Ok so I’m finalizing my schedule for next year. I’m going to be a senior and this year I took 4 APs (Calc BC, APUSH, English Lang, and Physics 1) and did good in these classes. Next year here’s my planned schedule:
AP English Lit
AP Spanish
AP Chemistry or AP Bio
AP Government
Required senior class
Mandatory Study Hall during the day since I’m taking Calc III/IV after school
Senior electives
What do you guys think? I’m leaning towards taking AP Chem because I’m really interested in chemistry and I’m participating in a Biochem summer program so I think that’ll help. But at my school AP Bio is generally easy and there’s a new teacher for AP Chem, but I had that teacher for honors chem and I really liked the class and teaching style. Do you guys think that AP Chem plus AP Spanish plus AP English plus Calc III (Multivariable Calc 1st semester) and Calc IV(Linear Algebra and DE 2nd semester)? At my school AP gov is considered relatively easy and I also have an interest in government and politics. The math classes are dual enrollment classes at a university. I would like at study biomedical engineering as a premed, but I’ve read that AP Bio is not really necessary for biomedical engineering
As long as you have taken a regular or honors biology class In high school already I’d say you can’t go wrong with taking AP Chem, especially as you did well in honors chem. AP Chemistry involves more more math and AP Bio has more reading and memorization. You seem to have no problem with math. Good luck!
@inthegarden thanks for your insight! Yeah I took honors bio freshman year and I really liked the class, but some programs that I’ve looked at strongly want AP Chem. I just didn’t want to overload myself too much!
AP Chem is notorious for being one of the toughest APs, but it seems like you are motivated to take it.
How is your Spanish? Have you heard how much homework there is in AP Spanish at your school? My child’s class had very little homework (relative to their other APs), so it may not be that demanding of a class, but there is a great deal of variation in how this course is taught.
Will you have to travel to the MVC/Calc IV courses or are they offered at your hs? If you have to travel for those courses, this will eat into your overall study time.
@ChezCurie I would say that my writing and reading in Spanish are pretty good, and my speaking is decent. From what I’ve heard, they get a moderate amount of homework, but most people say it’s pretty easy (and the average score at my school is like a 4.7 so most people get 5s (even the non fluent kids).
As for my dual enrollment math classes, they’re late in the evening after school and extracurriculars and they follow the local university system (twice a week) so I think that I will still have enough time to study
Okay, so it sounds like AP Spanish is doable. You may want to watch (maybe over the summer, if they’re still available) the classes that the College Board is posting now for AP Spanish to get an idea of the level of what is expected for a 5. The great thing about taking an AP as a senior is that colleges will not see your AP score before admissions decisions come out. So, the best strategy is to take your hardest APs as a senior. That way, only your first semester class grade is important for college admissions. Plus, you will not have to take an AP exam for your DE math, which will be a nice bonus at the end of your senior year.
It sounds like Chem is what you want to take. I would take it, knowing that it will be require a lot of time. It is doable, but if your ECs require a lot of time I’d drop AP Gov and replace it with whatever is the non-AP equivalent. Keep Chem, MVC, and Lit. Colleges will know that these are rigorous courses and respect them more than Gov.