<p>I want to be a surgeon, but my goodness I'm terrible at chemistry. (87 average, 62 right now, pre-AP level) It could be my teacher, who's known for being a terrible teacher compared to this other guy who's always like "AIGHT" and "-insert motivational speech-". Actually, I'm pretty sure 70% of my class has an 85-88 in chemistry.</p>
<p>So should I take AP Chemistry junior year, or take AP Psych/Gov't/US II (two of the three) instead? (I would take chem senior year) I heard that the teacher for AP Chem is really good, but I don't want to double up on sciences right now, plus I feel that I just naturally suck at chem.</p>
<p>If you’re not doing well in pre-AP Chem, you will not do well in AP Chem. The concepts only get more complicated, and the fundamentals of this year are crucial to the next level. Don’t do it. You’ll hate yourself.</p>
<p>Don’t take AP Psych. Self study for it the week before the AP exam and you’ll get a 5. It’s that easy (if you care enough). </p>
<p>Take APUSH as it’s really easy if you actually do the reading and not procrastinate. I’m not sure about AP Gov’t though so if you have another AP that you could take, like Environmental, Stats, or something, I’d recommend that. Taking two S.S AP’s is not recommended. By the way, this is all assuming you don’t go towards the AP Chem route.</p>
<p>If you’re not good at the rudimentary concepts introduced in Honors Chemistry, there is absolutely no chance that you will do well in AP, even if the teacher is better.</p>
<p>Everyone who had the bad teacher in my school did not do well in AP chem, even though the AP chem teacher is AMAZING. You just won’t have the proper fundamentals. I would take it senior year so it doesn’t trash your GPA before college apps.</p>
<p>The jump from pre-AP Chem to AP Chem is astounding. If you’re set on taking it though, you would do better if you took it your junior year. Although your knowledge of chem may be shaky and inconsistent, you still are familiar with terms and main concepts. By senior year, most of the things learned in pre-AP will be forgotten and it will take much more independent study to achieve the same grade. What other science are you taking?</p>
That wasn’t true in my experience. My friends who took AA Chem, or even regular Chem in 10th grade and waited until 12th grade to do AP Chem didn’t feel that they should have done it last year. AP Chem just really isn’t that hard.</p>
<p>However, even though I call AP Chem “not hard,” I don’t think it would be a good idea for the OP, not unless his/her current grade is a total fluke, like when there have been two assignments so far and you missed one.</p>
<p>I agree that AP Chem isn’t terribly difficult, but if elmoisred isn’t interested in the subject and doesn’t have a great understanding now, he/she will be better off taking it his/her junior year.</p>
<p>At my school, it is discouraged to take AP Chem any year but the year following chem (regular or honors). My class of about 30 only has one senior. However, this may be because the teacher assumes that everyone has a basic understanding of all chem 1 material.</p>
<p>I tried very hard and made B-'s in my Pre-AP Chemistry last year. This year in AP Chemistry I decided not to study or do any of the homework and to either sleep in class or talk to friends in the back corner. My average for the first grading period was a 98 and the second grading period was a 97. I don’t think your AP chemistry class would be anything like mine if you took it and neither would the other classes. I think this is a great questions for a councelor or friends at your school because the difficulty of classes at each school is different.</p>
<p>I should probably clarify that the chemistry class is “Advanced Honors” Chemistry (non Honors Chemistry), which is basically a class that has AP difficulty but isn’t considered an AP class.</p>
<p>My other science is definitely going to be Honors Physics.</p>
<p>If you have another science, don’t overload yourself. Perhaps you would do well in AP Chem, but all signs point to another rough year if you move to an upper level course without a firm, even intuitive grasp of the fundamentals.</p>