My son was the opposite of this. He tested into Calc III honors. Taking @ucbalumnus’ advice to review old tests, he did, got a great prof, and a huge head start. Each kid is different.
For sure. I just don’t want kids to feel pressured to skip a class. I know I did better in my engineering classes because I retook it.
I think I agree with @MaineLonghorn with retaking the class, at least in terms of what I think is best for me. Since I already have a foundation in Calculus, I hope it’ll help me get a good baseline for my GPA and lift some of the weight off of my shoulders when I move on to higher level Calc courses.
My orientation session is next week and I will be able to meet with my advisor then.
Fantastic! Be candid about the areas where you had to work extra hard in HS vs. the subjects that came easily to you and you’ll probably end up with a great schedule that’s both challenging AND manageable!!!
Thanks for the help!
For you it may very well have. For my son, he didn’t need it. His math foundation was very solid. He made all As in his collegiate math classes going forward.
There’s a flaw in the logic though. Retaking a class is in no way a guarantee of an “easy A.” College classes move much faster and the tests are more challenging. Many have reported on CC that they retook, learned nothing new, and got Bs.
So, each student is an individual experiment in and of themselves.
Math professors are interested in Math. They will advise you to re take math, everytime.
Engineers are interested in making things. There is not a single engineer that I know personally who will think retaking math is the best use of time. Most know they will learn the math as part of their problem solving.
Here is a UT Austin M408C page with pointers to some old exams that you may want to try to see if you should skip it with AP credit or retake: https://web.ma.utexas.edu/users/rusin/408C-11b/index.html
It worked for me. I’m a structural engineer.
Are you recommending engineering majors to repeat all their math classes?
No, I didn’t say that.
There are big advantages to not repeating if you are ready.
Follow the @ucbalumnus advice. I’ll expand. Take the midterm and final TIMED. If it’s completely foreign, repeat the class. If it’s rusty, brush up on Kahn over the summer. If you crush it, you’re ready with no further prep.
Being ahead buys you the ability to accelerate in all the sequences that require math. By doing so, you will register earlier, can graduates earlier, can get through a 4+1 faster, can take more classes, and/or can take fewer hours during terms with crux classes.
Again, there’s a way to know. Take…the…old…tests!
So we are all saying the same thing. OP should move on to the next class if OP feels ready.
I didn’t really try on the AP exam, so there’s no guarantee I could even claim the credit if I wanted to lol. I decided a while back that I wanted to take Calc AB just for the content anyway, not the credit, because it’s important to me to have a strong foundation in lower-division Calculus. If I had taken BC though, I probably would have tried to go for the credit so I would only need 1 more semester of Calc to do. I did pretty well in AB though so I’m not necessarily concerned about retaking it in college.