Is it too early do take AP Calculus BC in sophomore year of high school?

[nicole21k]

What are your thoughts? My brother wants to take it in his Sophomore year but I am encouraging him to wait until Junior year. I personally have never taken the class so can anybody help me out?

[abc3643]

That depends on how comfortable you are with algebra and some geometry already.
Doing proofs in geometry is one thing, but understanding some basics concepts from geometry is critical to understanding the basics of calculus.

Calculus, in a sense, is giant mental exercise of taking the visible and tangible and taking them to infinite extremes.

Here is a for instance...
Do you know how to compute the slope of a line given two points of that line?
Now, imagine that line is curved, but you still want the slope of the straight line between those two points.
Now, ask yourself: What happens to the value of the slope that I compute as I move the two points closer and closer together? So close, that the distance between them is infinitesimal?
In calculus, we call that computed slope a "derivative". But, you see, we arrived at it from computing the slope of a visibly tangible straight line between two points but then we moved those two points so close together that, for all intents and purposes, they are one point. This is an example of what calculus is about: taking what you can understand in tangibles and then taking limits on them so they are no longer tangible, but still have answers.

So, to do calculus, you need to be able to have the mental fortitude to think abstractly enough to take the tangible and make it intangible.

If your brother is already proficient at algebra (and, preferably, trigonometry) and basic geometry, then he can give it a shot. I suspect he should wait though... There's nothing stopping him from trying to learn on his own first so he will be better prepared when he actually takes the class.

[LiamJHayden]

I took it in junior year and I was the only non-senior in it. I also won the Mathematical Association of America award for my school in my sophomore year, but I still barely passed the AP Calculus test near the end of my junior year. But if he can do it, he can do it. Worst case, if he does not pass the actual AP test he can take a Calculus class during summer intersession in a local community college and likely pass that, ending the need to retake the class and test.

[slatyb]

Not if you can do it. Is that the terminal course at your school? If so, could you attend college math classes? I learned calculus when I was 11 from my mother's college textbook.

[PessicaJeter]

No definitely not lol.

[In_Trance]

nope