Absurd Ap course online?!

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
1

I’m enrolled on an Ap biology course online; I left my high school in November and I received straight A’s and A+'s throughout every class, especially in Biology, where I got an A+ every semester, this allowed me to take honors chem and Ap biology at the same time. I aced every test I got, and I sincerely overestimated the class; I expected to be push to my intellectual limits, I was expecting that by December alone I’d have to remember countless formulas ranging from limitless fields of biology, I even went ahead and studied Complex subjects such as respiration (And I mean the biocmehimstry of it, remembering EVERY enzyme, and EVERY ATP produced, as well as every complex etc.)

…I was wrong, the class was incredible simplistic, and didn’t ask for more than maybe 5 pages of reading per week, when before I took the class I read approximately 25+ a week, but I digress:

Ever since I’ve been enrolled in this online curriculum, I’ve been on an 80 average for a myriad of absurd reasons,

-------***The class omits TOO many INTEGRAL details: For example, if I hadn’t read from the book I got, and learned about certain formulas, I’d be straight up failing because this program doesn’t teach you ANYTHING, and expects you to somehow know these concepts: For example, the Water-Potential equation, one of the few things my class covered in incredible detail, this program completely ignores, hell it leaves out the section on transpiration in general!

-------***The tests ask bizarre/poorly worded questions (as if Asked by someone who didn’t properly speak english), with multiple correct answers:

Several questions ask me that which was either never taught, or was mentioned in one obscure part of the book, for example I recently took the unit exam for genetics, and I dedicated my time to studying everything they gave me, and they asked me:

“In the Hershey-Chase experiments, radioactive markers of phosphorus (32P) and sulfur (35S) were used. The sulfur was used to label which substance in the virus?”

Options: A:??? B:??? C:Protein D:DNA,

This was mentioned ONCE throughout the single reading assignment (14 pages long), and gave NO emphasis for it. I studied Protein synthesis, Dna replication, Rna transcription/Translation, Genetic disorders, Structure/discovery of DNA… This, of the multitude of multitudes of sentences, was mentioned in one obscure part of the bottom of the page (under an unrelated diagram), and was never mentioned again… So why ask me this, arguably one of the most irrelevant questions, over the vastly more relevant main topics?! (31 questions, few of them (4-8)dealt with the major questions, in fact most of the questions dealt with more of the irrelevant facts)

-------***Even the reading assignment I’m given are ridden with countless errors/poor reiterations/copy pastes: A majority of the reading assignments serve as poor explanations of the actual events; It’s overly simplistic and omits many details, but it goes beyond that! It oversimplifies an incredibly complex process such as respiration that took me 30+ pages of study, into 4 paragraphs!!! A majority of sentences are literally copy/pastes: One sentence would say (Mitochondria is where ATP is produced) Another would say (ATP is mainly produced in the mitochondria), and the next would say (Mitochondra produce the majority of the cells energy in the form of ATP)… So rather than explain the relevance of ATP, you instead restate the obvious (while again omitting many integral details)

Because of these reasons and more, I’m just under an 80 average (78.28 right now), and It pains me to see myself fail for such stupid reasons… It’s as if they accidentally gave me the CP biology reading assignments instead of the AP ones… because a majority of this seems reminiscent of the much more simplistic days of my CP bio class… It’s absurd for such stpid reasons, ym AP bio grade will go from an A+ to an C+! It’s not fair!!! And what’s worse is that I’m not too sure if it’s teaching me what I need to know for the AP test! It skipped entire sections such as Transpiration and The water Potential equation for example, What else could it possibly be omitting?! What can I do to prepare myself for the test?!

2

I don’t believe it’s necessary to take a class to sit the test. Could you self study then just take the test?

3

The reading materials for the class may be bad but there is nothing at all stopping you from picking up any standard textbook for AP bio and learning the topics from that instead. As far as your complaint about the question on the Hershey-Chase experiment, yes, you are expected to know what the landmark experiments were–both the conclusiona and how they were done. I wouldn’t be surprised if that question was pulled from an old AP exam. Biology is an experimental science and I’m not sure why you think knowing the methods being used are irrelevant details.

