Calculus in high school over two years -- why?

[shravas]

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Calculus A is supposed to be the equivalent of Calc 1 at college. Calculus B is supposed to be the equivalent of Calc 2 at college. So Calc AB is the equivalent of a year of most college’s calculus course.

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<p>Uhh, this doesn’t sound right to me, especially since the way I’ve seen credit for AP Calculus handled in most schools, Calc AB gives a semester’s worth of credit while Calc BC gives a year’s worth of credit. I think the ‘A’ represents pre-calc, ‘B’ represents most school’s Calc 1, and ‘C’ represents most school’s Calc 2, though the classes Calc 1 and Calc 2 don’t seem to be standardized in any way. And that’s why it’s called Calc BC and not Calc ABC. I couldn’t find anything confirming this, so I may be wrong, but this seems to make sense.</p>

<p>And as to why Calculus is sometimes taught in high school over two years, I think that just goes along with a lot of other things that never made sense to me. Why is it that sometimes the only differences between math concepts taught in elementary grades the size of the numbers used? Why does Algebra II consist only of topics taught in Pre-Calculus or Algebra I?</p>