AB or BC Calculus Senior Year?

Lergnom
Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:57:54 +0000

mifune, I can think off hand of dozens of courses that are good for the mind and perhaps the soul but I still can’t figure out why someone would subject themselves to BC if they’re not interested in a discipline that requires advanced math, especially if one is still worried at all about getting into a college and thus about one’s grades. BC is arguably the hardest AP course. You can at some schools get double credit - like one of my daughters did - but that’s not a good reason to me.

My daughter took BC because she’s stubborn, hated the attitude of the Russian / Asian boys who dominated AP track, and would prefer to work harder with a risk of not doing well than to have something easier. Turned out she has a gift for integration so she did very well … but she didn’t take a single math class in college and despite the occasional pang of guilt she’s never had a reason to miss it.

My other daughter is much more sensible and took stats because she would actually use stats in nearly any field. I think stats should be mandatory.