HELP...Is AP calc. crucial for Senior Year?

soozievt
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:34:12 +0000

The most academically selective schools are looking for the student to take a very demanding rigorous and challenging curriculum. I think your D can show that even without AP Calculus given her other rigorous classes. I think it is a good idea to have the guidance counselor comment on the school report how AP Calculus didn’t fit into your D’s schedule.

That said, I will share what my D did due to a schedule conflict. My D took the most demanding schedule her HS offered, but she also accelerated a lot too. She ended up graduating after her junior year (went to HS for three years). She was accelerated in math and was up to AP Calculus in JUNIOR year. However, our high school only offer ONE section of AP Calculus and only seniors are in it (seniors who accelerated in math by one year, but my D had accelerated in math two years and so was the only junior needing AP Calculus). But the AP Calculus was scheduled to work well in the schedule for the most advanced seniors to work around advanced courses in other subjects they would be taking in senior year. For my D, she was in the most advanced English/History (integrated double class curriculum) for juniors and this class (only one section offered) conflicted with AP Calculus which was meant to work for the seniors’ schedules. So, what we arranged was for D to do AP Calculus one period per day as an independent study under the supervision of the math department chair. She sat in his office every day and was given the student notes for the class and all the assignments and did the work on her own and was given all the exams. Basically she didn’t get to hear or participate in the class itself. So, she did AP Calculus that way. Not sure if you can arrange that at your school but we made that happen for our D.

One more idea if you want to pursue AP Calculus…My other D also accelerated in various subjects including math and was also in AP Calculus as a junior in HS, which no other juniors at our school do. She stayed on for senior year and so in order to continue in math, since she had maxed out on our HS’s math curriculum, she took AP Calculus BC long distance through Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (like an independent study program) for credit. She blocked out one period per day in her schedule to work on the course and sat in the math dept. chair’s office. Your D could possibly take AP Calculus AB this way if she wanted to.