Exams for AP Calculus are scheduled for Tuesday May 5, 2020 at 08:00 local time. It will soon be time to start reviewing for the AP Calculus Exams. So, it’s time to start planning your review. For the next weeks through the beginning of April I will be posting notes for reviewing. There are not…
The new 2019 AP Calculus AB and BC Course and Exam Description is now available. New and experienced AP Calculus teachers should download a copy and read it carefully. (A paper copy with binder can be ordered here – it’s FREE.) The main sections of the book are here with notes on each. Part 1: General…
Why “scaling” is necessary No teacher can make two tests on the same topics equal in difficulty. No two teachers, even if they collaborate, can make two tests on the same topic equal in difficulty. No two teachers in different schools, districts, or states can make two tests on the same subject equal in difficulty.…
I got to thinking about grading the other day after seeing a question on Facebook. We’ll get to that question in a minute, but first I want to try to outline a grading scheme I used towards the end of my teaching career. It is based on how free-response question on AP Calculus exams are…
Some thoughts on pacing and planning your year’s work for AP Calculus AB or BC. The ideas are my own and are only suggestions for you to consider. Almost all textbooks provide an AP pacing guide among their ancillary material. You can consult the guide for your book for specific suggestions for the number of days…
I didn’t come across anything calculusy to write about this week, so here are a few other items you might be interested in. Two Explorations Two explorations previously posted on topics that come up this time of year. Differential Equations. An exploration in Differential Equations is a summary/review exploration in which students will work with…
Thoughts on the power series for , which I found curious. Last week someone asked me a question about the Maclaurin series for . Finding the Maclaurin series is straightforward: Substituting for x gives We can find the radius and interval of convergence by using the Ratio test: This indicates that Maclaurin series…
A know a lot of people like mathematics because there is only one answer, everything is exact. Alas, that’s not really the case. Numbers written as non-terminating decimals are not “exact;” they must be rounded or truncated somewhere. Even things like and 5/17 may look “exact,” but if you ever had to measure something to…
A common question in (older?) textbooks is to give students a function or relation and have them graph it without technology (because in the old days technology was not available). Students had to find all the appropriate information without hints or further direction: they were supposed to know what to do and do it. AP…
Unit 10 covers sequences and series. These are BC only topics (CED – 2019 p. 177 – 197). These topics account for about 17 – 18% of questions on the BC exam. Topics 10.1 – 10.2 Topic 10.1: Defining Convergent and Divergent Series. Topic 10. 2: Working with Geometric Series. Including the formula for the sum…
Unit 9 includes all the topics listed in the title. These are BC only topics (CED – 2019 p. 163 – 176). These topics account for about 11 – 12% of questions on the BC exam. Comments on Prerequisites: In BC Calculus the work with parametric, vector, and polar equations is somewhat limited. I always…
There was a very interesting post in the AP Calc TEACHERS – AB/BC Facebook page last week. It discussed an apparently new method for solving quadratic equation without guess-and-check factoring, completing the square, or the quadratic formula. It was discovered by Dr. Po-Shen Loh of Carnegie Mellon University. The full article is here. The article…
