![]() ![]() Also, many students in STEM will be required to take a similar course in college, so might as well get the additional practice ahead of time. They are challenging classes where students are very independently reliable for completing assignments and preparing for tests and quizzes. Each of these tools provides true-to-format questions and delivers a detailed score report that follows the topics set by the College Board®. Students who are interested in going into any sort of STEM related major, should consider taking at least one of these classes. At the online REA Study Center, you can access three types of assessment: topic-level quizzes, mini-tests, and 2 full-length practice tests (1 for AP® Calculus AB and 1 for AP® Calculus BC). Exams occur quite frequently, and the class is overall very fast paced. AP Calculus BC is one of two AP Calculus courses offered by the College Board, along with AP Calculus AB. It’s rare for students to completely finish the packet during class time, but if you work diligently, you will not have much calculus homework. Both classes use a flipped classroom style where students watch notes videos independently, and work on the given practice packet during the class. AB and BC are certainly rigorous courses, but students are given many practice opportunities prior to tests and quizzes. After taking precalculus my sophomore year, and quite honestly struggling, I have found these classes to be less difficult. ![]() Taking these classes in high school can help you exponentially in waiving out of numerous math classes in college. If you are planning on taking BC, it is important to pay close attention during AB because BC builds off of past material. Calculus BC is primarily all seniors who took honors geometry freshman year. I believe the teachers thought they could make it work with a mixed class, but really they should have kept the AB students together this year and have one last year of “BC plus” instead of a full-scale switch to “regular” BC (ie a class that just gets to the end of the BC curriculum).AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC are very similar when it comes to workload and how the class is run. ![]() Obviously in this new teaching model it wouldn’t be advisable to take AB and then BC, but my son had no choice. It’s slightly better now but still not very challenging for the AB students. For the first six weeks of school the teacher basically gave the AB kids free periods and just taught the precalc kids sometimes she even released the AB students and made them leave the classroom. His BC class is about a 50/50 mix of kids who took AB and kids who came straight from precalc, and right now the AB kids are bored because the class is currently geared to bringing the precalc kids up to speed. I can see how this will be fine in a year or two but my son’s class is unfortunately caught up in the transition. Students who don’t want to take BC or end with Calc 3 can take AB after precalc, and if they need another math they can take stats. Thus it will be appropriate for students to go from precalc to BC, and then on to Calc 3 if they take BC junior year. The BC course will now spend a lot more time on AB concepts and very little time on anything past BC (or maybe no time, hard to say since this is the first year of the new model). With the recent addition of a separate Calc 3 course, now the school is shifting to different tracks. So for those scoffing at the AB to BC progression model please understand that there are legitimate ways to do it and it isn’t some kind of AP credit grab or anything like that. The students weren’t bored because in their two years they were not just getting to the end of the BC curriculum but moving well past it. Then BC did a very quick review of AB topics to clear out the summer cobwebs, followed by the full BC curriculum and then beyond to multivariable. Up until this year AB taught the full AB curriculum plus a little preview of BC. My son’s school is in the process of switching from sequential AB-BC to an either/or choice. ![]()
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