AP Chemistry vs. AP Physics C: Mechanics

<p>So, my junior schedule is (most rigorous offered):
AP Bio
AP US
Honors Precalculus
Honors Latin 4
Honors English
Honors Physics</p>

<p>What I want my senior schedule to be:
AP Chemistry
AP Physics C: Mechanics
AP Latin 5: Vergil
AP World History
AP Calculus BC
AP English Literature</p>

<p>People have told me to drop a science, and that would be manageable...which one is better in everyones' opinion? Honestly, which one is more interesting...I personally like both physics and chemistry...anyone's thoughts on these?</p>

<p>i would keep the ap chem, personally. i took ap chem last year and loved it. who knows though, if you really like physics, then take C.</p>

<p>I see. Any other insight?</p>

<p>only drop physics if you are mathematically challenged. You will find a surprising amount of stuff in mech that you have already covered in your previous course, so as long you can understand the math, the class should be fairly easy.</p>

<p>If you plan on majoring in science or engineering, I would actually keep both.</p>

<p>Yeah…I was really thinking that…it’s just w/ all those courses…I don’t know if I’ll have time senior year since I’m going to be applying to around 12 schools, not to mention all of the stuff besides hw that I do outside of school…I really am planning on majoring in science so…any other suggestions?</p>

<p>I am not mathematically challenged…well I got an 80 on my math PSAT…and I currently have a 110% in my honors precalc class…but that is probably simple math compared w/ mechanics…or not…either way…math shouldn’t be an issue.</p>

<p>I have 5 APs and the amount of HW is minimal, if you use time the way I do.</p>

<p>Keep them all. It’s not worth having a free period. 6APs will impress colleges, and probably raise your GPA/class rank.</p>

<p>At the moment I am 6/320…so yeah that would be nice :)…I’d say my workload w/ my 6 classes now (even though 4 are honors, they still require some work) was pretty damn awful at the beginning of the year, but have become more manageable! Also, the sched I have now has improved my overall methodology of doing hw/spreading my time well. Eli, or anyone else, if you have taken any of the courses that I mentioned can you give a brief synopsis on your take/average time spent, etc…</p>

<p>I’m in AP Literature and AP Calc BC</p>

<p>AP Literature: is really quite easy. Well not easy… but there isn’t too much work in there. Plus, all the writing is done in class, so no serious homework. More like a psychology/analysis class than anything, lots of class discussions. Might actually have less work than a standard class, just with a higher standard of grading.</p>

<p>AP Calc BC: Everyone at my school can only take this class if they have already passed AB, so I’m held to a different standard and learning different stuff than a first-time AP calc student. I took honors pre-calc sohpomore year… and the difference between that and BC concepts is huge. If everyone else in BC is taking it for their firs time too, you should be okay. Calc AB teaches you about derivitives and integration, whereas BC is more about how to apply it to really difficult situations. (eg. integrating [y’=sec(x)^3 x tan(x)^5)]). On the plus side, learning about derivitives and integration is really cool. I’d reccomend taking this one as well, you will be graded based upon how you compare to your classmates (hopefully they haven’t taken AB).</p>

<p>LMK if you have any more questions :). Hope this helps.</p>

<p>Eli</p>

<p>I say drop AP Latin 5… My school used to do AP Latin Literature 3 and AP Latin:Vergil 4. Now we only do AP Vergil 4, but I had the opportunity to do both. After 4 years of Latin, I can say that it is not worth it. Most colleges won’t even accept Latin credit and if they do it won’t even do anything for you. That’s my honest opinion, but in reference to your actual question:</p>

<p>AP Chemistry is a great class, but it is a fast-paced and hard one. I, on the other hand, love chemistry and plan to go into ChemE so it is not that hard for me. AP Physics C would probably be an interesting class (I am self-studying C as we are only offered B). It will be required for any scientific field you want to go into, but so will chemistry. My opinion is to try to take both. I am taking 6 AP classes this year (the most I can take) and I find it to be rather manageable. Actually, I am doing better than how I did with my 5 AP classes junior year.</p>