<p>"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>mkm, that STINKS. Why should a student be "punished" (have to start at a higher level) because he or she prepared himself ahead of time? Lame, lame, lame. Why is it considered grade padding to take more rigorous high school classes? WHAT's THE WORLD COMING TO?!</p>
<p>I guess they should have a different standard on SATs for students who took prep classes, since they're score padding- they should be expected to have higher scores. :p</p>
<p>Agree doubleplay. I called and argued with the school prior to him taking the AP tests. He was really in a quandary over whether to take the tests or not. He ended up taking them due to pressure of high school teachers, but somewhat regrets it in those subjects where he feels maybe he could have gotten a stronger background before moving on to higher levels.</p>
<p>My foreign exchange student has been struggling with precal, and just barely passeed regulars physics first semester and it's touch and go again this semester. She said there is a lot of math in physics, especially this second semester. Your call.</p>
<p>I took AP physics and it was actually very interesting...couple of my friends took AP bio…but they liked physics better for some reason…it’s all a matter of taste! But, as with any AP class, you need to put in some effort…otherwise, I found the applicability of physics to be fairly intriguing… Can she take both?</p>
<p>in regards to ap bio, calculus, and physics, here's my experience:</p>
<p>i took bio freshman year and loved it. i knew right then that i wanted to take ap bio junior year (our option), so i did. im very much interested in biology and medicine so found the course to be absolutely amazing. it is definitely a lot of material and memorization but with a good teacher it's definitely possible. you can check out course guides in the ap section of collegeboard.com. </p>
<p>im in ap calculus bc and find it very difficult. i also take advanced physics (ap not an option) and don't think it is necessary to take both calculus and physics. physics is very math related but i find that many of the formulas are "plug and chug." if she likes math but simply finds calculus difficult, she'll probably be fine with physics. </p>
<p>which teacher does she like better? that would be the deciding factor for me. an ap class requires a lot of work, so having a teacher you like can make it fun and interesting and rewarding. as far as colleges go, i doubt ap bio would look any better than ap physics. also on the collegeboard.com site you can look up how much college credit she would get from any colleges she's looking at. have her ask around to see what her school's typical scores are and work from there.</p>
<p>if either of you would like to talk about it more, dont hesitate to PM me! -kristin</p>
<p>No. Physics requires calculus to do it an effective level. You may be able to take physics without calculus and get the grade or gain a superficial understanding, but any real physics course would require a thorough understanding of calculus</p>
<p>Yes, I have to agree with PhatAlbert. The better that you are at Calc, the better that you will understand and function within a calc-based Physics course. And if you are taking Physics C, you MUST be in calculus. There was a girl in my AP Physics C class who was only in Precalc, and she was adrift at sea and dropped at the semester. (Plus, she was impeding the learning process because of the time that it would take to teach her something (like derivatives) that EVERYONE else already understood). Though you can certainly take Physics B without calculus, it will be easier and more natural if you have a calc background. As I said earlier, if you are a big science but not big math person, AP Bio is probably the better fit. Big math/not big science: AP Physics is better fit.</p>
<p>She will be taking Calculus next year, just not AP Calculus since she is struggling with PreCalc this year. I think this year has a lot to do with her teacher though who is considered tough. So it is either AP Bio or AP Physics B with only an Intro to Physics taken in freshman year. As I said earlier, her Counselor felt AP Physics would be too challenging. She is going to talk to the AP Bio teacher on Monday. I know most people are either good at analyzing or memorizing but she does not seem lean one way or the other which means both are hard!</p>
<p>Along, it sounds to me like she would be okay in either course. Though the fact that she is struggling a bit in precalc is not the greatest sign for Physics, despite the course name, precalc is not that representative of the difficulty and topics covered in calc. I know a lot of people who believed Precalc to be more difficult than Calc. I'm not quite sure what struggling means, but if she is getting B's in an honors/advanced precalc course, I think that she could handle AB Calc next year. But even if she doesn't do AB, Physics B wouldn't be too tough for her. At my school, we only have Physics C, but my junior year I took "Honors Physics" which seems pretty similar to Physics B, and I did fine in the course. Now, I was in BC Calc at the time, BUT that was/is balanced by the fact that I am a relatively weak science student. Plenty of kids took the course while taking Honors Precalc and also did fine with no prior Physics course and a VERY odd, new teaching method (a story for another time). </p>
<p>I can't give good first hand info on Bio, because I am terrible at Biology, but I can give you good second hand advice. Math is not a problem here, and if she likes the AP Bio teacher, this is probably a good choice. I know that you said that she really isn't great at memorization, but I think that Bio boils down to decent science interest/ability and good work ethic. When I took Honors Bio, I had none of those things--no interest, little ability, and little desire to put in the time/effort on understanding and memorizing, even though I am a good, fast memorizer, which led to my worst semester grade (B-...just barely). </p>
<p>Again, a lot of this depends on the school...other posters have said that AP Bio is pretty easy at their school, while at my school most kids work pretty hard (lots of work, lots of tests) and get B's in the class. I don't see any reason why Physics B should be so much more challenging than Bio, but maybe your daughter's school is very different.</p>
<p>In our school kids on the honors track generally take AP Physics B as sophomores concurrently with the equivalent of Algebra 2. They've done away with honors physics completely. I think whether AP Physics B or AP Bio is harder is largely a matter of how your brain is wired. For my mathwhiz, bio was alot more work, though not necessarily harder.</p>
<p>I'm wondering if she can do one of the courses at a local college in the summer. Anyone had any experience with this? I am not talking about the schools that have summer programs for high school students, they are too expensive, just a regular course offered by a local state/community college in the summer. That way she can cover Physics & Bio & she will not have the added load during the year. I will call a couple of colleges & her Counselor tomorrow to check but was just wondering how feasible this sounds?
BTW, advantagious, when I say struggling I mean a C in reguler Pre-Calc though as I mentioned earlier, she did get an A- on her mid-year exam that was set by all 3 pre-calc teachers.</p>
<p>a friend of mine took a chemistry class at our community college after her sophomore year. you're right in saying that it's cheaper. she really liked it and had no trouble registering for classes. call your local CC and explain the situation...theyre probably more than happy to help!</p>
<p>Okay along, that does sound like AB Calc might be a bit of a stretch for her (though that fact that she got an A- on the standardized mid-year does seem to implicate her teacher as opposed to her mathematic abilities). I think that your new idea about a summer course is the best option yet. That way, she can still get both Physics and Bio under her belt. I would strongly suggest that she take Bio over the summer--sounds like she might need a little more time with the Physics and to expand her math abilities (though, again, it seems like it is less her and more a poor or at least poor fit teacher). Seems to me that she could handle Bio over the summer and would benefit from a more extended teaching time/more math in Physics.</p>