Main content
AP®︎/College Calculus AB
Khan Academy in the classroom
Bill Scott uses Khan Academy to teach AP Calculus at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and he’s part of the teaching team that helped develop Khan Academy’s AP lessons. Phillips Academy was one of the first schools to teach AP nearly 60 years ago.
Want to join the conversation?
- Can I use just Khan Academy for self studying AP Calculus AB, or would I need more resources?(29 votes)
- I would say that you must use the computer version and not just the phone version of KhanAcademy if you wanna really learn how to do the math problems. I sit here with pen and paper when I do the harder parts :) After that you should not just show up for an exam, you should check out several old exams first, to get a good idea of the difference between how KhanAcademy and your examinator creates the questions and how much calculation is asked of you. My teachers want me to fully solve and explain everything, or else I won't get full points, sometimes I won't get any points. Do you actually need to buy a calculus book? Uhm, no technically not, and if you don't have a teacher to guide you to which problems to solve it can feel overwhelming and you can waste lots of time solving unnecessary problems.(10 votes)
- HI Mr_Bill Scott how are u doing i hope your doing well i just wanted to ask about the the limits 0/0 and how could i simplify its get the answer
your faithfully
Mr_44(8 votes)- Getting a result in the form of 0 / 0 is an indeterminate. Sal provides his explanations in his videos like this one: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/introduction-to-algebra/division-by-zero/v/why-zero-divided-by-zero-is-undefined-indeterminate.(19 votes)
- Can I study for the AP test only using Khan, or should I add some supplementary reading for extra practice?(14 votes)
- Yes, but just make sure you have a solid foundation of calc.(8 votes)
- Would it be a good idea to learn higher math classes while I'm in a basic class level? Or should I slow down?(6 votes)
- Most math builds on itself, so I would recommend going up in the order listed on Khan Academy. For example, if you haven't learned about slopes of linear functions, then you will have a hard time understanding the calculus concept of slopes of quadratic or cubic functions.(10 votes)
- The only question I have is how did this teacher pass up an opportunity to say "I wasn't imagining the Khan Academy calculus content to become an *integral* part of our curriculum"(11 votes)
- Do you have to learn precalculus before AP calculus? Or is AP calculus just harder?(7 votes)
- Is the AP content on Khan Academy enough for the real AP test and is it possible for a student to get a perfect score in the AP test by studying through KA if my school doesn't offer AP classes?(5 votes)
- Khan Academy covers all subjects that will be on the AP Calculus AB and BC tests. However, it does not go in depth on every subject, and so you will most definitely need a strong foundation in Algebra, Pre-Calculus, and Trigonometry in order to fully master every skill. In theory you could get a perfect score just from studying these subjects on Khan Academy, however it is recommended that you take supplementary practice elsewhere (there are many books out there with practice tests to give you an idea of what the real test will be like).(4 votes)
- So how does this stuff work and if your a 7th grader should you be lerning this(4 votes)
- I would try pre cal instead as it is pretty intuitive, or algebra II because that is needed before this. Honestly physics has helped me understand so much math I would reccoment that instead of any math course, but I am just a high schooler, so IDK(5 votes)
- I love khan Academy, but is there a way to learn architecture here. I wish to learn(3 votes)
- Sorry, but I don't think there is. All I could find is this:
https://www.khanacademy.org/college-careers-more/career-content/career-profiles-build-and-fix-things/career-profile-architectural-designer/a/how-to-become-an-architect(8 votes)
- How long would it take complete this course if I watch every video?(2 votes)
- If you put a lot of your time into it, about 2 - 3 months(3 votes)
Video transcript
- We have this big
moment and the moment is that for 35 years of my teaching career I walked into the classroom having no idea if the kids had done the homework or what their commitment was to the subject. And then suddenly there's
this coaching platform on Khan Academy that was a
total game-changer for me. I wasn't imagining that the Khan Academy calculus content would become a big part of our curriculum. I imagined frankly and wrongly that we'd use these exercises, suggest kids use it for review. And when we discovered
the coaching platform and how powerful that was, a group of us said, "Let's give it a go. "Let's try using Khan Academy "as a major part of our curriculum." And my goodness, it
changed the way I teach. For instance, five minutes
before I walk into class, I can go to the platform and I can look through my list of students to discover that all but two of them had done the homework,
had watched the videos, had cleared the hurdle, if you will, of the exercises that I had given them. So, when I walked in the room, I didn't have to go over homework anymore. That was liberating. So, if there were two students who didn't do the homework, it gave me the opportunity
to pull them aside and say, "Hey, I see
you didn't get to it," or, "I see you struggled with it. "Is there a way that you
and I can meet later today? "It's because I don't want
you to get behind in this." The first 15 minutes of class now all the sudden we're breaking new ground. We're doing harder problems. The kids responded so well to it because I think they had
years and years and years of math teachers going over the homework for the first 15 minutes of class. The poor kids must've been bored to death, or, "Why bother doing the homework because he'll do it on the board anyway?" That was just totally liberating and gave me an opportunity to really think hard about teaching. Since we started using Khan Academy, the one thing that we can't help but notice is that we're having more kids make it to the end of BC Calculus, and it's clear to me that we're having more girls and more underrepresented kids finish our BC Calculus class
than we ever did before. I gotta believe it's our new way about thinking about teaching. And using Khan Academy in the classroom and for homework assignments has gotta be a big part of that.