Hi, so I’m going to be a sophomore this fall. One of my teachers said I would be a good candidate to take AP Chem in the fall. To do so, I would have to study for the test out of regular chemistry (which I’m currently doing). I’ve heard that AP Chemistry is a really tough class at my school, so my question is should I try to test out and take AP, or would I be better off just staying with regular?? My schedule includes Honors Precalc and APUSH and I play sports, so I don’t want to overwork myself…
Depends; you will need to try much harder than other AP classes. I entered AP Chem as a sophomore with extremely limited chemistry knowledge; waiting for scores to come out tomorrow but I predict either a 4 or a 5. It was the toughest AP class at my HS. If you want to succeed on the exam, you have to push yourself through more so than other easier AP classes. APUSH and AP World History are not difficult at all compared to AP Chem. I took AP World History, AP Human Geography, Precalculus, the whole nine yards.
It will be hard to start with AP Chem sophomore year, but it’s totally possible. I took almost all AP science exams during high school (Chem, Bio, Phys 1, Phys 2, and 2 Phys Cs), and I would say AP Chem is the hardest (and the most interesting) science class out of all of them.
I would recommend you to take regular chemistry first to build a solid chemistry background knowledge and to be sure you are actually interested in chemistry. Plus, if you take AP Chem sophomore year, you’ll probably forget most of things you learned once you get into college, and you’ll probably need to take college intro chem again if you want to major in chem or biochem…
If you really want to take AP Chem sophomore year, be sure to study balancing reaction, train-track calculation, get an idea of elements on periodic table, memorizing common compounds (nitrate, sulfate etc), and get a basic idea of acid-base titration during summer. (In my school, AP Chem goes really fast and covers regular Chem infos in 3 weeks…) Also, be prepared to spend at least 10 hours per week outside of class studying materials, preparing for test, and writing formal lab reports.