<p>My kids’ hs used to offer AP BC calculus to the very best math students in the junior year, and AB in the junior year followed by BC in the senior year to others. But so many kids in the first group struggled with the material that the policy has now changed, and everybody, no matter what his or her math talent, has to follow the slower 2-year route.</p>
<p>My S took AB calculus in his junior year, got a 5 on the exam, but couldn’t proceed to BC because of a schedule conflict. So he took 2nd semester calculus for engineers at our state flagship (which is local for us). He found the university course far more demanding, interesting, and proof-oriented than the AP class, even though it technically covered the same material as BC. If I had known about this lack of correlation, I think I would have advised him to take calculus from scratch in college. In general I think the AP classes are great preparation for college, but I don’t think the AP classes my kids have taken are really as challenging as an introductory class at an elite college. For instance, in AP English Language, my S had to write, I think, 5 papers over the course of the year. In a freshman comp class, he’d have to write a paper every week.</p>