AP Calculus EXAM

[Algophiliac]

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Does anybody have a general study plan to pass this subject? For some reason, my math skills are atrocious. I'm sick and tired of getting bad test grades and crying the entire night, and I absolutely refuse to do this for another year in college.

So far I have merely been leafing through an AP review book, but the material seems much lighter than what we covered in class. I am having definite issues integrating (haha) everything we learned the entire year, which becomes a problem when I don't know what to use when! Any help would be heavenly. 🙂

 

[EyEnStein 07]

Review your class notes. It could very possibly be that your teacher is over working you all. What were previous year passing scores like? Dont just leaf through your ap book, go to the back and do maybe 10 questions from an actual AP test. See how you do. if you get them right then you shouldnt worry. If you dont, you need to start catching up and reading the book. The AP is coming soon, and you dont have much more time to waste.

I used barrons review back in highschool, im not sure if thats the right book to use. One great thing to do for free response, is go to collegeboards ap central, and you can actually download previous year AP free response questions, and work them out.

If you dont know when to use certain like, such as when to use mean value theroem, rolls theorem, how to find riemann sums, you will be in trouble. Know definitions of limit and how to use it to find the derivative. These things are extremely important during the AP test. You must know them.

Integrating, if you just started it might be bad. But its actually not. I dont know the extent to which you learn it (also idk if your in AB or BC) but do know simple integration, integrals of trig functions, and most importantly how to apply "u" substitution, and perhaps integration by parts, as far as the basics of integration.

I suppose further all you need to know is how to find the area under the curves, area between 2 curves and probably revolution of solids and disks.

 

[Maygyver]

Hey, are you doing AB or BC? If you are doing BC the good thing is that even if you don't do stellar on all of the parts, you can still get a good score on the AB subscore of the test. As far as studying for it, I didn't do any studying outside of school, but in school we went over practice exams from previous years. The exam itself really wasn't all that bad.

 

[Algophiliac]

I am taking the BC exam, but I sincerely doubt I'm going to be doing well on any subscores. 🙁

My main issue in calculus is getting a grasp of "the big picture" and noticing connections. Thanks for the tips, guys! 🙂

EyEnStein 07, yes...I honestly am having difficulty deciding what to use when, because I'm accustomed to having my units broken up into 3-week test portions. For example, how do I know something is not possible to solve without resorting to integration by parts?

I'll begin studying the review book immediately, and any more help for my non-math-oriented intellect would be greatly appreciated. 😀

 

[gabeybaby]

I'm taking AB...I can't imagine what you're going through right now. I get like a million of math problems a day. The same one, over and over and over and over again. Speaking of time waster...

 

[EyEnStein 07]

I am taking the BC exam, but I sincerely doubt I'm going to be doing well on any subscores. 🙁

My main issue in calculus is getting a grasp of "the big picture" and noticing connections. Thanks for the tips, guys! 🙂

EyEnStein 07, yes...I honestly am having difficulty deciding what to use when, because I'm accustomed to having my units broken up into 3-week test portions. For example, how do I know something is not possible to solve without resorting to integration by parts?

I'll begin studying the review book immediately, and any more help for my non-math-oriented intellect would be greatly appreciated. 😀

It all comes with practice. Though usually, the problem might tell you what type of integration to apply. But its key to practice, so you can distinguish (lets use integration for example), when you can normally integrate, when you need the help of natural logs to integrate, when to use "u" substitution, when you need to use manipulate sin cos, double angle formulas/identities to integrate and etc.... I dont think its that bad and definately do-able. Also if your that much in fear, a good calculator (ti89) might help you out in rough cases. Though dont rely on it for everything, just to check your work.

Start that review! also if you have review sessions in school, do attend. Aside from that go to college board and try to google sample AP questions/ previous AP questions.

 

[Crazyday]

I haven't taken calc yet, but I got 104% in a hard trig class so maybe I can give some advice.

Lots of practice. Where you study for other classes, in math classes you work problems. Lots of problems. Doing this will engrave the process in your mind, and the more you do it the quicker you'll be able to recall it, and the easier and less frustrating it becomes.

If you have trouble on a subject, talk to your teacher immediately. Don't wait so long that you fall behind. Most teachers will be happy to help, and it shows you care about how you do in the class and are putting in a lot of effort.

Don't think about it as some insurmountable obstacle. You're better than some graphs and characters on a sheet of paper, and you can beat it if you try hard enough. I think that attitude and believing in yourself is the first step in being successful in anything you do. You just gotta keep believing, and don't give up on it.

 

[Maygyver]

Ask your teacher if he/she has any old AP exams. Take 1 once a week. Practice makes perfect.

 

[Salvorix]

It sounds like your teacher is overworking you, so perhaps the real exam won't be as bad as you think.

I'm pretty worried about it too. I don't really want to take Calculus again in College.

 

[EyEnStein 07]

It sounds like your teacher is overworking you, so perhaps the real exam won't be as bad as you think.

I'm pretty worried about it too. I don't really want to take Calculus again in College.

This is where i disagree. Getting a 5 on the AP is great to transfer over. But if you were smart, you would take it again in College and get an easy A+, more so counted toward your pre-requisite GPA.

 

[Salvorix]

This is where i disagree. Getting a 5 on the AP is great to transfer over. But if you were smart, you would take it again in College and get an easy A+, more so counted toward your pre-requisite GPA.

True 😉 but just because I don't want to take it again in College doesn't mean I actually won't. Either way, studying hard for the AP exam is key.

 

[Algophiliac]

I was under the impression that college calculus is considerably more difficult than high school calculus! Would a 5 necessarily translate into an easy A+?

And thank you so much for all the help! 😀 I've been reviewing so much I dream in numbers now.

 

[Isisfusion]

I was under the impression that college calculus is considerably more difficult than high school calculus! Would a 5 necessarily translate into an easy A+?

And thank you so much for all the help! 😀 I've been reviewing so much I dream in numbers now.

I hate to burst your bubble, but for me that was a no. Remember the AP test is CURVED. I took the AB exam last year and got a 5 but ended up working extremely hard for a friggin' B+ in Calc 2 once I got to college.

I think the only problem for me was I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I had taken a whole school year to learn calc 1 with a decent A and was forced to learn a second year's worth of calculus in 10 weeks. I barely had enough time to do any practice problems.

 

[Algophiliac]

I hate to burst your bubble, but for me that was a no. Remember the AP test is CURVED. I took the AB exam last year and got a 5 but ended up working extremely hard for a friggin' B+ in Calc 2 once I got to college.

I think the only problem for me was I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I had taken a whole school year to learn calc 1 with a decent A and was forced to learn a second year's worth of calculus in 10 weeks. I barely had enough time to do any practice problems.

Right, this is pretty much what I was thinking! Thanks for the input! I doubt I have the stamina to go through all of this again.