Anonymous
Post 04/02/2025 17:27     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
Seriously?

I have kids and I remember Calculus A/B and B/C in high school. It’s been this way for aLooooong time.
Anonymous
Post 04/02/2025 17:25     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am also very confused about the Precalc AB/BC. DD is taking honors algebra 2 and doing fine (not an easy A though). When I was a kid, people who took honors algebra 2 took honors Precalc and then decided whether to take calc AB or BC. Now it seems they are tracking them earlier and if you take Precalc AB, you can’t take Calc BC. I was thinking DD would take Precalc BC - that seems like the next step for her. But she says there are only 2-3 classes of Precalc BC and Calc BC in her large HS, and only the very top math students take that. She is pushing to take Precalc AB. I feel like she could handle Precalc BC and also it would look more rigorous for colleges. The rigor for college isn’t my biggest priority but she isn’t yet sure of her major and I don’t want her to shut herself out of certain majors/schools when she’s so young.

(Nevermind that Precalc in general is not a college course - why is there even an AP course, besides to line College Board pockets??)

AP Precalculus was introduced an easy math course to appease the DEI woke crowd. College Board wanted to avoid a similar backlash against the entire AP program, as happened with the SAT when colleges made it optional.

You can present these choices to your kid:
1) Precalc AB as the final math course in High school
2) Precalc BC, followed by Calc BC or Calc AB in High School

Choice 2) prepares the student for either BC or AB (if precalc feels too challenging) or neither. Additionally, in your child's case, it gives them the chance to be in the same class as what they perceive as "the very top math students."


I don't know about your references to DEI "woke". But anyway, at DS's school. there are a LOT of 11th graders taking AP Precalc AB. It is not their final math course in high school. And those kids take Calc AB in 12th grade. They discourage kids from going from Precalc AB -> Calc BC.


And before that, my class of 2022 kid, who was a humanities whiz, but less so STEM, stopped honors math in geometry and did standard A2, standard pre-Calc and non-AP standard Calculus in FCPS. But had the option to do Calc AB or AP Stats senior year. Standard pre-calculus was not a terminal math class before it became AP (spoiler alert: not a real AP. No decent college is giving credit for “AP” pre-calculus). It wasn’t even even a terminal calculus class. It’s what kids who weren’t gunning for STEM programs did. And that kid now rocking it at WM in IR (and took college stats ans a math requirement and college Calc just to better understand advanced economics and made an A in one and B in the other).
Anonymous
Post 04/02/2025 12:52     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am also very confused about the Precalc AB/BC. DD is taking honors algebra 2 and doing fine (not an easy A though). When I was a kid, people who took honors algebra 2 took honors Precalc and then decided whether to take calc AB or BC. Now it seems they are tracking them earlier and if you take Precalc AB, you can’t take Calc BC. I was thinking DD would take Precalc BC - that seems like the next step for her. But she says there are only 2-3 classes of Precalc BC and Calc BC in her large HS, and only the very top math students take that. She is pushing to take Precalc AB. I feel like she could handle Precalc BC and also it would look more rigorous for colleges. The rigor for college isn’t my biggest priority but she isn’t yet sure of her major and I don’t want her to shut herself out of certain majors/schools when she’s so young.

(Nevermind that Precalc in general is not a college course - why is there even an AP course, besides to line College Board pockets??)

AP Precalculus was introduced an easy math course to appease the DEI woke crowd. College Board wanted to avoid a similar backlash against the entire AP program, as happened with the SAT when colleges made it optional.

You can present these choices to your kid:
1) Precalc AB as the final math course in High school
2) Precalc BC, followed by Calc BC or Calc AB in High School

Choice 2) prepares the student for either BC or AB (if precalc feels too challenging) or neither. Additionally, in your child's case, it gives them the chance to be in the same class as what they perceive as "the very top math students."


I don't know about your references to DEI "woke". But anyway, at DS's school. there are a LOT of 11th graders taking AP Precalc AB. It is not their final math course in high school. And those kids take Calc AB in 12th grade. They discourage kids from going from Precalc AB -> Calc BC.


And to add, there is also a Precalc honors (non AP) and Precalc regular offered. Those who end high school at Precalc are taking one of those. There is also a non-AP less rigorous version of calculus. Too many choices.
Anonymous
Post 04/02/2025 12:31     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am also very confused about the Precalc AB/BC. DD is taking honors algebra 2 and doing fine (not an easy A though). When I was a kid, people who took honors algebra 2 took honors Precalc and then decided whether to take calc AB or BC. Now it seems they are tracking them earlier and if you take Precalc AB, you can’t take Calc BC. I was thinking DD would take Precalc BC - that seems like the next step for her. But she says there are only 2-3 classes of Precalc BC and Calc BC in her large HS, and only the very top math students take that. She is pushing to take Precalc AB. I feel like she could handle Precalc BC and also it would look more rigorous for colleges. The rigor for college isn’t my biggest priority but she isn’t yet sure of her major and I don’t want her to shut herself out of certain majors/schools when she’s so young.

(Nevermind that Precalc in general is not a college course - why is there even an AP course, besides to line College Board pockets??)

AP Precalculus was introduced an easy math course to appease the DEI woke crowd. College Board wanted to avoid a similar backlash against the entire AP program, as happened with the SAT when colleges made it optional.

You can present these choices to your kid:
1) Precalc AB as the final math course in High school
2) Precalc BC, followed by Calc BC or Calc AB in High School

Choice 2) prepares the student for either BC or AB (if precalc feels too challenging) or neither. Additionally, in your child's case, it gives them the chance to be in the same class as what they perceive as "the very top math students."


