I’m currently a high school freshmen and taking honors biology with a 98% average, with one other advanced science course. I am extremely interested in biology and would really like to be a doctor or medical professional after college, so my high school is requiring me to take many AP classes. I want to take AP biology, because our district just opened it open to sophomores two years ago. But since then, no sophomore has made a 5. Is taking AP as a sophomore really that hard? How hard is it to make a 5 in AP bio? And what might be some tips for taking the course/exam?
I took AP Bio as a sophomore and got a 5, as well as several people in my school, but AP Bio is the normal honors track for sophomores, so we have very good teachers who have taught it for years. Personally, I did not find the curriculum too hard, and I thought my class was harder than the exam. Since you’re interested in biology and medicine, I would go for it. It’s definitely manageable.
I would also suggest you take SAT 2 test in June this year.
Any AP course is designed to be the level of a college-level course. The intellectual maturity of the average 18 y/o vs the average 15 y/o is light years apart. If you look, the percentage of 5’s on courses that are heavily dominated by freshman/sophomores, like APHG and UPWH, is quite low. You may be the exception, of course, but that’s something none of us would know.
The biggest reason why taking AP as a sophomore is difficult is because students are still getting used to the high school atmosphere and time management, study skills, etc. Like someone else mentioned, AP classes are designed to teach college level information, and sometimes its hard for younger students to wrap their mind around what a REAL AP class is like. Even though I took 4 AP classes during my freshman and sophomore years (AP World, Human Geography, Ap Government and AP Environmental Science), none of them REALLY prepared me for the rigor of courses like AP Biology and AP US History. I also took honors bio with a high average my freshman year, but I’m taking AP Biology as a junior currently. Long story short, that class is NO joke!!! BUT, if you have that high of an average and regular and you know you’re the kind of student to put in the hours of work and studying, then I have no doubts that you should be fine in the class.
My tips for the class:
- GET A CRASH COURSE BOOK! Crash Course books are short handbooks that take all of the content you need to know for the AP test and explain it simply and briefly. They make amazing study tools for class as well, and you can take your notes right alongside the information in the book
- Don’t procrastinate or rest on your laurels. One of my biggest problems as an AP student my sophomore year was thinking I didn’t need to study for class just because I was pretty smart and had gotten by without studying in previous years. Big, big mistake! If you ever want to be a successful AP student, you need to know that you’ll never get anywhere without putting in time and effort, especially in a class like AP Biology where you’re learning a monstrous amount of content.
If you have any more questions about AP Biology or AP in general, don’t be afraid to ask!
If you are genuinely interested in Biology and think that you can handle the workload, go ahead. It may be harder for a sophomore to get a 5, but it certainly isn’t impossible if enough time and effort is devoted to the class.
I self-studied AP Biology for about 2 months before the exam as a freshman and I got a 5. AP Bio isn’t super hard since it’s just memorization with very little math involved. You should take the AP test now, 'cause you won’t remember everything by the time you’re a sophomore.
If you’re gonna take the AP Bio test, I suggest you:
- Buy a couple of prep books for the AP Bio exam. I used Barron's and Princeton's Review, and they were pretty good. Take a few practice exams and see what topics you need to most help on. Also, go to bozemanscience.com. He has some pretty good videos and he talks about labs that they do in AP Bio, which can really help on the test.
- Get in touch with your teachers. When I was a freshman, I talked with my Honors Bio teacher and with the AP Bio teacher at my school. They were both helpful in getting me resources to study from and were very accommodating when I asked them for help.
- PLEASE DONT PROCRASTINATE!!!!!!! The two months I studied for the Bio exam were extremely stressful and I wished I started a lot sooner. So start now!
Good Luck!
The track record at your particular school is not encouraging. You need to get a well-rounded science education in high school, not just biology, so why not take chemistry next year (which could be helpful for AP Bio)? I see no purpose in rushing into AP Bio when you would likely do better with more chemistry background and more maturity as a student.
If you want a good pre-med preparation, you should take AP Bio and Honors Chemistry next year, then AP Chemistry and AP Physics 1. If you can’t double up on science, then just take Honors Chemistry.