Get Ready for AP Calculus
Our math department is generally pleased with the "Get Ready for AP Calculus" course and we plan to use it as a summer refresher for students entering AP Calculus BC in the fall. I would like to make a couple of suggestions that would be helpful for incoming AP Calc students. First, include some practice with log and exponential functions in the natural base. Virtually everything we do in AP Calc is in base e and, if not given in base e, then we convert to base e. Experience with other bases is helpful but less emphasis on other bases and more practice in base e would be better. Second, trigonometry practice should be mostly in radians and mostly using special angles. Some practice to help students make the transition is fine, but students getting ready for calculus should be fluent in radians and special angles. Too much of the practice currently in "Get Ready for AP Calculus" is in degrees and no trig equation practice is given for radians/special angles.
Thank you for considering my suggestions,
Susan (20+ year AP Calc instructor)
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