I don't know about your references to DEI "woke". But anyway, at DS's school. there are a LOT of 11th graders taking AP Precalc AB. It is not their final math course in high school. And those kids take Calc AB in 12th grade. They discourage kids from going from Precalc AB -> Calc BC.
Anonymous
Post 04/02/2025 10:46     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
Anonymous wrote:I am also very confused about the Precalc AB/BC. DD is taking honors algebra 2 and doing fine (not an easy A though). When I was a kid, people who took honors algebra 2 took honors Precalc and then decided whether to take calc AB or BC. Now it seems they are tracking them earlier and if you take Precalc AB, you can’t take Calc BC. I was thinking DD would take Precalc BC - that seems like the next step for her. But she says there are only 2-3 classes of Precalc BC and Calc BC in her large HS, and only the very top math students take that. She is pushing to take Precalc AB. I feel like she could handle Precalc BC and also it would look more rigorous for colleges. The rigor for college isn’t my biggest priority but she isn’t yet sure of her major and I don’t want her to shut herself out of certain majors/schools when she’s so young.

(Nevermind that Precalc in general is not a college course - why is there even an AP course, besides to line College Board pockets??)

AP Precalculus was introduced an easy math course to appease the DEI woke crowd. College Board wanted to avoid a similar backlash against the entire AP program, as happened with the SAT when colleges made it optional.

You can present these choices to your kid:
1) Precalc AB as the final math course in High school
2) Precalc BC, followed by Calc BC or Calc AB in High School

Choice 2) prepares the student for either BC or AB (if precalc feels too challenging) or neither. Additionally, in your child's case, it gives them the chance to be in the same class as what they perceive as "the very top math students."
Anonymous
Post 04/02/2025 09:33     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
I am also very confused about the Precalc AB/BC. DD is taking honors algebra 2 and doing fine (not an easy A though). When I was a kid, people who took honors algebra 2 took honors Precalc and then decided whether to take calc AB or BC. Now it seems they are tracking them earlier and if you take Precalc AB, you can’t take Calc BC. I was thinking DD would take Precalc BC - that seems like the next step for her. But she says there are only 2-3 classes of Precalc BC and Calc BC in her large HS, and only the very top math students take that. She is pushing to take Precalc AB. I feel like she could handle Precalc BC and also it would look more rigorous for colleges. The rigor for college isn’t my biggest priority but she isn’t yet sure of her major and I don’t want her to shut herself out of certain majors/schools when she’s so young.

(Nevermind that Precalc in general is not a college course - why is there even an AP course, besides to line College Board pockets??)
Anonymous
Post 04/01/2025 13:16     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
Anonymous wrote:There are 3 units on the AP test, and a 4th optional unit. The AB classes are doing 1-3, BC is doing 1-4.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-precalculus[/quote

Now calc BC expects students to know a lot of topics beforehand, like limits and derivatives.
Anonymous
Post 03/31/2025 12:05     Subject: Re:When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
There was AB/BC as far back as 2003 in FCPS because I took AP Calc AB, rather than BC, because I wasn't super strong in pre-calc/trig.
Anonymous
Post 03/30/2025 10:09     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
there was Precalc and Precalc Hon. The first for the terminal class or not advanced track, and the second for the advanced kids. And then we added AP Precalc. Obviously all the students in the honors track want to take AP because they want the extra quality points. Because AP Precalc is a terminal math class it is insufficient for tracking into BC, so the solution is to add the topics for prepping for BC.

It's basically the same thing as what they could've done, which is to keep precalc hon but for that class add on extra quality points.

To answer OP question, if you use the AP precalc curriculum to self-study, yes it will probably be insufficient.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 12:46     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
AP Precal is a watered down version of traditional precalculus, which apparently has been too difficult to learn. It is designed for those who intend it to be last math (capstone) course in high school.

"Furthermore, as AP Precalculus may be the last mathematics course of a student's secondary education, the course is structured to provide a coherent capstone experience and is not exclusively focused on preparation for future courses." - AP Precalculus Proposed Course Framework

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/a-new-ap-precalculus-course-aims-to-diversify-the-math-pipeline/2022/05
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 10:18     Subject: Re:When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
AP PreCalc used to be PreCalc (No AP); PreCalc used to be two (maybe three) separate classes - Functions, Analytic Geometry, and Trigonometry. I only say maybe because Trig had an option to be taught with Algebra II.

While every other part of the math curriculum has been static. Someone thinking kids are not doing well in Calc - so lets fix it with PreCalc?
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 03:58     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
DEI! amazing isn'it! where is the idiot who rallies wealthy, test buying, etc.. crap?
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 00:14     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
Anonymous wrote:I thought there used to be only AP Pre calculus option in high school. When did this start - AP PRe calc AB or BC? How different will it be syllabus to prepare DC in the summer? If my child studies AP precalc in summer(self study), will DC miss out on a portion of BC units?

There was originally just one traditional Precalculus, and AP Precalculus BC comes close to that. However, when DEI came into play, the argument was that Precalculus BC is too challenging to be inclusive. As a result, AP Precalculus AB has been floated, offering a similar AP experience but covering fewer topics.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2025 00:00     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
There are 3 units on the AP test, and a 4th optional unit. The AB classes are doing 1-3, BC is doing 1-4.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-precalculus
Anonymous
Post 03/26/2025 19:28     Subject: When did this happen AP Precalc AB/BC ?
I thought there used to be only AP Pre calculus option in high school. When did this start - AP PRe calc AB or BC? How different will it be syllabus to prepare DC in the summer? If my child studies AP precalc in summer(self study), will DC miss out on a portion of BC units?