<p>ok so im currently a freshman and we're filling out our course requests for next year (my sophomore year)</p>
<p>our school's science curriculum is a little odd in that we take physics freshman year, chemistry sophomore year, and then whatever we want junior/senior</p>
<p>apparently its possible to take ap chem (only 5 sophomores did it this year) if the department is willing to allow you, but they say its a lot of extra work to get caught up with people who took regular chem first</p>
<p>my question is: how hard is ap chemistry? would it be worth it for me to try it if im a good student? or should i just go with regular chemistry?</p>
<p>i would recommend AP chem as a junior or senior, and definitely after already taking a year of introductory chem or honors chem. jumping into it during your sophomore year is not a good way to start your crucial academic years of HS, especially since its workload will drain your energy from other classes.</p>
<p>For me, it's been my easiest AP out of four, but I did take it last year. Figure out how the teacher teaches. Ours pretends that we've never done chem, and teaches from the basics to the advanced, start to finish. However, it may have been a little fast paced for me if I hadn't already been through the course, but I think I still could have managed. I'd ask around about the difficultly and probably take it.</p>
<p>I would strongly reccommend that you take the introductory/honors course of chemistry first. The material covered in AP Chemistry is often based on material already covered in the introductory course. Of course, there are always exceptions; if you are one of those self-motivated types, it is plausible to study the introductory course along with the AP class, but expect a big time-commitment.</p>