4

Mama2Drama, “Could you self study then just take the test?”

The information itself isn’t that hard to obtain, I initially intended to self study after I finished this course, but now I’ve decided that I’m going to utilize solely the AP book. The only reason this is upsetting is because my actual grade is a detriment to my GPA, my 4.0 unweighted is now going to be lower…

“yes, you are expected to know what the landmark experiments were”

usually when reading anything science related, there’s a pattern of the text emphasizing the most relevant information, for example when reading about the structure of the cell on my AP textbook, they gave constant emphasis towards the importance of the structure/function of proteins, and the importance of ATP. Even without studying these things in thorough detail, they gave emphasis to them. It’s obvious that you’d need to know the experiments performed to understand how they came to each conclusion, but They didn’t give emphasis to the actual isotopes, I knew only that they used radioactive markers to track portions of the virus, I didn’t realize I’d have to know which isotopes were used…

5

You should always know how the experiment was performed. You have to know the toolkit of labels that are used. Why would they have to repeat and emphasize that information–it was in the description of the experiment, and it would be necessary to know it to understand the data from the experiment. You would not be able to interpret the data from the experiment if you didn’t know what you have labeled. And if you don’t know what labels are available how would you be able to design new experiments? Sorry, but I don’t think this is a bad question or a failing of the course. You need to step up your level of comprehension.

Look, you’ve complained both that the reading is too repetitious and that it’s too short and didn’t repeat something you needed to know. Not sure what you want, but try looking at another book.

6

“Why would they have to repeat and emphasize that information”

For the sake of demonstrating which details are most important. I’d already mentioned that I’m aware that It’s my responsibility to know how the experiments were performed, but I didn’t realize I’d have to memorize the actual isotopes used. Contexts clues such as emphasis can indicate which sections of the text will likely appear on the test, emphasis was given on the fact that they used radioactive markers, not the isotopes themselves, so I figured that since they omit several other integral details, that this would be included.

“You need to step up your level of comprehension”

And several other questions ask things that were never even mentioned within the course, such as,

"Which statement is true regarding Down syndrome?
Selected Answer:

The physical characteristics associated with the disorder include a lack of immune response.

Correct Answer:

A woman over 35 has a 1.25 percent risk of having a Down syndrome child"

The text mentioned that older women have an increased likelihood of giving birth to a child with down syndrome, it gave no mention to an actual percentage.

“Look, you’ve complained both that the reading is too repetitious”

There’s a difference between repetition and emphasis, usually when you emphasize something, you give multiple examples of it’s importance, you don’t restate the obvious/what you’ve read 3-4 times on the same page. For example, when giving emphasis to the importance of ATP, would you keep reiterating “Atp is utilized for nearly every energy-requiring process in the body” or would you go more in depth, such as giving examples in where it’s used, how it’s used; Which bond is broken to release energy, and where it’s produced. You’d go with the ladder. If the text only reiterates the obvious, and neglects what other important traits it has, you’ll be left with a limited amount of information regarding it.

“that it’s too short”

My main complaint is that it omits many important details…

Not sure why I even came here honestly… I was expecting advice on perhaps whether I should contact the program regarding this or perhaps if maybe some other students had dealt with similar issues…

Welp I thank everyone for giving me whatever advice they did!

7

From wikipedia:

“Hershey and Chase needed to be able to examine different parts of the phages they were studying separately, so they needed to isolate the phage subsections. Viruses were known to be composed of a protein shell and DNA, so they chose to uniquely label each with a different elemental isotope. This allowed each to be observed and analyzed separately. Since phosphorus is contained in DNA but not amino acids, radioactive phosphorus-32 was used to label the DNA contained in the T2 phage. Radioactive sulfur-35 was used to label the protein sections of the T2 phage, because sulfur is contained in amino acids but not DNA.”

You didn’t even have to memorize which isotopes were used. You could have figured it out if you thought about it. I am trying to help you understand the mindset you need to be successful.

8

Who did the course ?