<p>Well, I decided to skip the AP Calculus AB test and go straight into the AP Calculus BC test because I knew I had what it takes. This morning I received my scores and I got a 5 on the Calculus BC and a 5 sub-score on the Calculus AB. </p>
<p>Would Yale love to see that I took the extra leap and challenge at taking down the Calculus BC as opposed to AB or would they be nonchalant about the matter?</p>
<p>Is it a great achievement? Sure. Congrats – U should be rightly proud. But will it make you stand out vis-a-vis the other many spectacular applicants? Not really.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t even go so far as to say it is a great achievement. 5s on APs are not hard when your overall % has to be over a 67% (or effectively a D+). In many schools, including mine, AP classes administered NORMAL tests as old exams of the AP in that subject scaled down to fit the time frame or tests are spread over 2 or 3 days. If you got consistent 67% test grades, you would get placed on the academic watch list, not a pat on the back. </p>
<p>Harshly said, APs are a useless measurement of someone’s ability and simply help separate out only the roughest chaff - Collegeboard is a money making machine (despite claims to the contrary) and want as many people to take their tests.</p>
<p>However, if this is a personal achievement for you for certain reasons (self study, extended missed time from school, etc) by all means be proud of your accomplishment.</p>
<p>Processing twenty thousand applications, and seeing that information is just one line in your information section, they will miss the subtlety.</p>
<p>Irrelevant. It would be far more impressive if you didn’t take any formal AP Calculus class yet still managed to get a 5. But since you took a class and simply got a 5 on the BC Exam (which honestly isn’t that difficult to do if you’re mathematically inclined and follow a bit of the BC curriculum) it won’t really be that more (if at all) impressive than taking BC Calc and getting a 5.</p>
<p>Doesn’t really matter. At some schools (mine, at least), you can’t even take AB and then BC because the B part overlaps. Many people skip straight to BC, and the BC 5 rate is like 40-50% nationwide if I remember correctly, so yeah.</p>
<p>Wait, I thought only those who had no choice (if the school didn’t offer BC) or considered math not their strongest subject took Calc AB. Around 60 or so students at my school directly go from precalculus to Calculus BC… around 40 or so students take precalculus and wind up going to AB because they’re under the impression that BC is “too hard”.</p>
<p>In your essays – or in a recommendation – you’ll want (or a recommender will want) to give concrete examples that demonstrate who you are and what kind of student you are and this might be something that will serve you well in that sense because it shows that you were willing to take risks, that you’re a self-starter and prepared for a higher-level exam than required, etc. As a testament to how smart you are…in the pool of Ivy applicants you’re trying to stand out from…then I agree with others above: meh. But if the back story helps give the AdComs a good sense of who you are, then, by all means, see that it gets worked in as a concrete example somewhere – once – in your file.</p>
<p>^eh. You CAN do that. However, you must know that Yale expects as much from it’s applicants. Will it be the reason for your acceptance? Sorry, no.</p>
<p>@nikkor… I wish my school was like that. We have to follow the order alg 1, geo, alg 2, pre calc, then calc AB/BC. Out of the 100-120 kids in advanced precalc, only about 15-20 kids get selected by staff for BC. Then again, it keeps the kids who really shouldn’t take it out… :)</p>