Because of the AP Calculus boom, students who arrive in freshman calculus without having taken the subject in high school—which was, remember, the norm not too long ago—now find themselves at a real disadvantage, surrounded by classmates who have already spent a year studying the material that the new calculus students are encountering for the first time. But even students who passed AP Calculus in high school often struggle in freshman calculus; about 40 percent of retakers, nationally, earn a C or below, even though they’ve already passed the course once before. And if you don’t manage to
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