Calculus Student Advice videos!
All of the following students below were gracious enough to take the time to record videos for you, full of advice, suggestions, and tips for how to succeed at calculus. If I were you, I would listen to what they had to say - every student on here got at least a 4 on the AP test.
Name: Andrew Rubalcava
Classes: BC class of 2016-2017
Scores: 5 on BC
College attended: UC San Diego
Summary: Andrew shares his story of struggling in Calculus AB but having it all come together and kicking butt in Calculus BC and is now doing even more math in college! This 4m55s video is full of great advice:
Name: Dominique Granucci
Classes: AB class of 2017-2018, BC class of 2018-2019
Scores: 5 on AB, 5 on BC
College attended: Baylor University
Summary: Dominique is one of the most impressive all-around students I've ever had. She was naturally quite bright but she really put in the work too, which just amplified her brightness. She gives some very good advice on a variety of topics in this very thorough and organized 8m19s video:
Names: Andrew Schweitzer, Katelyn Vuong, Nicole Quinteros
Classes: AB class of 2018-2019, BC class of 2019-2020
Scores: all 3 got 4s on AB, all 3 got 5s on BC
Colleges attended: UCLA, UC Davis, UC Irvine, respectively
Summary: Andrew, Katelyn, and Nicole all share their best practices for how to really succeed in Calculus. This 7m06s video is particularly good because they all found success in various ways. Plus it's funny to watch Katelyn eat a gigantic slice of watermelon:
Name: Andre Garcia
Classes: AB class of 2018-2019, BC class of 2019-2020
Scores: 4 on AB, 5 on BC
College attended: UC Berkeley
Summary: Andre gives a very well-edited 8m46s video giving multiple pieces of advice that helped him in AB and eventually get a 5 on the BC test. But he said I have a dumb attitude, so that's not very nice:
Name: Denise Ramirez
Classes: AB class of 2019-2020
Scores: 5 on AB
College attended: Azusa Pacific University
Summary: Denise tells a particularly good story. She struggled a bit at first, but instead of just giving up or blaming other people, she looked within and realized she wasn't doing everything she could be doing, so she doubled down on her effort and ended up acing the AB exam. She gives more details in this 4m45s video:
Name: Spandan Suthar
Classes: AB class of 2019-2020, BC class of 2020-2021
Scores: 5 on AB, 5 on BC
College attended: ???
Summary: Spandan took AB as a sophomore and will be taking BC this year, and I fully expect that he'll do just as great. I don't know what he'll be doing as a senior. Maybe he can take over my calculus classes and I can take a nap. Anyway, he shares a few short words in this 37s video about what helped him become a calculus superstar:
Names: Cheryl Rico, Anthony Toribio
Classes: AB class of 2018-2019, BC class of 2019-2020
Scores: both got 3s on AB, both got 5s on BC
Colleges attended: both went on to UC Irvine
Summary: Cheryl and Anthony were two of the funniest but also most hard-working kids I've ever had. Their advice in this 4m09s video is more specifically tailored for you incoming BC kids who took AB last year and thought it was hard and maybe have PTSD from the experience:
Names: Jezabel Rodriguez, George Zhang
Classes: AB class of 2019-2020, BC class of 2020-2021
Scores: both got 5s on AB, George got 5 on BC (Jezabel did not take the BC exam, grrr)
Colleges attended: USC and Pitzer, respectively
Summary: Jezabel and George both did great in AB and they'll probably do great in BC as well. They get bonus points for respecting social distancing/masks in this video! But they get negative points because George called me 'sassy'. It's a short 40s video, but it gives some good advice:
Name: Kelly Hernandez
Classes: AB class of 2019-2020, BC class of 2020-2021
Scores: 4 on AB, 4 on BC
College attended: USC
Summary: Kelly was one of the hardest-working students in AB and all that hard work paid off! In this 2 minute video, she details her personal experience in AB, and no, it wasn't all happiness and sunshine:
Name: Vivian Hovan
Classes: AB class of 2019-2020
Scores: 4 on AB
College attended: UC Irvine
Summary: Vivian has probably the most unique story I've heard from any calculus student I've ever had. She had some really rough circumstances outside of school that caused her an immense amount of stress and missing school through pretty much the whole year. I wouldn't have blamed any student for focusing on those issues instead of school, but somehow Vivian managed to power through and still get a 4 on the AP test despite everything going against her. Incredible. This inspirational 5m14s video reveals all the work she put in to get the outcome she wanted:
Name: Michael Mather
Classes: AB class of 2022-2023
Scores: 5 on AB
College attended: George Fox University
Summary: It's tough to find kids who are both naturally bright AND hard-working in a big school, much less a tiny one like Amity. But Michael is one of them! He was actually a bit annoyed and frustrated that he fell behind math-wise during Covid, and was extremely motivated to catch up on that and learn calc. I told him when he was taking precalc that if he kept working hard he'd get a 5 on the AP test no problem, but he seemed skeptical. But as with all things, I was right in the end, and he did get the 5.
In this short 2m16s video, Michael puts his video-editing and Minecrafting skills to work and goes over what really helped him to get a 5. Spoiler alert: It was mostly just Deltamath.