<p>Hi, I'm going to be starting my next semester next week and I was wondering about these two AP classes I'm taking, Bio and Chem. How much time did you guys spend studying for these classes? And also, is there a lot of advanced math for Chem that I should need (I've taken Alg. 1 and 2, Geometry, Functions/Stats/Trig)?</p>
<p>I'm taking AP Chem this year, and I have yet to encounter advanced math. Most I've needed was algebra, maybe. I mean, chemistry is a math-involved science, but AP Chem doesn't really require knowledge of calc.</p>
<p>I didn't do a lot of studying for bio because it's a relatively easy AP class at our school. We never got homework, and at most, I'd read the chapters before each test. Cliffnotes is always good for review, even for regular school tests. </p>
<p>I do a lot of studying for AP Chem come testing time. (But I've only had one test, aside from the midterm, all year long. And that was an eight-chapter test.) I go the whole nine yards - rereading the textbook, doing problems, practicing predicting reactions, doing open response questions, etc. But that's because my teacher has a pretty disorganzed teaching method.</p>
<p>will I be spending more time on Chem than Bio? I have a really good memory so memorizing stuff will be no problem. How much time did you spend on Chem?</p>
<p>You'll probably be spending more time on chem. Although maybe chemistry comes intuitively to you and will be easy. I don't always get chem homework, but I spent 15 hours this past Sunday studying for the midterm. Turns out, I didn't really need a lot of the info I crammed, but I'd only taken one other test before in that class, so I didn't really know what to expect.</p>
<p>With that math, you'll be fine with AP Chemistry. You do some quadratics (for successive approximations, loads of fun) and logarithms, but that's about as complicated as it gets.</p>
<p>I'm taking AP Bio and it is wicked. I'm not a science wiz but i got all As in lower level sciences. There is a lot of memorization of cycles and chemical reactions in cycles and stuff like that. It can definetly get tough</p>
<p>AP bio should just be called AP memorization, well at least from the way my teacher taught it but it gets kind of interesting.
I was taking geometry concurrently with AP chem and it wasn't a problem at all since the only "advanced" things are ln, logs and some other things that I probably don't remember but you just need to press the button on the calculator, thats really as hard as it gets. Oh, and I spent twice the time studying for bio, mainly because of memorization issues.</p>
<p>i can easily memorize so i don't think that will be a problem. did your bio classes cover like tons of stuff in short amounts of time?</p>
<p>If you really want to understand some stuff involving the rate laws, you need some calculus, but you can get by with memorizing them. Otherwise, I can only really think of some logs that you might use for pH and stuff.</p>
<p>Bio's more about memorization
Chem's more about understanding concepts</p>
<p>Depend on what you're good at</p>
<p>"did your bio classes cover like tons of stuff in short amounts of time?"</p>
<p>To respond to that, yes, because we had block scheduling so we only had that class twice or three times a week for 1 1/2 hours and our teacher was VERY in depth and involved with science competitions so we did get subs once in a while during the spring lessons. But if you have regular scheduling I don't think it would be a problem.</p>
<p>for those of you who are taking both at the same time, how's the course load? is it tough studying for both?</p>
<p>I'm currently taking both. Though, I should note that our bio class is technically billed as Biology II Honors at my school. However, my teacher teaches it as an AP, uses AP books, and we are all expected to take the AP test. (It's getting bumped up to a full-fledged AP next year, and she didn't want us to miss out.)</p>
<p>Anyway, I really don't find either class exceptionally bad. They're actually a lot lighter than I really expected, but that could be because science is my strongpoint. I really enjoy bio, but as people have mentioned, there is a TON of memorization. Lots of cell types and processes to remember and memorize.</p>
<p>AP Chem, on the other hand, is mainly math-based. If you can memorize your formulas, you'll be fine. Nothing high level involved (some logs to do with pH work, but your teacher should go over it). However, the different formulas can get confusing sometimes, especially come test-time. I mixed up the boiling point constant and freezing point constant on our test. Ouch. Luckily, my teacher is very generous/understanding.</p>
<p>For the record, I managed to get a 97 in chem and a 98 in bio this quarter.</p>
<p>I took Bio and Chem last year concurrently. As polkahard mentioned, it wasn't as bad I had expected. I managed to get A's in both classes; however, I got a 4 on the chem exam but math isn't really my strong point so that might help explain it.</p>
<p>Take Bio. Chem requires knowledge of differential equations for the kinetics unit.</p>
<p>Wrong. The equations are written out for you, and there is no need for you to integrate.</p>
<p>I got a 5 on the AP Chem test without studying for it; I'm taking AP Bio this year.</p>
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AP bio should just be called AP memorization
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HA! So true.</p>
<p>I'm taking both this year and find AP Chem a lot easier and requiring less work, prbly since it is more about applying concepts and etc, verus the brute memorization of AP Bio (which I just don't do). The math in AP Chem is your basic algebra 2, so no biggie.</p>
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Wrong. The equations are written out for you, and there is no need for you to integrate.</p>
<p>I got a 5 on the AP Chem test without studying for it; I'm taking AP Bio this year.
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<p>Would you rather memorize it or understand it? That's what I thought.</p>
<p>So understanding is material is preferred; awesome. Now you can tell me how this is relevant to whether it's required in the exam or not.</p>
<p>What did you think, exactly? Seems to me you don't think at all.</p>