AP Calculus Courses

Overview of the course

There are 4 mathematics courses in the AP mathematics program. They are Pre-AP Mathematics (pre-calculus), AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, and AP Statistics. Most AP centers offer Pre-calculus in year 1, Calculus AB and/or Calculus BC in year 2, and Calculus BC and/or Statistics in year 3.

The goals of the pre-calculus course are to study functions and trigonometry, prepare students for calculus, and introduce basic concepts in statistics. Both the Calculus AB and Calculus BC courses cover all topics as stated in the College Board course description for each Calculus course. Calculus AB covers the following major topic areas: analysis of functions, limits, derivatives, and integrals. Calculus BC covers all the Calculus AB topics plus infinite series and parametric, polar and vector functions.

The AP Statistics course also covers all topics as stated in the College Board course description. Major topic areas are as follows: descriptive statistics, sampling and experimentation, probability and sampling distributions, and statistical inference. In addition, planning and conducting studies is an important part of this statistics course.

Most students have a strong mathematical background from the Chinese school system, so extra emphasis is placed on vocabulary, definition of terms and the understanding of real-world applications.