<p>AP Calculus AB will be a gentler introduction to calculus than a university calculus course. AP Calculus AB covers about a semester’s worth of university calculus over a year, whereas if you wait until you are a freshman in university, you will have to cover that material at twice the speed.</p>
<p>And if you do not do that well in the course or AP test, you could just take first semester university calculus over, discarding the AP credit (if any), but with some knowledge from having taken AP Calculus AB in high school.</p>
<p>However, this does assume a reasonable knowledge of precalculus. You may want to try the on-line placement exam found here:
[Choosing</a> the First Math Course at UC Berkeley - UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics](<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_1stcourse.html]Choosing”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_1stcourse.html)
to see how well you know the precalculus concepts needed before taking calculus.</p>
<p>Note that business majors do have to take calculus (although it can be an easier “calculus for business majors”). Philosophy majors have to take a course in logic, which uses similar thought processes as math.</p>