AoPS Calculus and AP Calculus BC

[crazyforlatin]

I have the book but I don't know enough about calculus or the AP to know what is missing from the book for the test. Dd has a place to learn all the topics for BC except differential calculus. I haven't confirmed this yet but I do know that differential calculus will not be taught.

What have your kids done to fill in the gaps? How long would it take? And is it very difficult to do this on one's own? 

Thanks so much!

[regentrude]

1 hour ago, crazyforlatin said:

I have the book but I don't know enough about calculus or the AP to know what is missing from the book for the test. Dd has a place to learn all the topics for BC except differential calculus. I haven't confirmed this yet but I do know that differential calculus will not be taught.

Huh? What are they teaching for calculus then? Differential calculus is the first thing any calc 1 course does, typically before integral calculus.

[daijobu]

I also scratched my head, isn't finding the derivative basically the first half of calculus?  

In answer to your question about preparing for the AP exam, I recommend going through the College Board audit so you can access their Question Bank and old exams.  There are some idiosyncratic questions on the AP exam that you don't want to be parsing for the first time on the exam itself.   There are lots more resources available once you get approved.  

If you select one of their sample syllabi, your approval will be automatic and within a few hours.  If you submit your own syllabus...expect to wait several weeks or months for approval.

I do this for my students who are using AoPS for calculus because the textbook doesn't have enough or the right kind of practice problems to ace the BC exam.  

[daijobu]

I'll add that the Question Bank is really lovely.  You can select problem topics, calculators or no, and generate nice worksheets with tons of practice problems and detailed solutions.  It's terrific resource for prep.  

[crazyforlatin]

I just confirmed that Dd needs to learn differential calculus on her own before she can go into integral calculus. We have a scheduling conflict so can't enroll in differential until after the winter break for the integral and by doing this, she won't be able to take AP BC this school year - it would have to be in her senior year of high school. We wouldn't be able to send scores in time.

I rushed here without understanding why they couldn't cover it in time for her to take the AP.

Could Dd use AoPS Calc or maybe some other text to cover this during winter break? 

I don't really want her to cram in differential calculus during winter break if it normally takes 16 weeks to learn. 

 

 

[regentrude]

28 minutes ago, crazyforlatin said:

I just confirmed that Dd needs to learn differential calculus on her own before she can go into integral calculus. We have a scheduling conflict so can't enroll in differential until after the winter break for the integral and by doing this, she won't be able to take AP BC this school year - it would have to be in her senior year of high school. We wouldn't be able to send scores in time.

I rushed here without understanding why they couldn't cover it in time for her to take the AP.

Could Dd use AoPS Calc or maybe some other text to cover this during winter break? 

I don't really want her to cram in differential calculus during winter break if it normally takes 16 weeks to learn. 

OK, so differential calc does NOT take 16 weeks to learn. A college calc 1 course covers differential and some integral calc in one semester. It does not delve deeply into integration techniques, but covers basic integration of elementary functions.

AoPS Calc is much more theoretical than the other AoPS books. It certainly covers differential calc; however, it uses the epsilon-delta approach which I personally love and prefer on a math pedagogy level, but which many college calc courses relegate to calc 2. ( I don't believe epsilon delta is covered in BC at all? - somebody correct me if I'm wrong)

She can certainly learn all the calc from the AoPS text and then just augment with some targeted test prep to aim for the AP BC.
For a shorter, less deep way, I recommend a standard text like Foerster Calculus with early transcendentals.

[crazyforlatin]

1 minute ago, regentrude said:

OK, so differential calc does NOT take 16 weeks to learn. A college calc 1 course covers differential and some integral calc in one semester. It does not delve deeply into integration techniques, but covers basic integration of elementary functions.

AoPS Calc is much more theoretical than the other AoPS books. It certainly covers differential calc; however, it uses the epsilon-delta approach which I personally love and prefer on a math pedagogy level, but which many college calc courses relegate to calc 2. ( I don't believe epsilon delta is covered in BC at all? - somebody correct me if I'm wrong)

She can certainly learn all the calc from the AoPS text and then just augment with some targeted test prep to aim for the AP BC.
For a shorter, less deep way, I recommend a standard text like Foerster Calculus with early transcendentals.

Thank you! I'm going to order Foerster, the only one high school Foerster math book that I don't have. I think in our case it'll be more efficient to take a more traditional path. 

[Arcadia]

10 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

What have your kids done to fill in the gaps? How long would it take? And is it very difficult to do this on one's own? 

The Barrons test prep book. DS16 took the aops calculus online class and then did test prep after that class ended. So about two weeks. He was in 7th grade so had a lot of free time to prep for AP exams.

DS15 used this Larson book. I gave that book away to a friend already. 

https://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Ron-Larson/dp/1285057090/

If you are looking at community college equivalents, you would be looking at whatever calculus courses are usually listed before multivariable differential equations/linear algebra. Or just look at the community college’s AP credit chart.