<p>My son took Physics C which involved Calculus. His friends in college who took the "non calculus AP physics" tell him it was useless, as far as preparing them for college physics. My son, on the other hand, did NOT take AP Bio and wishes he did. It does require a lot of memorization, but so does his Bio class in college. Things would be much easier for him now if he had taken AP Bio in high school.</p>
<p>Why not forgo the AP Psychology, take a regular physics class AND AP Bio? I think AP Bio will be more helpful for college than AP Psych.</p>
<p>I think doubleplay's suggestion to drop Psych and take both bio and physics is an excellent idea. I've talked to kids who thought AP Psych was "kinda interesting" but that is because they could "relate" to it. I'm from the pre-AP era, but the pyschology course I took as a high school senior was without question the biggest waste of time of any class I ever took. Maybe AP Psych is less pseudo-science, I don't know.</p>
<p>My son took both AP Bio and AP Physics; even he, the physics nerd supreme, found AP Bio easier. And he took it without having taken regular bio. AP Physics requires a lot of detail-oriented math. While many students find that the double-dose of math improve their math capabilities, it doesn't sound like your daughter's cup of tea.</p>
<p>Take whatever she is most interested in -- that is the easy answer.</p>
<p>But, women in Physics literally choose their path. The percentages of women attending advanced degree requirements in Physics is grotesquely inadequate. Result of the "boy's club" result of this phenomenon? Any woman who goes on in Physics writes her ticket for about anything.</p>
<p>This is looking far ahead, especially for someone who is 17 or even 16. But, for that rare woman (not the AP -- as at that level it is almost even between the genders) who maintains Physics in her college curriculum, she may well discover that there are no doors closed in her path to her vocational future.</p>
<p>In order to take AP Physics at our school you must be concurrently registered in AP BC Calculus. Two of my kids took AP Bio and found it an enormous amount of reading and writing, but they seemed to like it. From what I understand, at least at our school, AP Physics is VERY calculus based.</p>
<p>I'm on the "depends on the kid" side of the fence. For D#2 (currently sophomore looking at schedules for Jr. and sr. year), the whole family agrees that AP Physics B or C won't be her "thing", and she'll definitely go the AP Biology route. She HATED pre-calculus 1st semester this year. D#1, hs sr. is #1 math/science geek and agrees that an honors physics class will be much better for sis. Both have/will take AP Psychology. Besides being interesting, & one of the "easier" AP classes, it's one that will most likely get you out of a huge lecture hall class in college if you do well on the test.</p>
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Besides being interesting, & one of the "easier" AP classes, it's one that will most likely get you out of a huge lecture hall class in college if you do well on the test.
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This is the thing that my son says he would do differently if he could do high school all over again. He says he would focus on the AP classes that would fill elective credits instead of taking the ones that might allow you to "skip" an intro class that you will be building on more in your major.</p>
<p>mkm, that is so true. However there's something to be said for taking the AP math and science classes in high school, even if you don't plan on skipping out of them in college. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE if you plan on taking pre-med, engineering, or any kind of science related majors. First of all, you have the support of, hopefully, a more "nurturing" environment in high school. At least, at my son's hs, the AP Bio teacher, although demanding, is not actively trying to flunk anyone. Same cannot be said for some of those freshman college "weed out" classes. That's why I wouldn't recommend opting out of a CORE science or math AP (Bio, Chem, Physics, Calc) in favor of, say AP Psych or AP Stat. Instead, I'd use the APUSH, AP Gov, AP Econ, AP Lit, etc. to get out of the freshman Englishes, social sciences, and humanities Gen-Ed requirements. Then I'd take the math and sciences over again even if you've placed out.</p>
<p>D took AP BIO/CALC/PHYSICs/CHEM As a science major in university, she could not use those units to skip anything, so that was no help, though theoretically she would have been better prepared.</p>
<p>Interestingly, she was really struggling to decide between AP physics and AP psych and the physics teacher bent over backwards to convince her to take his class, trying to keep girls in the class. Sadly, she hated the class, did not do particularly well on the exam, and yet, received an A in university physics! Our AP bio teacher was one of the best teachers at the school and that factor would go far in deciding which class to take, as I would have told any one with any major to take his class. So go by the teacher and go by your gut.</p>
<p>D did take psych for a GE class, loved it and picked up a double major, she did not enjoy her pre-chosen science major! I am not sure how things would have been different had she chosen AP psych over physics, but I do think she should have gone with her gut and not been talked into doing the brave thing of being one of only 2 girls in physics.</p>
<p>My son thought AP Bio was the hardest course he's taken in highschool, APUSH the second hardest. He's breezing through AP Physics C - Mechanics and Electromagnetism. And, unlike, Dad'O'2's son - it's all being done in one period per day - Mechanics fall semester and EM spring. </p>
<p>AP Bio did not have Bio as a prerequisite - but they did require Honors Chemistry as a prerequisite. AP "Superphysics C" (covering both Mechanics and Electromagnetism in one period one year) required AP Calculus BC as a corequisite. For those who only wanted AP Physics C Mechanics all year - either AP Calc AB or BC was acceptable as the corequisite.</p>
<p>From what I have "heard" colleges do not view AP Psych on a comparable level to these courses. Nor do they value AP Stat or AP Physics B as comparable. They may be valuable learning experiences for your student - but they are definitely considered "lower tier" by most colleges and students and many colleges do not award credit for them.</p>
<p>Part of HS is to inroduce the kids to many areas. Since at many (perhaps most) schools biology is a required course but physics is not, I think it's a good idea to make sure they take at least some kind of physics course and preferably an AP physics course. You never know what might be sparked in them. My D worked much harder in AP physics than she needed to in AP bio but she found she really liked physics - not because it was easy, but because the subject matter really interested her. </p>
