Precalculus and Calculus AB vs. BC

Pre-College Topics High School Life
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<p>Currently, I am taking PreCalculus BC and am struggling to keep a decent A in the class. I’m not having a problem with learning the material, but the problem is that my teacher doesn’t teach that well. I am staying up until around 2-3am teaching myself the material and waking up at 6am throughout the week, which gets exhausting. Another problem is that the class is lowering my GPA. I understand that an A in any class is a great achievement but in my high school class, a small GPA drop can drop your class rank by a huge amount. About 50% of students have dropped the class since it was effecting their GPA and joined PreCalculus AB, which most students are earning 100s in the class. I want to attend UC Berkeley Engineering but I don’t know if admissions would rather see BC than AB. Does it matter which class I take? Would a low A in BC be more appealing to colleges than a high A in AB? </p>

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<p>If you are going into engineering, BC Calculus looks better. But since you are struggling so much, I would recommend you to drop the class. AB is a perfectly respectable class to take.</p>

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<p>To colleges, A+ is the same as A-.</p>

<p>If you can get an A in Calc BC, continue. It’s not like calculus is going away any time soon, since you plan to be an engineer.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

4

<p>Are you taking a pre-calculus class or a calculus class? What is the difference between Precalculus AB and Precalculus BC at your school? </p>

<p>I don’t think it matters what level of pre-calculus you take. Dropping down a level wouldn’t be a big deal, especially if you complete AP Calculus BC by the end of high school regardless.

Source? </p>

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<p>First of all, thanks for the replies! I am taking a Precalculus class currently. The reason why I mentioned calculus bc is because it will be the same teacher teaching the class (if enough people request to take it). The difference between AB and BC is that BC goes faster (atleast for my school). By the end of this fall semester, we will have covered almost the entire AB curriculum. </p>

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<p>CollegeConfidential</p>

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<p>Yes, that is exactly what BC is. It’s Calc I and II over 2 semester usually while AB is Calc I over two semesters. On the AP Calc BC exam, there is a subscore for AB - the score you received on the parts in AB calc.</p>