AP CALCULUS AB/BC | ilearnmath.

net 2010
ADVICE for NEW AP CALCULUS AB TEACHERS
Source: EDG Mailing List

1) Use old FRQs

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_questions/1997.html
Start using these as soon as possible. Early on you often cannot use the
entire problem as all the material has not been covered. Many of the FRQs
each year are similar to ones from past years, so the importance of giving
students repeated opportunity to practice answering these types of questions
cannot be overemphasized. I suggest focusing on the recurring ones such as
area/volume, graphs, tables, implicit differentiation, working with rate
functions (e.g. sand is deposited on a beach at a rate y’), solving
differential equations and anything else you see over and over again. It is
important you practice these so you can explain them to your students, a good
summer assignment! Often one or two of the FRQ questions each year is a
little out there, an attempt to see how students think on their feet, I
think. I call these FRQs curve balls and I’ve been de-emphasizing these in
favor of the basics, although I still do a few. I think this year I might
try offering some more of the curve balls outside of class for those who want
to practice that type.

2) Use prep books for multiple choice (MC) practice.

It’d be great if your text has multiple-choice practice, but mine doesn’t.
Last year I had students buy a prep book. I suggest a book that has lots of
MC practice. I’d suggest not
using the FRQ’s in the prep books as there are plenty of old FRQ’s from the
college board website above and they seem to parallel the style and
difficulty better. Some teachers, including myself, use the recently
released MC questions as (final) exams, so please don’t post answers to these
on-line. Older released questions are a good resource, too, but the further
back you go the more Pre-Calculus related questions you see, which might
require, say, a half-angle formula. Formulae like the half-angle do not seem
to arise anymore on the AP test.

3) Make quizzes in the AP style.

My quizzes are generally given once a week, are CUMULATIVE and are usually 8-
9 MC questions and 1 FRQ on no calculator quizzes and 7 MC questions and 1
FRQ on calculator quizzes. I alternate between calculator and no calculator.
The multiple choice questions I get from prep books of which I have several.
The prep books are a great resource! Sometimes I use an FRQ from a prep book
but often they seem too esoteric, more like a curve ball. Although the
quizzes are cumulative, I emphasize the only the big ideas get asked from the
older material, that is, the same crucial concepts that they will be asked
about on the AP exam. Every year I have my students write an evaluation of
the course. One thing that is often mentioned is the effectiveness of the
cumulative quizzes in preparing them for the AP exam.

4) Daily warm-up

The daily warm-up (not on quiz days) is also often mentioned in the
evaluations. Sometimes they lead in to the new material, but often it is
some important concept I wanted to re-emphasize. I’ll look through the prep
 AP CALCULUS AB/BC | ilearnmath.net 2010
books for a good question or two. After a few weeks they’ll have quite a
few. I tell the students these warm-up problems are a good way to review for
the quizzes and in any event trying them again is great practice.

5) Group work

Calculus is a really deep subject. You could spend all period, every period,
explaining it. Try to limit how long you spend lecturing. If course, you
can't spend all period going over homework, either. I try to give them a few
minutes to compare before I take a few questions. You have the brightest
students, let them help each other. You can then answer questions when the
group gets stuck. Sometimes, when groups are asking the same question,
you’ll know there is something more they need and you might lecture more.

6) Students can miss well over half the questions and still pass

My first year I believe some students may have failed because they lost
confidence. It has been ingrained on students that 70% correct is a C-. 70%
on the AP exam is usually a 5. In the beginning of the year I tell the
students they need to answer about 40% of the questions correctly to pass the
AP exam, and I hear many gasps of amazement. What amazes me is that several
weeks later I’ll tell them again and again I hear gasps, although not quite
so many. The 70% idea is really entrenched! In any event, now, throughout
the year we periodically talk about what is needed earn a 3, 4 or 5 on the AP
exam

7) Greg Kelly PowerPoint-s

Even if you don’t have an LCD projector or even if you don’t like using ppts
these powerpoint presentations will give you a good idea of what a lesson
should include. I’m sure his aren’t the only ones but they are easy to find
on-line, there are a lot of them and they are free for teachers to use in
teaching, but not for profit. Or so I believe.