<p>Right now, I’m an 8th grader taking 9th grade classes in math (Algebra II) and physics (Physics First). I’m going to high school next year, and by then, I would’ve already finished both the classes. Can I skip/self-study Precalculus and go directly to AP Calculus? Or would that be too painful? Would it be possible for me to try AP Physics next year too?</p>
<p>Also, what are the easiest APs that a freshman could try?</p>
<p>Algebra II is more of an 11th grade class, if you’re going by what the average student takes. </p>
<p>“Can I skip/self-study Precalculus and go directly to AP Calculus?”</p>
<p>Depends on your school’s policies, but I did this and it wasn’t too hard.</p>
<p>“Would it be possible for me to try AP Physics next year too?”</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend it at the same time as AP Calculus. If you have no options outside of what’s offered at your high school, don’t exhaust all your high school courses before junior/senior year.</p>
<p>AP classes often considered easy (though it depends on your school):
Human Geography
Statistics
Environmental Science
Psychology
Microeconomics
Macroeconomics</p>
<p>(I’ve heard some people say the economics are hard, and I’ve heard others say they were easy. So I’m not entirely sure about those.)</p>
<p>Why rush? You will run out of math classes before you graduate and have to take Diff Eq at your local university your senior year. Depends on how good you are in math and how well your math teachers are too; but it will depend more on you. Some of the easier AP classes would be psychology, world history, and geography. In addition, when it comes time to take calc, I would skip AB and take BC instead. That should put you in vector calc your senior year. Anyway, these are my thoughts.</p>
<p>“You will run out of math classes before you graduate and have to take Diff Eq at your local university your senior year”</p>
<p>This isn’t necessarily bad if this option is available to you, though.</p>
<p>The only AP class freshmen are allowed to take at my school is AP Human Geography (unless they credit by exam out of classes).</p>
<p>I’d say go ahead and try to skip to AP Calculus AB if you are getting good grades in math courses and want to search for more of a challenge. I am not a math genius by any means, but Pre-AP (honors) Precalculus was easy to me. I took it my sophomore year, but since you are already taking Algebra 2 as an eighth grader, I don’t really see any harm in aiming for AP Calculus AB.</p>
<p>Just a note, make sure you have a tentative course schedule planned out for the years that you will spend in high school. If you are taking AP Calculus AB as a freshman, you will run out of math courses. This may become a problem if you are wanting only AP courses, etc. Just a heads up!</p>
<p>It depends on your highschool. If you are smart enough, then do it. I’m currently taking Pre-Calc as a freshman, but I should have gotten Calculus AB. :c (My highschool don’t let freshmen take AP classes no matter what)</p>
<p>BUT don’t take it if you are not gonna do well, because there are some topics in pre-calc that you need to know before moving on to Calc</p>
<p>The only reason taking a math at the local university could cause issues, is that you could lose some block time for other classes during the day, unless you take it in the evening. I know students that have done it both ways – during the day and at night. Just keep it in mind as you plan out your schedule.</p>
<p>Like others, I’m inclined to make my first question, “Why such a hurry?” If you’re that good at math, and you like math, and you’d be bored in a class with sophomores and juniors (and maybe seniors) who are slogging through trig plus whatever else is in your precalc syllabus (it can vary a lot), then OK, I guess. If you’re doing this just as a kind of trophy-collecting, it isn’t going to end very well (but I’m not going to be able to talk you out of it, either).</p>
<p>Before you begin studying calculus, you’ll need to know trigonometry pretty well. Not just the SOHCAHTOA they taught you in Geometry, but a bunch more besides. On the other hand, if you’re a gifted math student, you absolutely can learn trig over the summer.</p>
<p>If you’re that gifted a math student, however, you might need to stop thinking in terms of course titles and start thinking instead in terms of course content. If your high school’s precalculus class is mostly stuff from Algebra II (rational equations and functions, logarithmic and exponential equations and functions) and trig, then maybe you would be bored and restless in it, and you should skip it. On the other hand, if it also includes a lot of new topics (e.g., matrices, vectors in 2 and 3 dimensions, polar coordinates and polar form of complex numbers), then you should take it. Because if you keep hurtling through your high school’s math curriculum, some day you will take a class where it’s assumed you know that stuff. As I said, precalculus classes vary a lot. This is because, mathematically, there isn’t any such thing as “precalculus”; “precalculus” is just a kind of catch-all term we use to name the class where we teach a hodgepodge of topics that we want students to know before they start learning calculus. So before I could say whether I thought it was a good idea to skip precalc, I’d have to know what the content of the course would be.</p>
<p>But if you are so talented a math student that you really should skip precalc and take calculus, I agree with goodgig about the AB curriculum. If you’d be bored and unhappy taking precalculus, taking AB calculus isn’t going to make you very much happier. You’ll think it takes a long time to get where it’s going. If you should skip precalculus at all, you should do it to take BC calculus, and (contrapositively) if you shouldn’t take BC calculus, then you shouldn’t skip precalculus.</p>
<p>well I took precalc in 8th grade and am now taking BC calc as a freshman…I would say it is doable, although you probably want to get yourself familiar with limits and derivatives over the summer. </p>
<p>AP Computer Science is a pretty easy AP, I have also heard that economics and stats are doable as well. Right now I am taking AP Chem too but i would not recommend taking it unless you have had chemistry before</p>
<p>Are you insane.
WHY.
WHA-
!
The average freshman at my school takes Geometry. The smartest kids are juniors by the time they take AP Calc AB. Take pre calc.</p>
<p>chill… only a handful of seniors at my school get to calculus. Where I’m from having a junior take that class is unheard of, let alone a freshman. If you’re really interested in math and pre-calc would be too boring for you then go for AB Calc, but if you’re doing this for colleges or something like that just relax.</p>
<p>I’m not really a math person but still, when I first read this my reaction was “why the f*** would anyone ever want to do that.” sorry. But in my school only seniors take ap calculus and one junior who skipped a year. AP calc is HARD and freshman year is already stressful getting used to high school (although you’re already obviously taking high school level classes). And taking ap physics and ap calc at the same time AS A FRESHMAN literally makes my mind spin just thinking about it. Don’t do it for college applications, the miniscule advantage it might give you isnt worth it. Only do it if you really feel that you’ll be bored out of your mind in pre-calc.</p>
<p>Why’s everyone being so discouraging?
If you have all the prereqs, I don’t think there’s any real difference between taking calculus as a freshman and taking it as a junior. It’s two years.</p>
<p>From personal experience, I can say that as long as you learn the trig involved in precalculus very well, you can succeed in calculus AB AP as a freshman. I did have a strong foundation in Algebra 2, so that served me well too. As long as you are willing to learn, you can succeed in calc AB AP and get an A. Best of luck!</p>
<p>I would take precalc, then take BC</p>