Math Help Please! 1A or 1B with Calc AB credit?

caprizep
Fri, 08 Jun 2012 03:32:39 +0000

I was in the exact same situation as you (5 on AP Calc AB junior year of HS, AP Stats senior year) as an incoming freshman and I chose to skip 1A and go straight into 1B. I knew it would be risky as 1B has earned some notoriety as a difficult class and as I, like you, was coming off a year-long break from calculus, but I decided to give it a shot and actually ended up doing well in the course.

If you take 1B fall semester, keep in mind that many of your classmates will either be (a) fellow first-years who took AP Calc BC and thus have already seen much of the material taught in this course and (b) second-years who took Math 1A in a previous semester and for whom the material is new/unfamiliar but not the rigor or structure of this type of course (Math 1A and 1B are pretty similar in these aspects). So you might be at somewhat of a disadvantage, especially at the beginning of the course, but as long as you put in enough work/effort and have the right amount of motivation, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about not being on equal footing with the rest of the class.