniors.

For any humanities major, AB is plenty.
For most STEM majors, kids will go straight to BC.

Once every few years I'll have a kid go AB to BC, but it's rare to make that jump.

Anonymous wrote:taking both makes absolutely no sense.

Why? My kid is taking BC this year after AB last year. I encouraged it. In math, there is nothing quite like practice and I live that she is reinforcing concepts again.

Anonymous wrote:taking both makes absolutely no sense.

Unless you struggled in AB

If you take the BC exam you get credit for AB (sub score) and BC Calc . So six to eight credits with BC exam vs three to four with the AB exam. That’s how my school does it.
BC includes AB and goes further.

taking both makes absolutely no sense.

The way it was explained to us:

BC is faster than AB.
Something about AB is a college semester worth of Calc in one year.

My kid took AB in 11th grade and it was pretty tough.
Worked really hard to make a B in the class but scored a 5 on the AP exam. Had A's in all other classes.
Actually signed up to take BC in 12th grade for an alternate class but thankfully did not have to.

At our school, you need to have an A average in honors precalc and get an A on a qualifying test to enroll in BC Calc. The qualifications are a little less stringent for enrolling in AB Calc.

Anonymous wrote:BC calc is really ABC calc (in other words, it has one additional component, the C). One takes only one or the other because most of what is covered in BC would have already been covered in AB.

Most people would take one or the other--if you feel very confident and strong in math then go straight to Calc BC. If less so, Calc AB. But you *can* take both sequentially. My kid took Algebra 1 in 7th but didn't quite feel confident to take AP Calc BC their junior year when it came up in their sequence and they had a lot of other AP classes. So they took AP Calc AB. But they ended up really loving calc, so they took AP Calc BC their senior year instead of their plan of taking AP Stats. The first semester was basically the exact same as Calc AB but on a faster pace, the second semester was new content. But my kid found it worth it--they got a review of Calc AB content and went beyond. They took linear algebra as their first real college math class in college and did well.

BC calc is really ABC calc (in other words, it has one additional component, the C). One takes only one or the other because most of what is covered in BC would have already been covered in AB.

I look at it like AB is like parts 1 & 2 covered in a year. BC is like Parts 1&2, and adding in part 3 — covered on a year.

They can be consecutive. AB then BC for a little review then new concepts. But some kids are advanced enough to skip AB and just jump right into BC.

My kid’s college only gave credit for College Calc I with a 5 in AB but could have a 4 in BC to get credit for same class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"AP Calculus AB focuses on topics that are taught in the college-equivalent first-semester calculus class. AP Calculus BC focuses on topics covered in both first- and second-semester calculus classes."

This is very commonly used definition of the differences between two. In reality, college Calc is harder than AP Calc, IMHO.

I mean, they say AP "focuses on topics taught" in college, not that they cover everything taught in college!

Anonymous wrote:"AP Calculus AB focuses on topics that are taught in the college-equivalent first-semester calculus class. AP Calculus BC focuses on topics covered in both first- and second-semester calculus classes."

This is very commonly used definition of the differences between two. In reality, college Calc is harder than AP Calc, IMHO.

"AP Calculus AB focuses on topics that are taught in the college-equivalent first-semester calculus class. AP Calculus BC focuses on topics covered in both first- and second-semester calculus classes."

"AP Calculus BC is similar to AP Calculus AB. It explores the same concepts and applications, only it adds a few new topics. In other words, AP Calculus BC covers more content than AP Calculus AB, though both courses require you to apply the same skills."

https://blog.collegeboard.org/difference-between-ap-calculus-ab-and-bc

What is the difference between these two? Are they meant to be taken consecutively, or do they overlap (choose one)?