amylou: Your compaction of classes sounds unusual. Everywhere I've seen it.. (including the AP description of classes) AP Calc AB is the first semester of Calculus in one year, AP Calc BC is two semesters in ONE year. When you take the Calc BC test.. you get an AB 'score'. At our school one doesn't take AB Calc one year, and then BC Calc the next. The entire first semester would be review that way. Are you planing on them taking the AP test this year? I assume you know what the curriculum is for your H.S.'s AP Calc BC class. That said, at our school the first few chapters of AP Calc BC class is included in honors pre-calc and since my son isn't honors if he takes BC next year he will have to do some summer study.
Thanks for the fascinating revelation, Bluemagic. This is the recommended course sequence from the HS catalog:
Alg. 2/Trig. Honors (1 year)
Precalc (1 year)
Calc AB (1 year)
Calc BC (1 year)
For our kids, much of precalc is review b/c the Alg. 2/Trig. they had at the middle school was more in-depth than the HS version - that is what prompted the independent study at the HS. And DH and I were aware that this sequence was way slowed down from our HS days back in the dark ages (no precalc, and one year of calculus-with-no-letters). But I didn't realize it was different from other schools -- that is what you are saying, correct? So our "compacting" is effectively putting our kids on a schedule that is "normal" at other schools?? Its no wonder the kids were bored to tears in the classroom, and it also makes more sense that the school went along with our request….
