Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 19:47     Subject: Re:Getting a B in AP Calculus
OP here. Thanks to everyone who replied. DS is extremely strong willed and so have to I pick my battles carefully. If I forced him to drop he would blame me until my dying day for “ruining his life”.

For those who asked, he is taking Calculus AB.

Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 16:31     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Anonymous wrote:My DS is a sophomore who decided to skip pre calculus and go straight to taking AP calculus this year. Now he tells me it’s his goal to get a B in the calculus class.

I have not said anything to him about this because he is a motivated student and is taking charge of his own education. Also, he is extremely strong willed. His school counselor advised him against it, but left the final decision up to him.

I am wondering how getting a B in this class will affect his college applications. Is it no big deal? Or will it hurt him?

I don’t want to put pressure on him. But I don’t want him to be making bad decisions. He is an only child, so I don’t have experience with today’s application process.



Why would one go directly to AP calculus without pre-Calc?!!?!? That seems like a recipe for disaster. Drop back to precalc and do the groundwork, then take AP calc next year.
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 16:30     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Anonymous wrote:My DS is a sophomore who decided to skip pre calculus and go straight to taking AP calculus this year. Now he tells me it’s his goal to get a B in the calculus class.

I have not said anything to him about this because he is a motivated student and is taking charge of his own education. Also, he is extremely strong willed. His school counselor advised him against it, but left the final decision up to him.

I am wondering how getting a B in this class will affect his college applications. Is it no big deal? Or will it hurt him?

I don’t want to put pressure on him. But I don’t want him to be making bad decisions. He is an only child, so I don’t have experience with today’s application process.



Is he taking the class to show off or because he wanted a challenge, or because he thought the teachers was better?

If he was taking the class for any reason other than to show off, and he likes it, he should stay in the class, get a tutor and see this as a chance to learn how to handle a challenging class.

Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 16:02     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
I did this back in the day (self-studied pre calc over the summer, tested out and went straight to BC Calc) and I did not feel like I had any knowledge gaps. This was at TJ so presumably the course was tough.
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 15:58     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Drop down now--if his goal is a B, he's likely in lower territory already. If he does well in honors pre-calc, he could likely go onto BC junior year which is still a great math trajectory over all.
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 14:18     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Every kid is different as far as studying, commitment, time, etc. My DS goes to a T20 Engineering school and did skip some math. I don't think getting a B is going to knock your child out of the application pool.
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 12:16     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I assume this is AB Calculus. A lot of pre-cal is a reinforcement of AlgII-Trig and introduction to Calculus A. So it's not a stretch to skip precalc. If he went into BC then he needs to drop back. Most schools allow it for the first month of school.


He'll need to take BC in a future year.

If he knows the material, sure, he can skip it. But if he knows the material, he wouldn't be struggling to reach a B.


Not always true. Our school curves to a B, even when the class only has 12 kids. Even C students get 5s on the AP exam.
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 12:13     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Is this mcps? I am surprised testing out is an option
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 12:12     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Anonymous wrote:I assume this is AB Calculus. A lot of pre-cal is a reinforcement of AlgII-Trig and introduction to Calculus A. So it's not a stretch to skip precalc. If he went into BC then he needs to drop back. Most schools allow it for the first month of school.


He'll need to take BC in a future year.

If he knows the material, sure, he can skip it. But if he knows the material, he wouldn't be struggling to reach a B.
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 12:11     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Anonymous wrote:My DS is a sophomore who decided to skip pre calculus and go straight to taking AP calculus this year. Now he tells me it’s his goal to get a B in the calculus class.

I have not said anything to him about this because he is a motivated student and is taking charge of his own education. Also, he is extremely strong willed. His school counselor advised him against it, but left the final decision up to him.

I am wondering how getting a B in this class will affect his college applications. Is it no big deal? Or will it hurt him?

I don’t want to put pressure on him. But I don’t want him to be making bad decisions. He is an only child, so I don’t have experience with today’s application process.



Calc AB or BC?

This is bad. Getting a B is OK. Getting a B and exiting because you care about a different subject is fine.
Math is the most important subject to get As in (at whatever level/pace works for you), because it builds like a ladder, and you aren't allowed to quit before graduate. It's different from an elective you just stop and walk away from, or Social Studies or Science where you start over in a new topic next year, or English that is more of the same year after year.

Getting a B and missing a prereq is bad. Skipping ahead of his ability level is bad. He has to take 2 more years of math class. What is his plan?
Kids who skip ahead should be at the top of their *new* class. Else, what's the point?

College (and life!) prefers you to succeed at a lower level, and.show you can learn over the long haul, not fail at a higher level, which shows that you can't pace yourself and sustain performance over years.

