AP Bio, Chem, or Physics junior year?

I’m currently a sophomore in chem honors and am doing fine in the class (A first sem). Physics is probably my choice right now, but, I’m not the best in math (B in Alg II H)… I’ve heard bio is the easiest of the three as it’s mainly concepts and memorization, but biology bored me to death last year… What are the pros and cons of these three classes?

Take chem, if your school offers physics junior year, take the first class before AP. I’m in honors chemistry this year with an A+, and it makes the most sense to take AP the year after you took the first one.

Hello!

I took AP Chem my junior year, and am currently taking AP Physics senior year. Like you, I did well in H Chem my sophomore year, and disliked bio my freshman year.

Personally, I recommend waiting until you’ve taken Calculus before you take Physics. I’m taking AP Calculus BC at the same time as AP Physics, and I can honestly say that what I’ve learned in Calc has really saved me when it comes to dealing with some physics concepts (derivatives, integrals, etc. are used in both). I have a few friends who are only in Pre-Cal (haven’t done derivatives or integrals), and they’re definitely finding it harder to keep up in Physics. That’s not to say it’s impossible; it’s just going to take more work and effort on your part.Whereas if you’ve already learned the math concepts, you can easily spend more of your time focusing on the other areas of Physics. Right now as a senior, I think AP Physics is easier than AP Chem. But if I had taken this class as a junior without knowing any Calculus, I probably wouldn’t be doing so well.

I would highly recommend AP Chem (I’m biased though lol). But if you think you might have any interest at all in a STEM major, AP Chem is the way to go. I hear this all the time from graduates at my school who come back to visit from college. In terms of difficulty: yes, it’s harder than AP Bio. I have friends who have taken both, and they say it’s no question that Bio is the easier one. So, just depends on what your priorities are.

Of course, a lot of this also depends on your school specifically and whoever teaches these subjects. I would highly recommend talking to some other students at your school who have taken one or more of the classes to get their perspective! That really helped me a lot when I had to make the same decision at the end of my sophomore year. All the best! :slight_smile:

well colleges want to see Bio, Chem, and Physics, so I would probably do Honors Physics or AP Physics 1 junior or senior year and AP Chem the other year. It might be best to save physics till senior year when you’ve had some more math under your belt, and AP Chem might be easier junior year right after the honors class. Both have math buts its more of applying math to the concepts.