AP Biology, AP Physics, and AP Calculus AB Senior Year?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi, I will be a senior next year and I will need to register for my classes for the 2019-2020 SY in 3 weeks. Currently I’m deciding if I should take AP Biology, AP Physics 1, and AP Calculus AB (recommended by my math teacher) my senior year.

My schedule would look like this (not exactly in this order):
1st Semester:
Period 1-AP Biology+STEM Capstone
Period 2-AP Calculus AB
Period 3-Japanese 3
Period 4-AP Physics 1

Semester 2:
Period 1-AP Biology+STEM Capstone
Period 2-AP Calculus AB
Period 3-English
Period 4-AP Physics 1

My school has block scheduling, so we have four classes each semester (they squeeze year long classes into a semester). The only time a class is a year long is if it is an AP class, so the max AP classes someone could take is 3 or 4 because you need to fit in grad requirements. Most people at my school only take 1 or 2 AP classes because they don’t want to do the work though.

I know for sure that I want to take AP Biology and AP Calculus because I’m planning to either major in psychology or biology in college ( I want to go into genetic counseling or dentistry). I came across biomedical engineering recently and I found it very interesting so I’m also considering doing something in that field. Since I want to go into these fields I will need to take physics eventually, so I’m trying to decide if taking AP physics would be too much. I would say that I’m above average at math (I’m the only one in my trig/precalc class with an A) and science, but I’m not a genius. I haven’t taken physics yet, which is why I don’t know if I should just take the regular class or the advanced level.

Some info about how each class is viewed at my school:
-AP Biology: You take a lot of notes but it is manageable. The hard part is that you need to take it with stem capstone, which is another class that is like a harder version of a science fair project.
-AP Physics: only ap physics class offered at my school. Not as many people take it, but I don’t hear too many complaints. The teacher is pretty average, he’s not great but he’s not horrible.
-AP Calc: Difficult but the teacher is one of the best teachers at my school. If you don’t take ap calc then you take calc from the junk math teachers (they read off a PowerPoint made by the textbook company and just make you solve the problems).

Past AP/EC Classes I’ve Taken:
-Freshman: my school has no honors classes and AP classes aren’t available to freshman. I took the accelerated math+science track (bio and algebra 2)
-Sophomore: I took APWH which is the only AP offered to sophomores. I got a C in the class but weighted it was a B and I got a 4 on the exam. Everyone, except for two students, had C’s because my teacher was the hardest AP teacher (APWH if you have the teacher I had, is considered the hardest AP class at my school). LOL history is my least favorite/worst subject and I really regret taking this class.
Junior: Early college psychology, early college English 100, and I’m taking 5 more early college classes throughout the school year. I have A’s in each class I’m currently taking.

Would these three AP’s be too difficult to manage with extracurriculars and college applications? I’m in student council, martial arts, and I’m an officer of a few other clubs. If you’ve taken these classes what was your experience like?

2

Three AP courses and one or two other courses seems like a very doable schedule, especially since two of the AP courses (calculus AB and physics 1) cover only about a semester’s worth of material that college courses in the same area cover.

For comparison, a college student who started without AP credit who chooses similar courses could take the following (with AP comparison for the material, though some college courses are more rigorous than the AP versions):

Fall:

Biology 1 (half of AP biology)
Calculus 1 (AP calculus AB)
Physics 1 (AP physics 1)
English 1 (AP English) or some other course

Spring:

Biology 2 (other half of AP biology)
Calculus 2 (rest of AP calculus BC)
Physics 2 (AP physics 2)
English 2 (AP English) or some other course

3

Why do you want to take AP Bio? Have you taken CHemistry? Why take two lab sciences at once? Why not some other kind of course (history/economics/etc)

I don’t understand how you only take 4 classes. If you had block sheduling wouldn’t AP Calc AB be all in one semester? Talk to your GC.

4

@bopper I want to take AP biology because I want to go into the medical field, possibly genetic counseling or dentistry. I would take AP chemistry instead because I found chemistry a bit more interesting but my school never ends up having an AP chemistry class (the ap chem teacher talks to every student thinking about taking the class and tells them why they shouldn’t take chemistry). I took biology freshman year and chemistry sophomore year, but I couldn’t take physics this year because it wasn’t offered during my free period. I’m trying to decide if I should take AP physics 1 or the regular physics class because my counselor said that I should take physics. I was also considering AP physics because my dad wanted me to think about pursuing engineering (I have a lot of family who are chemical and mechanical engineers that attended the University of Michigan). I’m good at math and science but I most likely wouldn’t do engineering, but who knows maybe I’ll like physics and change my mind. I also need 4 science credits to get academic honors and I only have 2 science credits right now.

I would take another history class, but history is my worst subject. I only need 4 history credits and I will earn all my history credits by the end of the school year. I took U.S. history freshman year, AP world history sophomore year, and I’m take psychology 100 and participation in a democracy/modern Hawaiian history this year.

My school calls it block scheduling, so a regular class would be only a semester. For example, they will squeeze all of the chemistry material into a semester so it ends up being very fast paced. The only classes that are all year long are AP classes. For example, for AP world history they make you take directed studies first semester, then AP world history second semester. During directed studies we were still learning the content from AP world history we just didn’t earn a weighted GPA until second semester.

5

That schedule would be fine, especially since I don’t see how you could fit a history/social science class an you’re right about needing physics and calculus. Basically it’s the best schedule you can have.