You need to get him back into Precalculus, or he needs to buckle down and get the A, or it will ruin math for him.
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 12:06     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
I don't know, OP. As Judge Smails said, the world needs ditch diggers, too. He should be able to find some sort of gainful employment.
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 12:01     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
I assume this is AB Calculus. A lot of pre-cal is a reinforcement of AlgII-Trig and introduction to Calculus A. So it's not a stretch to skip precalc. If he went into BC then he needs to drop back. Most schools allow it for the first month of school.
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 12:01     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The reality is he will be competing with kids with near perfect grades with a similar degree of rigor, so yes, it will matter if he is getting Bs in a core subject of he wants to go to a competitive admit school.

What I find troubling is that your child is clearly strong in math but is turning it into a weakness because he is 15 and doesn’t know better. I’d give him the ultimatum of getting a tutor or moving down to precalc.


This is a bit harsh. Yes he is competing with kids with perfect grades but you are assuming that puts them ahead of him. Colleges take a look at the whole person. Even for a science major at a top 25 that B is just fine if the rest of the record is there to support admission.

He tested out of precalc. School not likely to move him unless he is failing. This is not a weakness.


It depends on the school. My kids FCPS HS 100 allows some shuffling in math (honors to standard, AP Calc not standard Cal) the first quarter. You need to ask. And explain your rationale in writing. And a committee decides (in our HS). But “I thought I could self study and succeed and I now see I have gaps that need to be filled” is 99% certain to be approved. No school wants a kid on math track where strong students get grades that mess up impressive admissions and get non-passing AP scores.

This is different than, “I don’t like my history teacher” or “HUG isn’t really geography and I was AP Psych instead”. Live with your choices there. This is I have gaps in knowledge that are hurting me now and will likely snowball”.
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 11:59     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised the school even allowed him to do this.

Skipping pre-calc altogether?


This. And ai say thing as the parent of a former TJ kid. That’s not a flex. It’s establishing I’ve been in a culture of self study and skipping math classes. It often ends badly. Math and foreign language are two subjects I would never commend skipping. The problem isn’t the B in Calc. Although that won’t help a male applicant to top engineering schools, if that’s the goal. When VT came to TJ, they said they wanted to see As in Calculus (TJ calculus, mind you, which is AP on steroids) to know the kid had the foundation to succeed in the program.

It’s that it only gets harder from here, and your kid is looking at multivariable, linear, plus another year after that. And low Calc AP scores means your kid is retaking the class in college anyway. IME, skipping pre-Calc was a bad call. But it’s only September. Your kid can probably talk to the counselor, admit AP was a mistake, and ask to be moved to pre-Calc. I had a kid do this, and their grade started over. And they were no responsible for making up past chapters. But, they needed to review them because midterms and finals. A surprising plus of this plan is that once the bad math placement was off my kids plate, all the other grades went up. Because all the time and energy wasn’t going to keeping her head above water in math.

Get the foundation. Not having it is like pulling out rods in Jenna. Your kids who math understanding is less stable. BC Calc as a junior with an A plus linear/MV is fine for almost any college, even the strong engineering/CD. And your kid isn’t getting into MIT with a math B anyway. And the B in M-V/ linear, because they are probably missing concepts and don’t fully understand Calc BC.



This is good advice
Anonymous
Post 09/21/2023 11:55     Subject: Getting a B in AP Calculus
Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised the school even allowed him to do this.

Skipping pre-calc altogether?


This. And ai say thing as the parent of a former TJ kid. That’s not a flex. It’s establishing I’ve been in a culture of self study and skipping math classes. It often ends badly. Math and foreign language are two subjects I would never commend skipping. The problem isn’t the B in Calc. Although that won’t help a male applicant to top engineering schools, if that’s the goal. When VT came to TJ, they said they wanted to see As in Calculus (TJ calculus, mind you, which is AP on steroids) to know the kid had the foundation to succeed in the program.

It’s that it only gets harder from here, and your kid is looking at multivariable, linear, plus another year after that. And low Calc AP scores means your kid is retaking the class in college anyway. IME, skipping pre-Calc was a bad call. But it’s only September. Your kid can probably talk to the counselor, admit AP was a mistake, and ask to be moved to pre-Calc. I had a kid do this, and their grade started over. And they were no responsible for making up past chapters. But, they needed to review them because midterms and finals. A surprising plus of this plan is that once the bad math placement was off my kids plate, all the other grades went up. Because all the time and energy wasn’t going to keeping her head above water in math.

Get the foundation. Not having it is like pulling out rods in Jenna. Your kids who math understanding is less stable. BC Calc as a junior with an A plus linear/MV is fine for almost any college, even the strong engineering/CD. And your kid isn’t getting into MIT with a math B anyway. And the B in M-V/ linear, because they are probably missing concepts and don’t fully understand Calc BC.