<p>I just found out that ucsd requires students to use ALL their ap credit..which means that I would have to take the harder courses during my freshman year. While i am okay with using my ap scores to skip some of the GE requirements, i really did not want to use my ap chemistry credit. Chemistry, in my opinion, is one of those classes where you really have to build a strong foundation upon before entering the higher classes so i was planning on NOT using my ap credit and just taking the normal general chemistry classes. Unfortunately now i have to take the honors chemistry series which i heard is very difficult. Is there anyone taking the honors chem series who can give me some insight on the difficulty level? Is it worth taking these classes?? Also, does the honors series review the basic chemistry concepts such as stoichiometry and things like that?
Any help would be great!</p>
<p>Well you can always take the regular chemistry series; it just won’t count towards your GE requirement, gpa, or units. However, if you are doing it to satisfy pre-med requirement then it’d still work. The only reason for you to take the honor series is if you want the units and for it to count towards your GPA.</p>
<p>I didn’t take chem BH or CH, but I did take chem6AH. I took two years of chemistry (honors 1/2 and AP 3/4) and it didn’t prepare me for chemistry 6ah at all. The reason being that the professor makes up his own curriculum or something and it was entirely physical chemistry. Also, the class was using math20F material to do their math while I was only in 20A (they were doing eigen functions, fourier transforms, and the likes). The class average on the test were like 50 percent but the curve was really generous. I think it was about 40 percent A, 45 percent B, and 5 percent C. I knew a person who probably averaged 20 percent on all his test and still came out with a C. If you study hard then the honor series shouldn’t be a problem because the curve is so generous. The regular chemistry series ain’t no joke either though.</p>
<p>You can still take the regular chemistry courses. You just won’t get credit for them.</p>
<p>i see…thank you so much!
also, do you know if the chem honors series prepares students well for the mcat? bc i heard for the mcat you need to know a lot of basic chemistry yet ive gotten the impression that the chem honors series completely skips over basic concepts…
and i ive also heard that if you got a 5 on the ap exam then youre exempt from chem 6ah as well, so what would i take instead of that?
ah and one more question…sorry!! but if i decide to take the normal general series, is it easy to make up those credits i lost?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/pdf/APC-chart-11-12.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/pdf/APC-chart-11-12.pdf</a>
Getting a five doesn’t exempt you from the honor series. And don’t worry about making up for “lost” credit because your AP score already gave you credit before you even start attending UCSD. The AP chemistry already gave you 8 units; each course in the 6 series only gives you 4 so a total of 12 (that’s after 3 courses). If you have other AP credit under your belt, I wouldn’t worry about accumulating credits. Even if you don’t, I don’t think it’s a big deal.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the mcat.</p>
<p>okay, thank you for all the help :D</p>
<p>@laptop1 If you want to go to med school you have to take a year of gen chem in college, regardless of how you did in AP chem. </p>
<p>Honestly I’ve heard that honors chemistry is a difficult series. There’s some complex math involved, so make sure you’re good at calculus. However, it’s apparently also very interesting.</p>
<p>does this apply to physics as well? my son is thinking about self-studying for the E&M section. if he gets a 5, will he place out of physics 2B (as a computer engineering major)? and if he gets like a 4, will he be allowed to still take physics 2B?</p>
<p>There’s no rule banning you from taking classes you’re exempt from due to AP testing. If you get a 5 on AP Chem, you can still take the CHEM 6 series; BILD for a 5 on AP Bio; physics 1/2/4 series if you take AP physics. The caveat you should be aware of is that your grade will not count toward your GPA and you receive no units for it. Basically, you will be taking such classes for “personal enrichment”/reinforcement of the material and/or to reassure grad schools that you have a foundation in such subjects. Those are the only two reasons I can fathom for why someone would take classes they’re exempt from. Some people, especially pre-meds, find it helpful to start from the beginning and take these lower-division sequences anyway to reassure graduate schools that they have indeed learned the foundational basics of that subject, as attested to by their university, instead of just skimping out on them via a high school-era AP exam, which i guess many grad schools don’t find reassuring. If you think about it, a “5” on an AP exam is a pretty vague indicator and tells you little about the nature of that person’s mastery of a particular subject. </p>
<p>so AP credit exemption is just that simple. You don’t get credit for taking those classes, but you have personal and official, transcript-backed proof that you indeed learned this basic, yet crucial, material. </p>
<p>For the person whose son may skip Physics 2A/B: I say don’t. Just take them again. I imagine if he jumps into Physics 2B or 2C, he may find himself struggling. Physics in particular I find to be quite different between high school and college so I wouldn’t be confident that his performance in HS-level physics will transfer over very well into college (it might, but unless he’s super smart I doubt it). Then again he’s a CE major, so maybe he just wants to get physics over with?</p>
<p>@92faim:</p>
<p>So, let’s say that we have credit for AP Chem. If we retook the equivalent class at UCSD, then if we do badly because it is a “weeder” class, it won’t affect our GPA at all? There will be no indication for how well we did? Or do we receive a grade in this class and it is shown on our transcript, but it will not count towards our GPA?</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying.</p>
