Feasible Junior Schedule & AP Calc Questions

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
1

<p>My school is scheduling classes for next year, and I am thinking about the following classes for my junior year:</p>

<ul>
<li>Honors Pre-Calculus</li>
<li>Honors Physics</li>
<li>AP US Gov</li>
<li>AP English Lang & Comp</li>
<li>AP Computer Science</li>
<li>AP Calculus AB</li>
<li>French I</li>
<li>French II</li>
</ul>

<p>Pre-Calc and Calc AB (along with French) would obviously run in consecutive, separate semesters. My biggest concern with this is whether or not to do BC rather than AB. I’m planning on doing AB as a junior, then BC as a senior, but I’m not sure whether this is a good idea or not. Is this useless? I know that BC covers AB material, I’m just under the assumption that doing AB would better prepare me for BC the year after.</p>

<p>Also, is taking 4 APs practical? I FEEL like I can handle the work load—I took 2 APs (stats & apush) and 4 honors classes this year, and am faring quite well (All As). Also, my government and english teacher will actually be the same teachers as I have now, so I know their teaching style already.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Calc is just Calc I guess, its pretty hard at my school, I can’t answer the AB vs BC as I only took AB. English Lang, again, I only took English Lit so know nothing about Lang.</p>

<p>Good news though I can tell you! Govt and Comp Sci are pretty easy. </p>

<p>AP US Govt: You’ll be fine, its a pretty easy exam and at my school and easy class. Some like 55-75% of the exam is institutions of government…the other 25% or what not is the other 4-5 chapters. Plus taking AP USH, you’ll have an idea of important supreme court cases and a lot of the history behind it such as political parties and the whole federalism chapter. </p>

<p>AP Comp Sci: I taught myself C++ prior to taking AP Java, and it was pretty easy to pick up Java. There are SO many Java tutorials online, its insane. <a href=“Learn Java Programming- The Basics - YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAA5DE54FB5215EC&lt;/a&gt; here is a good playlist. So if you want to learn it prior over the summer, or just have trouble while taking the class, its easy to get assistance. </p>

3

<p>So, if you are running math and french on a block schedule, that means that you are asking if you should take Calc BC next Spring? No. Take AB, and take BC the following year. BC starts with a very rapid review of AP topics and then quickly moves into the BC topics. Taking 1 semester of BC without an AB background is like cramming College calc 1 and 2 into 1 semester…Suicide. People who have taken BC after precalc generally have the class for a year, so it more manageable.</p>

<p>The rest of your schedule is fine.</p>

4

<p>

Wouldn’t it be more like taking Calculus I and II in two semesters (like they’re actually done in college), because high school classes either last twice as long as college classes or meet twice as often?</p>

5

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</p>

<p>No. OP is saying they have a block system. So they take 4 courses per semester, and each period is double the time so Calc BC is one semester, not 2.</p>

6

<p>I was referring to block scheduling when I said “meet twice as often.” My school had block scheduling, and the way they did it was that we had four classes every day, and we completely switched classes halfway through the year. In theory it’s not supposed to be any different from regular scheduling in terms of how much you can learn, because you’re in class for the same amount of time either way, but I can see how it might be hard to learn calculus that fast even if you’re in class a lot. </p>

7

<p>@halcyonheather OK. we are on the same page as to what block scheduling means. I have no personal experience with block scheduling, but I am a STEM guy,and I have taken Calc BC. I cannot imagine trying to cram this into 1 semester. Someone with personal experience can weigh in.</p>

8

<p>Most schools teach BC following precalculus. But some require AB first. If your school doesn’t require or expect AB first, then you should be fine taking BC–they will be teaching AB. If they do require/expect AB, then I think it would be a bad idea to try to take BC in the spring semester following precalc. If you were really motivated, you could potentially self-study some of the AB material, and take BC in the fall, but that isn’t going to work on a semester block schedule, you would need the time over the summer.</p>