AP Biology Credit

Hi!

Today I found out that I scored a 4 on the AP Bio exam, and I am not sure whether I should take the credit for Bio 171 and 172 or not. I felt awful during the exam; I ran out of time on the multiple choice section and even left one of the essay questions blank, so I am not too confident in my foundation for biology. But, I have heard that the introductory biology classes are often weeder classes, so would I be better off taking the credits? I am pre-pharmacy, so I will still have lots of biology courses in the future.

Thank you so much for your advice,
helppleasepharm

I’d love to hear the answer for this as well.

Did you feel awful because you were ill or do you mean that you felt awful because you thought you weren’t doing well. My DS said it was really hard last year, too, but he did end up with a 5.

And FYI only 7% of students this year got a 5.

@choski94 Wow, congrats to your son!! I just thought that I didn’t do well on the test. I had never gotten a 4 or a 5 before either, so this was definitely a pleasant surprise

Take the credit if you got it. It’ll be worth it later on

Def take the credit. otherwise you waste two semesters taking intro bio when you could be taking other classes. Bio 171 and 172 are hard classes. I got a 5 on ap bio and I’m so glad that places me out of 8 credits. I was able to take orgo freshman year and I don’t have to take summer classes to keep up with premed requirements

@Eeeee127 @Nibbatron Thank you so much for the advice. I sent my scores to Michigan

I’m jumping in on this thread because my daughter will be in the same situation (at a different college). Wouldn’t it make more sense to retake the class rather then skip to a higher level class? Are the higher level classes actually easier?

Your decision should be based upon where you want to be after 4 years of college. Are you following a pre-med path or planning on biology as your major? or is biology simply a part of your core education in prep for an unrelated major/degree?

Paying for college tuition should be looked at as a “user fee”. Take advantage of all the resources you’ve signed up for to reach your end goal. If it is your major, challenge yourself. The quicker you climb the pre-requisite ladder, the faster you will start meeting passionate people in your field of study.

Premed students have to be careful since some med schools won’t take AP credits as prerequisites. It doesn’t mean that you have to go back and take the class you got credit for, but you might have to take another class in the same subject instead. Unfortunately all med schools are different so there’s no standard to go by.