You do NOT need AP Pre-calc to take AP Calc AB or BC. Your school has been sending kids from reg pre-calc onto AP Calc for years. Fight for your son's ability to take AP Calc next year.
And yes, if he wants CS/ENG it is best if he takes AP calc in HS. He will need 1 year to 2 years of Calc/Diff EQ if majoring in CS or Eng. Best to get a strong foundation in HS

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they did not offer it when your child signed up for classes, then he can’t be penalized for not having it prior to taking AP Calc. FWIW, my DD took regular Pre-Calc, then took AP Calc and got a 5 on her AP test, so AP Pre-Calc is not necessarily required to do well.

To be clear, AP precalc never existed before this year, so it is definitely not required to do well in AP calc.

No, but many schools required Honors Precalc to take AP calc before this year. AP is replacing Honors.

That’s crazy to require Honors pre-Calc. My DD too regular pre-Calc, then AP Calc and did great.

But maybe they've found that your child was an outlier. Or they are trying to direct the more able math students (like your kid) into the highest level math class, which would now be AP Pre-Calc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reach out to his counselor. I suspect something is getting lost in translation or there will be a grace period for next year.

This. Double-check. Very likely there will be grandfathering for students who did not have that option until now.

Doubtful that AP PreCalc covers very different material than regular PreCalc. For potential engineering applicant, AP Calc and AP Physics both would be important pluses when applying to colleges.

Apparently it does, in part because there was no defined pre calc curriculum before. One of my kids took honors last year, before ap was offered at our school, and my other one is taking ap this year. Apparently it's quite different (according to the teacher) and includes more calc concepts. But older one is doing very well in ap calc ab this year, so it doesn't seem to have mattered.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they did not offer it when your child signed up for classes, then he can’t be penalized for not having it prior to taking AP Calc. FWIW, my DD took regular Pre-Calc, then took AP Calc and got a 5 on her AP test, so AP Pre-Calc is not necessarily required to do well.

To be clear, AP precalc never existed before this year, so it is definitely not required to do well in AP calc.

No, but many schools required Honors Precalc to take AP calc before this year. AP is replacing Honors.

That’s crazy to require Honors pre-Calc. My DD too regular pre-Calc, then AP Calc and did great.

Don't know how you can call the pre requisite "crazy". Not all "honors" in different jurisdictions are created equal. Is your kid taking Calc AB, which would be the natural progression from non honors or BC?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they did not offer it when your child signed up for classes, then he can’t be penalized for not having it prior to taking AP Calc. FWIW, my DD took regular Pre-Calc, then took AP Calc and got a 5 on her AP test, so AP Pre-Calc is not necessarily required to do well.

To be clear, AP precalc never existed before this year, so it is definitely not required to do well in AP calc.

No, but many schools required Honors Precalc to take AP calc before this year. AP is replacing Honors.

That’s crazy to require Honors pre-Calc. My DD too regular pre-Calc, then AP Calc and did great.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they did not offer it when your child signed up for classes, then he can’t be penalized for not having it prior to taking AP Calc. FWIW, my DD took regular Pre-Calc, then took AP Calc and got a 5 on her AP test, so AP Pre-Calc is not necessarily required to do well.

To be clear, AP precalc never existed before this year, so it is definitely not required to do well in AP calc.

No, but many schools required Honors Precalc to take AP calc before this year. AP is replacing Honors.

This. It may not be a new policy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they did not offer it when your child signed up for classes, then he can’t be penalized for not having it prior to taking AP Calc. FWIW, my DD took regular Pre-Calc, then took AP Calc and got a 5 on her AP test, so AP Pre-Calc is not necessarily required to do well.

To be clear, AP precalc never existed before this year, so it is definitely not required to do well in AP calc.

No, but many schools required Honors Precalc to take AP calc before this year. AP is replacing Honors.

Anonymous wrote:Reach out to his counselor. I suspect something is getting lost in translation or there will be a grace period for next year.

This. Double-check. Very likely there will be grandfathering for students who did not have that option until now.

Doubtful that AP PreCalc covers very different material than regular PreCalc. For potential engineering applicant, AP Calc and AP Physics both would be important pluses when applying to colleges.

Anonymous wrote:If they did not offer it when your child signed up for classes, then he can’t be penalized for not having it prior to taking AP Calc. FWIW, my DD took regular Pre-Calc, then took AP Calc and got a 5 on her AP test, so AP Pre-Calc is not necessarily required to do well.

My guess is the school made announcements last spring/summer about how it was required. Maybe through newsletters, meetings with students on schedule planning, counselor meetings, curriculum nights, specially set meetings, etc. Ours did, which is how we knew about what the new AP precal class would contain. We were told there is no other weighted precal class for ‘23-24. My friend’s school did the same and she was told AP and regular precal will be offered but to take AP Calc BC, you’d need to have taken AP precal.

It does not seem reasonable that the school created the class, gave no info on it and then months into the school year sprung a new rule on the kids UNLESS they were carving out exceptions for cases like your son’s because of their failure to timely notify.

I don't know but this thread makes it look like a mess

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/45/1163526.page#26054209

Anonymous wrote:If they did not offer it when your child signed up for classes, then he can’t be penalized for not having it prior to taking AP Calc. FWIW, my DD took regular Pre-Calc, then took AP Calc and got a 5 on her AP test, so AP Pre-Calc is not necessarily required to do well.

To be clear, AP precalc never existed before this year, so it is definitely not required to do well in AP calc.

If they did not offer it when your child signed up for classes, then he can’t be penalized for not having it prior to taking AP Calc. FWIW, my DD took regular Pre-Calc, then took AP Calc and got a 5 on her AP test, so AP Pre-Calc is not necessarily required to do well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WTF is "AP" Pre-Calc? There is no AP course for Pre-Calc

Yes, there is Grandma.

I can hardly wait for AP arithmetic.

Anonymous wrote:WTF is "AP" Pre-Calc? There is no AP course for Pre-Calc

It what our school is teaching this year instead of intensified. College Board just released it. It is a full year course at our school. How does a school cover the content in one semester with the test in May?

Anonymous wrote:WTF is "AP" Pre-Calc? There is no AP course for Pre-Calc

Here, I googled that for you: https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-precalculus