r/apcalculus

Hey everyone! I’m a senior planning to self-study AP Calc BC this year. I took AP Precalc last year and got a 5, but my school won’t let me skip AP Calc AB and go straight into BC. Because of that, I decided to take AP Stats at school and self-study Calc BC on my own.

For anyone who has self-studied BC, how would you recommend pacing the course throughout the year? Ideally, I want to finish the content early enough to have plenty of time for review and practice exams before the AP test.

I’m also considering using UC Scout for the course. Do you think it’s worth it, or would I be better off using free resources like Khan Academy, YouTube, or other materials?

Any advice on pacing, study schedules, textbooks, YouTube channels, or other resources would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Hello, so I am taking AP Calc AB this year, and I know AP Calc bc is the same as ab but then adds on additional units. After I'm done ab should I try and self study bc or would it be too difficult? I believe bc is supposed to be calc 2? I know Calc 2 is considered the hardest calc class. I plan to major in Math, and my school only has a calc AB class no bc. So I was just wondering. So after we are done Calc AB should I try self study BC? If we finish early, my teacher probably would help if I have questions.

Hello, I was hoping for some advice on my course selection.

Basically, I have a schedule conflict forcing me to choose between AP Calc AB Online and AP calc BC in-person. The AB would be an online course on One Schoolhouse. I am not entirely sure of it's difficulty but taking the class would most likely result in a higher grade and could help my GPA (my school gives a reward for the highest GPA at the end of junior year).

Additional Context: My school has an AB and BC track, with Algebra 2 and Pre-Calc split into Honors Algebra 2 AB and Honors Algebra 2 BC (the same applies to Pre-Calc). The BC students probably have covered more material(which shouldn't be too hard to catch up on).

My other option is to pick BC in-person. The BC at my school is fairly hard (around 4 kids including me are taking it out of 100 students).

I am planning on applying for biomed but do have an interest in comp sci and do have the option of taking linear algebra regardless of the math I choose. My biggest concern is:

1. After enrolling for BC I cannot drop it

2. I took and dropped the class last year (it did not go on my transcript) and struggled with it a bit. I did not do very well, with around a C average, but I raised my grade to an A in AB. However, the old teacher, who was very tough, was replaced by the old AP Calc AB teacher, who is supposed to be a good teacher. I also think I have gotten better at math and had a confidence issue last year.

My current schedule includes APUSH, AP Chem, Molecular Bio (Waksman), and a couple of other honors classes, along with MANY ecs after school including research, work with professors and clubs and projects to work on. AB would most likely give me more time for other classes.

I essentially have two questions:

If anyone has any knowledge of the difficulty and structure of One Schoolhouse or any similar online programs, what are they like?

Which class should I take: AP Calc BC or AB?

Sorry for the messy post, but I appreciate any and all advice.

TLDR; I have to choose between an online AB course and in-person BC course as an aspiring premed student aiming for good colleges. BC much harder compared to AB.

Ill also consider printing each packet if my school will allow me since i dont own a printer

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Please if anyone has this pdf. I need it badly and it would be greatly appreciated. The authors are Stephen Kokoska and John Stewart.

Incoming junior Pls give me help or advice. litterealy anything. All i can think of doing is searching up some random bc calc review channel and khan acadamy for like 1-2 hours a day

does studying calc 2 on khan academy help??

Incoming Junior and I cant take BC or AB in my school since it aint offered and ap coordinator told me it wont be added at all by the time i graduate. I want to self study BC junior year since i would honestly like to self study Physics C Mech if I do really well on calc BC.

I already got a decent plan of going to khan acadamy and reviewing and practicing problems and using youtube reviews (a good one i heard of is the Algebros) for each topic per unit.

Ive also thought and really considered having a seperate notebook meant for Calc BC notes where every 1-2 pages i will write notes on how to tell how to solve specific functions/graphs/etc and how to take shortcuts while solving those specific problems.

Im thinking in the first few pages/at the start of my review notebook i would quickly look at and see the topics of precalc (specificly AP Precalc) that WILL be on calc bc that I should make notes of. Such as unit circle, polar coordinates, and vectors. Ik theres a few more i forgot to add and ill try and look into it

Ive did this similar thing when i took APWH (took the class with a 4) and i just had a seperate APWH notebook and i would have pages going periodically though every time period and writing like a few simple sentences on what happened, who did it and what the aftermath was.

Is this good or bad to do and pls tell me if i can improve on this notebook method?

i took precalc bc last year, and it was very easy for me (ended with a very high A) mainly bc my a2 teacher went very in depth so precalc was more of like a review. however, im worried calc bc will be very different and much more difficult.

to ppl who had similar situations, how difficutl was calc bc for you and how much time did you spend per day studying/doing work to get an A? also, what is it exactly that makes calc bc diffcult? like content wise going in depth, or too much content in too little time, etc.

any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

One of my friends last school year was talking about how, during the FRQ section of the AP Calculus AB/BC exam, you could get extra time during the calculator section (which is tested first) by keeping your screen on the page that appears when BlueBook auto switches ur screen to the transition instruction page between the calc and no calc section as time is paused. Thus giving u time to work on whatever u remember, writing, plugging stuff into calculator, etc. Is this true, idk if he ever did it or not. I'm not in high school anymore, but I js randomly started to think about it.

Today our teacher was asking if we wanted to use the inspire or desmos mainly, but we could also use a secondary calculator. I thought the inspire was too annoying to figure out so I decided to use my ti 84 plus ce and Desmos for the class. Is that a mistake???

hi guys
im planning on doing ap calc bc and physics c mech as a rising senior
i haven't taken ap precalc before, but i have taken precalc topics before

do u guys think self studying both is doable? if yes can u guys recommend any resources/books

thanks in advance!

Incoming junior here and my school dont offer any calc bc and ap coordinator confirmed bc or ab wont be added at all by the time im a senior. I havent taken precalc since thats only at senior year my school makes me take and im taking geometry in junior year. In algebra 1 and 2 trig I didnt struggle at all in the exams. BUT i did kinda get confused on the trig stuff in Algebra 2 but i just did the SOH-CAH-TOA trick which helped a lot. My averages were 94% and 96%. I really wanna take exam for calc bc and my coordinator told me i can register for exam at my school but would still have to pay the fee. My family is low income and they told me they cant afford to pay the whole $99 fee. Im also a NYC student so idk if diff states qualify for extra fee reductions. My parents can afford if its like 30 or below. Is it possible for me to self study it and pass the exam. Btw 1 of my cousion's have taken AP Calc BC exam so i could try and ask him to borrow any textbooks to use.

I'll also consider taking the CLEP calc exam alongside in case I end up doing bad on the exam.

(Pls give me advice and what i should do in my situation)

I am currently a sophomore taking these classes (AP): Calc AB, Stats, Physics 1, Lang
These classes non-AP: chem honors, world history

So I want to pursue a career in math (looking into pure/applied math majors- I really want to major in math). I want to try a dual enrollment program next year that my school offers, but you have to take a higher level calc as a prereq. So, would it be feasible with my schedule to take the BC exam while doing the AB class? I know my classes are pretty heavy (I think they are pretty cool so far), but I don't want to make a bad decision by signing up for the exam and then failing it. I know flippedmath and khan academy are good resources, but is it realistic for me, given I already have a tough schedule?

Is it realistic to self-study AP Calculus AB and get a 5 without taking the class? If so, how much work would I realistically need to put in each day/week, and what resources would you recommend?