<p>@distressstudent (or anyone else who can answer this question)
you mentioned that ap chem already gave me 8 units of credit…but if i take the gen chem series will ucsd still give me the 8 units (thus if the series is 12 units, id only be 4 units behind)? or will i have to start with 0 credits?</p>
<p>aceaites: I believe they will be on your transcript for grad schools to see, but it won’t affect your university GPA. Not sure if grad school would use that grade to recalculate your GPA tho. </p>
<p>laptop1: You won’t receive credit from the chem 6 a-b-c series because you were exempt from it. Chem6a, chem6b, and chem6c each gives 4 units each. Even if you were to take the whole 6 series at ucsd, it won’t change how much units you’d be getting in the end because you were exempted from the series. In the end, you’d still have that eight units from the chem AP test. It’s kinda like ucsd’s way of not wanting students to double dip on the same course, but I find that kinda dumb : /</p>
<p>oh btw, that’s only if you got a five on chem. if you got a four on the chem test, then you are only exempt from chem6a. So you’d get eight credits automatically also. And then you can either start from the 6a or 6b . If you start from 6a and finish, it’d add up to 16 (8+0+4+4). If you start from 6b and finish, that’s also only 16 units.</p>
<p>oh ok…so basically if i took gen chem itd be 8+0+0+0…ha im fine with only receiving 8
Thank you! :)</p>
<p>Wait, is there any way you can not “use” your 4 or 5 on the AP Chem test? Like say “I don’t want to use it at all”? Or do they automatically transfer all your AP Scores into unit credits and put it on your transcript?</p>
<p>I’m very confused. I received many 4’s and 5’s on the AP exams but there are a few scores that I don’t want to use and would rather just retake the class again. But if I’m forced to use these scores to be exempt or place into a higher class, then that means I’m forced to take a class I might not be prepared for or else I won’t get credit. This sounds like a punishment to those who take more AP Exams, to me.</p>
<p>@AceAites I’m pretty sure you must use all your AP credits. I know, it’s kind of an annoying policy.</p>
<p>However, that doesn’t mean you must take the honors courses. For example, I got a 4 on AP Chem, so I passed out of Chem6A. However, I didn’t want to take the honors version, Chem6AH. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be pre-med, and med schools require a year of general chemistry. Therefore, I took Chem6A and therefore got credit for taking Chem6A. However, I didn’t get any credit for the letter grade I received in the course, it wasn’t factored into my GPA.</p>
<p>If I had taken the honors version the grade I received would have factored into my GPA.</p>
<p>It’s actually in your best interest to not get a 5 if you plan to take this route, because you would receive no credit for both Chem6A and Chem6B.</p>
<p>I hope I helped!</p>
<p>It’s like they’re telling all students who apply: DO NOT TAKE AP COURSES. IT WILL SCREW YOU OVER.</p>
<p>What is the AP Chemistry equivalent course at UC San Diego? Is it Chem 6A? BTW, I got a 4 on AP Chem exam (self studied it). Can I take the AP Chem equivalent course then, since it’s not a 5?</p>
<p>Let’s say I just retook the course and didn’t receive credit for the course because I already had AP Credit. In fact, let’s say I just retook everything I had AP Credit for the first year. Would I have a GPA at all? Because technically, I’ve already finished that year of college before I even went in, correct?</p>
<p>Aceaites: read my conversation between laptop and look at the chart I posted. </p>
<p>and yeah i guess technically you can end up with a year without a GPA… but I don’t know why you would want to do that lol. You can’t get exempt from the writing course, and some course you can just get exempt from without looking back at all (like say you’re a biology major doing pre-med, there is no reason for you to re-take a lower div history course if you have the AP credit for it).</p>
<p>Alright, thanks for the chart. I understand the nomenclature of the courses now. </p>
<p>The reason why I’m so set on retaking a course that I have AP Credit for is because of the MCATs. Upper Division courses don’t cover the material that will appear (the best they will do is briefly touch upon those concepts). I self studied both AP Chem and AP Bio, hoping to test my abilities at independent study, using the AP Exam as a measurement. Being retrospective, I guess that wasn’t the best thing to do if I wanted to go to UCSD.</p>
<p>There are quite a few med schools that require you to take the lower division classes too (You cannot use AP Credit to skip out of it, even if you are planning on taking upper division).</p>
<p>Finally, since I can place out of Psych 1, and just take the next sequence of psych, if I re-take the other courses without credit, will the Psych class determine my GPA? A=4.0 A- = 3.7 and so on?</p>
<p>Thank you so much for reading my walls of texts.</p>
<p>It is very unlikely that psych will the only course that you are taking that will count towards your GPA. There’s also that mandatory writing program that every student has to take. Also, most students that I know with ap credit for both chem and bio still usually only take BILD1 second quarter. </p>
<p>I am not sure on this, but you need to double check if re-taking those course will count towards being a full-time student. There is a threshold unit that you need to meet in order to qualify as a full-time student, which is like 12 units or something (You need to be enrolled in at least 12 units to get full cal grant).</p>
<p>You also need 12 units of <em>credited</em> courses per quarter to get the GPA credits necessary to get Provost’s Honors. </p>
<p>I feel that re-taking classes (w/o credit) doesn’t count for much else besides having the letter grade on your transcript. If that was the case, a student facing part-time status could always elect to repeat a class they took (and passed) during a previous quarter.</p>