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….
This is not slowed down from my H.S. days. To be honest it's about the same although classes are called slightly different things, and topics are moved around a bit.
The 'current' top honors sequence goes. This assumes taking Algebra & Geometry in Junior High. THIS WILL CHANGE NEXT YEAR BECAUSE OF COMMON CORE.
Algebra 2 Honors (freshman)
PreCalc Honors (sophmore)
AP Calculus BC (junior)
AP Stats or AP Computer Science (senior)
There are one or two kids that are one or two years ahead of this. My son didn't get high enough grades to stay in the honors track (but he is still accelerated), and his non-honors pre-calc class is a LOT of review of Algebra II trig and he has been a bit bored, but I don't see the harm in his getting really solid in the algebra and getting better grades. As long as he can take AP Calc BC next year, his semester final is tomorrow. IF he can keep his A then he is probably good to go. Trig is included in geometry, algebra 2, and pre-calc. Pre-Calculus is really mostly a class where topics that haven't been fully covered but are needed for being sucessful in Calculus and varies from school to school.
If you look at the college board web site. You can see that while you can take AB one year, and BC the next year. You can't take both tests in the same year. And BC is designed as a one year course. All the schools that I know of teach this as an either or option. That doesn't mean is HAS to.
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/8031.html
