Okay, well...
I'm in a weird situation here. My school offers Calculus AB. Only Calculus AB. The class seems to be moving to slow for me. I'm not even sure if it's the class itself, it might have something to do with the fact that our teacher is new at teaching Calculus, this is her first year teaching Calculus.
We're using the book Calculus of a single variable, and we just finished Chapter 1 today. We did go through a "Prerequisites" chapter, though. In a month of school (school started sometime August 20th for us), we've gotten through 103 pages of our book. I'm not sure, but this seems kind of slow...
I want to try to get advanced, hopefully far enough, to take the BC test through self-study and maybe personal help from the teacher(She is good at helping one-on-one but doesn't seem to be able the class as a whole too well). To do this, I need help from you guys. Which Calculus BC books do you use? Which are good? Any pointers? Some study guides you can recommend?
For those too lazy to read that
- What Calculus BC book do you use?
- Which are good?
- Any pointers?
- Study guides?
Thanks in advanced
-Alex
(ohaymyfirstpostgrats4me)
In our school the calculus AB and BC classes used the same book, but the BC class went faster and covered a few more chapters (something about polar number and taylor series I believe...). Your book may be the same way in that it can be used for BC, but your class doesn't cover it. I took the course a few years ago, so the book I used proably isn't even available.
I'm pretty sure that you could get to BC level with self study, you seem like a smart kid. I'm happy to help you understand the concepts too that your AB class won't cover if you aren't the best at interpreting the complex language that is math (lots of greek...).
As to study guides, I'm not sure. However if you look through the calculus forum I believe there has been a thread about review books.
Anyhow let me know if you need anything.
(ohhaygrats4you ^^)
[=RoyalBlue][=Comic Sans MS]
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," say Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It
Yeah we used the same book for AB and BC. Right now we're still doing a review of last year. Kinda slow? I'm not sure. But we're using the McDougall-Litell Calculus book. The book is kinda confusing, so I rely on my teacher's notes. Practice the problems. A lot.
"If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?"
Our teacher only teaches by his lectures notes, and we only use the textbook for hmwk. and home reference.
We use [URL=http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51W26F4SMPL._SS500_.jpg]this textbook[/URL]. It's the book we use for both Calculus AB and BC, along with the notes and "lectures" from our teacher. It's ten chapters long, each chapter about fifty pages long. Our class is more based on discussion on the material and trying to see if we can help each other out, as it helps them and also reinforces the material and ingrains it in our brains (our teacher would also explain things on the board, etc.) It's hard to explain, but math is more of a practicing subject rather than a study-this-study-that one. You need to learn the material, practice it a ton of times, then rinse and repeat.
If you're talking about speed, we just finished the first trimester and covered four chapters out of the seven we need for differential calculus (the Calculus AB course). By the second trimester's end, we would already be practicing everything for the AP exam, so by late February/early March, we'll get to work on preparing for the examination. How's that for speed?
My two cents. I say don't take the exam if you haven't taken the course, but that's just my own opinion.
I am taking AB calc on my own as in independent study since I can't skip math courses. That does not seem so bad. Thanks for the advice!
If you want to learn just BC and AB, then got for Larson, Hosteletler, edwards Calculus 8th edition. Shinny cover. If you want to have a book that you can use up till college (it covers multivariable, matrics calculus etc) that is actually a college level book...err....(schist..i just realize i left my book at school).
T_T
But it's fat...and greenish. T_T Heh..sorry..didn't help much.
And if you want to learn Vector Calculus, there is a pretty good one with that title. It's smaller than your normal, and it's yellow-ish.
http://www.mcdougallittell.com/ap/images/book_math_lg_calSV.jpg
That's the first one I mentioned. A good high school level book, covers all the AP stuff. But, not too good for college
http://kcweb.nhmccd.edu/programs/math/courses/covers/m2414-15.jpg
James Stewart's Calculus. My personal favorite. Pretty intense questions, might dicourage some beginners. Really good problems...and it goes up to Calculus DEF