AP Calculus
Advanced Placement Calculus BC
I retired at the end of the 2015-2016 school year. Please keep in mind that any information on this page was current for 2015-2016, but may become dated. Please check with your current calculus teacher if in doubt.
Advanced Placement Calculus BC covers the equivalent of three quarters of college calculus. Advanced Placement Calculus AB covers the equivalent of two quarters of college calculus. Most students will choose to take the Advanced Placement Calculus Test in May, and many will receive college credit. For more information, see Advanced Placement at CollegeBoard.com .
Graphing Calculator:
Students will be using graphing calculators in class and when taking the Advanced Placement Test. It is strongly recommended that each student buy his or her own calculator if at all possible. At the time of my retirement, the recommended calculator was the Texas Instruments TI-Nspire cx CAS. This calculator has amazing capabilities and should last you through college. NOTE: Please check with your calculus teacher for the required calculator for your class.
Note: If you already own a Texas Instruments TI‑89 graphing calculator, you may use the TI-89 for calculus and you will not be at a disadvantage.
To summarize, your calculator choices are:
1. Texas Instruments TI-Nspire cx CAS Note: There are multiple versions of the TI-Nspire. Make sure the one that you buy has the letters cx (which designates a color screen) and CAS (which designates a Computer Algebra System). Do not buy any of the other versions.
2. Texas Instruments TI‑89 graphing calculator – You may use either the current Titanium Edition or the older black TI-89.
Students who are also enrolled in A.P. Statistics next year will also be able to use either the TI-Nspire cx CAS or the TI-89 in A.P. Statistics, and do not need to purchase two calculators.
The TI-Nspire cx CAS is often not available locally and will usually have to be ordered from Amazon or another on-line source. Once again, do not buy any other version of the TI-Nspire, no matter what the sales person tells you or what it says on the package.
Textbook:
The textbook I used was: Calculus: Graphical, Numerical, Algebraic by Finney, Demana, Waits & Kennedy, 3rd edition, © 2007. This textbook is the successor to books we have been using for many years. This version is written specifically for Advanced Placement Calculus classes, and includes many enhancements including sample advanced placement style questions.
This is an extensive list of formulas that my classes used in AB Calculus, BC Calculus and Calculus III. The formulas were learned as we needed them, so students did not need to memorize them at the start of the year! Note: The first 8 pages are for AB Calculus, the first 11 pages are for BC Calculus. You may not want to print the entire 19 pages. Note: The current Hanford High School calculus teachers have their own formula lists.
(The list is stored on Google Drive. You will need to download the list.)
Note to other calculus teachers: The above list is in PDF format. If you would like to be able to edit the list for your own use, you may download it in Word 97-2003 by clicking HERE. MathType may be required to read the formulas if you open the list in Word.
Warm-Up Exercises: This is a collection of 126 short PowerPoint warm-up exercises that I used at the start of each class period. They are NOT in order. Teachers who would like to use these in class will need to select the appropriate warmup to use depending on the progress of the class. The Warmup Chart in this folder gives the correlation with the textbook that I was using at the time.
The Slader website provides detailed solutions to most of the problems in our textbook, which is Calculus Graphical Numerical Algebraic Third Edition. Note: This is a third party site and I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the solutions. It is ad supported, and you will need to sign up for a free account to see full worked-out solutions.
More Calculus Related Links: Check out other calculus related websites on the links page at left.