<p>So, I suggest approaching this not just from a 'what's easier' angle but from the angle of the value of exposure to the subject matter. Also, if she takes a physics course in college which I assume whe will, this should better prepare her for that class.</p>
<p>Of course, taking both AP bio and AP physics as well as AP chemistry would be preferred.</p>
<p>doubleplay, for many that is true. My son is doing the premed route (for now at least). However, at his school if you place out by test score you may not retake the course--they don't want anyone padding their grades. So at that school you get bumped to the harder course perhaps without the strong base you would have had if you had taken it there.</p>
<p>Just talked to my d's guidance counselor. She strongly recommends that she take standard or Honors Physics, not AP since her only previous Physics course was Intro to Physics in freshman year. She feels that Physics would be a much better subject choice than Bio, even AP Bio which she says is a very hard course. I am not sure how colleges would view a student taking only one AP course. She will not be applying or expecting to get into any Ivy League colleges, her PSAT scores were in the 80% percentile which is not great though I expect SAT's to be better. However she would still like to go to a well-known school - NYU, UConn, are a couple of her choices though she has not done much research yet, but NYU is not easy to get into either. So what would be better, to do non-AP Physics & hopefully get a better grade or take the more challenging AP Bio even if she does not do as well? BTW, I am not so concerned about her getting credit for the AP course, just want to make sure she will be able to handle it.</p>
<p>Her counselor also suggested taking AP Bio instead of AP Psych (as some here have done as well) but Psych is her main career focus right now & I think this would give her a good feel for whether she actually likes studying the subject. Her second choice is Pharmacy. More than one teacher teaches all these courses in her school so cannot go by the teacher since we don't know who she will have. If she had a particular interest or preference that would be easy, but she does not, which reduces it to being about what she would do better at & what is more important for college admission.</p>
<p>The colleges that fall into the most-selective category, which includes many top state schools, will pay attention to whether the student took the more rigorous courses offered so assuming your D's school offers many APs, just taking one might put her at a competetive disadvantage.</p>
<p>If she's really interested in psychology I agree that taking AP psych would be good to give her a better idea of it. Given an interest in psych and pharmacy AP bio would also be appropriate.</p>
<p>To parrot the other posters, it is a highly personal question, made harder by the fact that your daughter does not know which teacher she would have for each course. But I can relate my own experience...though I would never claim to be bad at it, science is my worst subject, and Hon. Biology was the hardest science class that I took (that was freshmen year). On the other hand, I love and am relatively talented at math (in Multivariable this year). As you can well imagine why, I would never touch AP Bio with a ten foot pole. HOWEVER, I have known a ton of people who took it...and it is not an easy course. I think that there <em>is</em> a lot of memorization involved, but that doesn't automatically make it easy, and it is a constant source of much consternation. </p>
<p>More appropriately for me, I opted to take AP Physics C (both Mechanics and E&M, one period, one year) after taking Hon. Physics last year, which would be similar to AP Physics B. Also not an easy course, although I did recieve an A- (and, for a reference point, I received a 4 on the AP Physics C-Mechanics exam that we took as our final). It is hugely math-based, and although you would not need to know Calc for Physics B, it would really help and give you the feel for the physics. Plus, non-calc physics is fairly widely considered more difficult than calc-based physics, because of the simplicity and clarification that the calculus affords. So, AP Bio or AP Physics...depends on the student. Strong math and science--either one, they'll do fine. Strong math--physics, strong science--bio. In my opinion, of course :).</p>
<p>During AP night at my S's school, we had former students come back to talk,those who'd taken a lot of AP's and wanted to explain how they affected their college life. Anyway, he said something I'll always remember, too .. He said that a lot of kids take the AP classes of those things they enjoy, and he encouraged them to take AP classes for things you might like to test out of in college because you know that you don't enjoy them and wouldn't particularly be looking at them towards your major. For example, my D hates English; she's very math and science oriented. She'll be taking the AP lang and AP lit with the hopes of not having to take those English classes her freshman year. BTW, she took AP Bio as a 9th grader, with no Honors Bio behind her. With an ENORMOUS amount of work, and a lot of tutoring on my part (I have a master's in bio. ed), she got an A in the class and scored a 5 on the test. My son took it at the same time, as a junior, and barely cracked a book. He scored a 4, without a lick of studying for the exam.</p>
<p>zebes - that was my son's thought on APUSH. If he ends up at the right college he might never have to take history again. He's actually pretty good at it, but doesn't enjoy it at all.</p>
<p>Yes, that was also my motivation for taking AP Physics...hoping to place out of some science distribution requirements. Zebes reminded me of something else...though the class was brutal, my friends told me that the AP Bio exam itself was not that challenging, and these kids weren't super science kids, either. They noted that the essays were especially easy. Slightly off topic, Zebes, but a lot of colleges only accept credit for one of the AP English exams, not for both. I love to read (not so much on the essays, but I'm good at them), so it doesn't bother me, but I pretty much already have all the credit I'm going to get for English. Something to check out, if you haven't already.</p>
<p>Yeah, we know about the AP English, but we're highly encouraging her anyway -- for a multitude of reasons, especially the idea of making her a more confident writer,improving her critique/analyzing skills, and forcing her out of her comfort zone when it comes to public speaking, which she'll be required to do in these classes. My S, who's in AP Lit now (different HS <zoning changes="">) just finished team teaching Death of a Salesman for a week. It was an exceptional opportunity for him (lots of excellent mentoring from the teacher), and I hope my D has similar opportunities. </zoning></p>