Should you go for AB Calculus Instead?Īlthough you can often secure higher college credits for BC Calculus, you can also take AB Calculus as a great option. For example, a five on the AB Calculus at the University of Michigan College of Engineering gets you four credit hours, while a five on the BC Calculus gets you eight credit hours. This will be very helpful if you are thinking of taking science or engineering courses, as you can jump on the required math courses sooner.

Check with your guidance counselor before signing up to know if it’s possible.įinally, you can get more math credit in college in the majority of cases by directly taking and passing the AP BC Calculus exam. If you are considering taking BC Calculus but aren’t sure whether you can keep up with the course load, this might be a good option. You can drop down to some AP AB Calculus courses if you find BC Calculus more challenging. You can challenge yourself as a high school student if you directly jump to AP Calculus BC. You can also see if you can make room for AP Economics, AP Statistics, or AP Computer Science as a senior. You could also take a more advanced calculus course at a community college or a local university as a senior if you are good at math. And for engineering and science, strong math skills are needed. Taking AP Calculus BC directly indicates that you are motivated and driven in math. This will be especially helpful if you plan to take natural science or engineering courses in college.

Taking the AP Calculus BC exam after directly jumping from Precalculus can be an excellent option if you are up to the challenge. This is because AP Calculus AB is the same as AP Calculus BC just a few extra chapters are thrown in. You can see that most of the topics in both courses are similar. Polar Coordinates, Parametric Equations, and Vector-Valued Functions.Differentiation: Definition and Fundamental Properties.Differentiation: Implicit, Composite, and Inverse Functionsīelow are the main topics covered in the AP Calculus BC course:.Analytical Applications of Differentiation.

Contextual Applications of Differentiation.Topics in AP Calculus ABīelow are the main topics covered in the AP Calculus AB course: However, if you can manage room for only one AP Calculus class, which one should you go for? Let us discuss the topics of each course with their benefits below. In that case, you don’t have to worry about choosing between them. If you decide on taking AB Calculus and BC Calculus serial-wise, suppose you can take AB Calculus as a junior and BC Calculus as a senior. While the AP Calculus BC course often covers the whole Calculus AB syllabus in the first semester, the AB Calculus stretches that syllabus to be covered the entire year. Some schools take two different class periods for AP Calculus BC to protect the length of the syllabus or assign students more intense summer homework. You will get a subscore for AB Calculus when taking the BC exam.īC Calculus is not necessarily more complex than AB Calculus, but as there are a lot of syllabi to cover, the course moves faster, making it more intense than AB Calculus. Everything in AB Calculus is covered in BC Calculus and various topics. You can take either of these classes because they aren’t entirely different. For AP Calculus classes, you have three options- taking AB and BC Calculus as a sequence, taking only AB Calculus, or skipping AB Calculus altogether and directly taking BC Calculus. What are AP Calculus AB Vs BC?ĪP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC are college-level AP courses with Precalculus as the primary prerequisite. This blog will help you gain all the information you need about AB and BC Calculus to decide which one you should take based on your college plans, prerequisite goals, and career goals. Whether you are trying to decide between taking AP calculus AB vs BC or just wondering about the difference between these two AP classes, you are at the right place.

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