<p>Hello all,
I will be entering my junior year this month. As of now, I have a pretty rigorous schedule including AP Calc, AP Lang, AP Art History, APUSH, regular physics (which is super hard at our school) and more. My problem is I suck at math and I was pretty mediocre in both precalculus and algebra 2. Unfortunately I feel I will not be able to handle both physics and AP Calc at the same time. Therefore I am wondering if I should
1) Drop physics and just take Calculus (I took biology the summer before 9th grade, chem in 9th, and ap bio last year) If I do this, I will take physics senior year but I am worried colleges will see I did not take any science my junior year.
2) Replace AP Calc with AP Stat and take physics. (In this case I will take AP calc senior year)</p>
<p>Any help would be much appreciated
Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I assume that you are planning a career in which calculus and higher-level math is not required. If so your declared major should make that clear. With that out of the way take AP Stat. It’s useful at the level taught at high school in many disciplines, even those with a liberal arts bent.</p>
<p>Further I assume that you will not need “high-level” physics in your eventual career. So take the (non-calculus) high school physics course at some point.</p>
<p>Do the second option so that you are taking a science class junior year. Colleges especially look at junior year grades and they want to see that you’re challenging yourself in all the subjects.</p>
<p>A lot of kids think they are just “bad at math” when the truth is they just didn’t put in enough work to master the material. In college it would be typical for a student who wanted to do well to spend 7-10 hours outside of class each week studying the material, doing homework, doing practice problems. The last one is probably a surprise to most HS students. There is no law that says you can only do problems that were assigned! If you want to get better, work more problems.</p>
<p>Learning something like calculus or physics is more like learning to play tennis than learning history. People are “built” to easily learn stories and many classes are just that. And even for those that at first blush seem different, stories are easy to come by to illustrate the concept. It is easy to understand cognitive dissonance or a Giffen good once you get an example or two. </p>
<p>But the sciences and math are different. You are no more ready to do well on a math test after reading the chapter and solving a few problems (while flipping back to see how they solved a similar one) than you are to make the school tennis team once someone explains the rules of tennis. Doing well on either takes practice until it sinks in and becomes automatic. </p>
<p>There are books you can find online or at many college bookstores called “Problem Solver for X” where X can be physics, calculus, chemistry, statistics, etc. These books are like SAT books focused on a single subject. Each chapter covers a topic, you just find the chapter that matches the one your class is studying and start working problems. The books have fully worked solutions. </p>
<p>I think the reason most kids leave majors in the sciences and engineering isn’t because they aren’t smart enough to do it, but because they lacked the motivation and discipline to spend the time it takes to learn the subjects. Your senior year in HS if you want to do well in statistics and physics you could do so. Get an A, even. It will take work on your part; probably less than a college student would spend since HS classes go slower. But if you got those workbooks and spend time each and every week solving problems, I can guarantee you will do well.</p>
<p>can you take AP chem this year (with AP calc) or did you already take it?</p>
<p>Thank you all for the responses. My planned undergrad major is business/finance and I eventually hope to go to law school. My counselors all recommend that I take ap calc now as apparently the bridge between honors precalc to ap calc is a lot smoother than ap stats to ap calc. At the same time I understand that colleges want to see you challenging yourself in all subjects junior year. AP chem is not an option at this point and therefore physics or ap physics (lol) are the only options. I’m still wondering if colleges will think lesser of me if I hold back on physics until senior year and take it then along with ap stats.
Who knows, with mikemac’s inspiring speech I may be able to handle both calc and phys now xD</p>
<p>Business majors will generally have to take calculus and statistics in college. For calculus, often an easier “calculus for business majors” course is allowed. However, sometimes a calculus-based statistics course is required.</p>
<p>If AP calculus is AB, then it will run as a slower pace than a college calculus course. If it is BC, it will run at approximately the pace of a college calculus course.</p>
<p>Since you are two grade levels ahead in math, why are you afraid of math? When I was in high school, someone two grade levels ahead in math was considered one of the top students in math. I also do not see why so many high school students seem to be afraid of physics.</p>
<p>Yea this is calculus BC. Although I am ahead in math I’ve always had an extremely hard time with it compared to other subjects. The reason I’m afraid of physics is that the teacher, to put it nicely, has a “unique” teaching and grading system that makes it near impossible to get an A</p>