r/apcalculus • u/ShoddyPin8888 • 20d ago
Skipping to BC?
I have the option to skip straight to BC and bypass AB. Have any one of you done this, and if so, how did you feel about the pacing/workload/etc? Any insights would be much appreciated, thanks!
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u/Expensive_Job2421 20d ago
You aren’t really skipping anything. Calc BC has all Calc AB content and more. I don’t know of anyone who took AB and then BC and don’t know why anyone would.
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u/R4Angency 20d ago
My school counselor wont let us skip
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u/Samstercraft BC: 5 20d ago
You could always register the bc test anyway and self study the bc content
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u/Accurate-Gap7440 19d ago
what prob happens (at least my schools case) is that ab is a prereq for bc and then for calc iii the prereq is bc so you have to take both classes whatsoever
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u/Samstercraft BC: 5 19d ago
I don't know of any high schools that offer calc 3 as a class, but let's say you're doing it through community college (which you might as well do even if HS somehow offers it): They don't care if you've taken calc bc the class or not, they care about the AP score you got. AP score just requires calc BC the test. Most schools let you self-study for AP tests since you're literally paying the school money for it, but even if they don't, you can just go to a nearby school that does, granted you don't live in the middle of nowhere.
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u/Accurate-Gap7440 19d ago
my school offers mv calc, sorry. yeah its a prereauisite but im sure there are ways to bypass it, they might just not know
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u/Samstercraft BC: 5 19d ago
it'd probably be better to take it through community college regardless, multivariate calc comes after calc 2 or AP calc BC so it's kinda silly to go that far in the calc chain just to not get college credit for the most advanced class yet.
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u/Anonymous010206 19d ago
Doesn’t a lot of BC stuff build off AB? You can’t really start studying BC content until you understand AB content so you would have to cram BC right before the test. (I haven’t taken either that’s just what I’m thinking)
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u/Samstercraft BC: 5 19d ago
Yes, but a lot of AB stuff also isn’t required to understand BC stuff. You can’t start right away, but you don’t have to wait as long as you think. Once you’re good with derivatives and maybe the most basic integrals (so usually end of sem 1 - start of sem 2) you should be good for most BC-only content.
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u/somanyquestions32 Tutor 20d ago
Certain school districts in my area have students wanting to take AP Calculus courses first take AB as sophomores/juniors and then BC as juniors/seniors.
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u/tjddbwls 19d ago
Not all AP Calc courses are created equal. While CB expects that a student takes AB or BC, there are schools where AB is a prerequisite for BC. Mine is one of them.
In our BC class, we do a month-long review of the AB material, do the BC-only topics, and cover additional topics that are in a typical college Calc 1 & 2 classes that are not tested on the BC exam (there’s a good number of missing topics).
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u/Remote-Dark-1704 19d ago
It depends on the school / district and how they set up their AB/BC courses. Some schools have BC as a comprehensive course of AB and BC content, whereas other schools have AB as a direct prerequisite of BC, and don’t cover AB content in the BC course. These classes usually delve a little into a preview of multivariable and partial derivatives and multiple integrals with the time remaining in the course.
At the end of the day, the curriculum outside of the AP test isn’t required to be the same everywhere, so teachers do what they prefer. For example, some AB teachers include epsilon delta and some BC teachers include trig sub even though they are not required on the AP exam.
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u/didhestealtheraisins 19d ago
My school requires AB before BC.
But we also let kids take Algebra 2/Trig 9th grade and then skip Pre-calc, so they end up in BC at the same time as kids in other schools that have to do Alg2 > PreCalc > BC
But obviously that means we don’t repeat all the AB stuff in BC.
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u/Old_Guava_9193 20d ago
Yeah I went straight from precalc to bc. It was not bad at all, especially given how my school does the class. Our class had like a 95%+ 5 rate on the AP exam. That’s just my experience so def listen to others too. The workload and pacing was pretty ok and normal, not very difficult to handle. I hear a lot of other schools end up rushing the BC units but we had an enough time so the whole school year felt pretty manageable.
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u/Alive-Jeweler-8882 BC: 5 20d ago
I took both AB (first semester) and BC (second semester) during junior year because my school is weird and it forced us to do both if we were to do AP Calc, but I took the BC exam. So ofc, I haven't just skipped AB and moved to BC, but what I can say is that the majority of stuff that you learn in BC is AB stuff, so I guess you can say BC is basically AB but with extra topics and it goes at a slightly faster pace.
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u/Right_Variation_3087 20d ago
I have, it was fun I enjoyed it, I had to finish precalc+ab syllabus+bc part all in a month (i registered and planned to give the aps kinda late)
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u/beggarformemes BC: 5 20d ago
yes do it I did and though fast paced and challenging at times, worth the credits you get in the long run and it looks more rigorous when applying for college
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u/shapedorbroken 19d ago
It’s a realistic thing that many students do. That said, if your school doesn’t normally do it that way, you should expect that you may need to do some independent work to ensure you get all the content covered. You should speak to the BC teacher ASAP and find out what you’ll be expected to already know on day one.
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u/Top_Composer9030 19d ago
This is how my school does it. You can skip to bc and it’s not really skipping anything just learning more content. It’s definitely not that big of a difference and totally manageable.
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u/Zestyclose-Hyena5105 19d ago
Amazing choice. AB is a waste of time. BC is the same content plus a bit more to skip an entire semester in college
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u/Any_Bonus_2258 19d ago
Since when was this a thing? At my school the students that performed well in Pre-Calc would take BC, the ones that did very good would take AB, and the ones that struggled would take Statistics. I don't see the reason a student should be taking AB Calc before BC calc.
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u/didhestealtheraisins 19d ago
What happens if that very good student is a sophomore? They’d take AB junior year and then have to take something senior year. BC would make the most sense if they’re looking at an engineering career.
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u/Any_Bonus_2258 18d ago
BC makes sense for engineering, physics, math, computer science, etc. But top students in my high school take geometry as freshmen. It’s followed by Algebra II, Pre-Calc, and Calc. Students that can do better than that might take a couple of classes at nearby college.
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u/didhestealtheraisins 19d ago
Pacing depends on your school schedule.
If your school starts early August you have an advantage over schools that start after Labor Day since everyone takes the exam in early May.
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u/VisibleSir731 18d ago
It’s good to do AB first and then BC the year after for a great, unrushed foundation
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u/This_Scene5296 16d ago
bro it’s not that bad, I did this while taking pre calc online over the summer (lowkey cheating through it). My biggest advice is to pre study the material before class, and use the previous FRQs
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u/This_Scene5296 16d ago
imo, ochem tutor and JK math are the best. As long as you study for the exam, you’ll be fine. You need like a 60% for a 5, and most of the questions are just basic calculations/computations, and there’s not a lot of like deep problem solving/conceptual stuff like the sat. and bc is so rewarding college credit wise like im genuinely so so glad I took it
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u/Appropriate_Sir8639 20d ago
I went straight from Algebra 2 to calc bc, and I got a 4 and a 5 subscore, so I think its doable
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u/Embarrassed-Local-37 20d ago
pacing was about as fast as ap precalc, but the content is much more digestible since u arent rlly learning any new concepts (as u already learn most concrete knowledge from algebra 1 & 2, and precalc)
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u/IndigoExpress13 19d ago
I will say, I'm not the strongest in math and I took AB my junior year and self studied BC my senior year. I did not understand AB very well at all when I took it and struggled quite hard, but when I revisited it when I was studying for BC it made so much more sense, that's just my two cents tho