<p>This is my schedule for senior year (2007-2008):</p>
<p>AP Physics
Research
AP Calculus BC
Regular Government
AP English Language
AP Computer Science</p>
<p>Now my question is: Is it extremely hard to self study biology on my own using the popular cliffsnotes book? I want to see which career line i like more: engineering (physics) or medical (biology). Also, are AP calculus, AP language, and AP computer hard? And which of the above APs should be dropped first if I can't handle it?</p>
<p>Bio is mostly memorization, so it terms of self-studying, it depends on how much time you have to memorize a bunch of information. The cliffsnotes book is an excellent book, and it will prepare you well for the AP Bio exam.</p>
<p>AP calc I found easy, but I'm a math person. I haven't taken AP lang or AP Comp.</p>
<p>The AP I would drop is the one that is hardest for you.</p>
<p>I am good at memorization, but I want to know what kind of memorization. Is it just terms or things like charts and etc. Also, how does AP bio compare to AP chem? I took AP chem this year and found it moderately hard because of acid and base calculations and some reaction rate units.</p>
<p>What I'd do is drop AP Comp Sci and replace it with AP Bio, it sounds like that would be your best option. If this isn't a choice self-studying will be a beast for bio, I myself found the class to be easy, but if I had to learn it on my own, I would have been very overwhelmed.</p>
<p>As far as what to drop if you can't handle I'd drop comp sci first than english lang if neccessary. Weather you go into engineering or medicine you'll need some biology, physics, and calculus those are important to keep.</p>
<p>Bio is a double period (at least at all the schools that I know of). Bio is definitely self-studyable. Here's a good plan from somebody who took the class itself:</p>
<ol>
<li>Get Campbell's Biology 7th Edition. See if your AP Bio teacher will lend it to you for the year.</li>
<li>Get Barron's and Cliff's review books. The newest ones too since they have better diagrams.</li>
<li>DO NOT treat this subject as pure memorization or use flash cards unless you want a 4 or lower. Many topics interconnect and cannot be "crammed" as easily as something like history.</li>
<li>Do practice AP essays and grade them yourself harshly using the rubric. This is not to test your knowledge really, but to get a feel for the exam, how specific to be in each part of the question, and time limit.</li>
<li>If you find something in your Campbell book to be way too confusing, then get a copy of your teacher's syllabus and see if that topic is covered in it or not. If it is covered, then try Barron's and Cliff's for clarification.</li>
<li>Since you've taken AP chem, do all the chemistry studying for bio in one day.</li>
<li>Ask your teacher for tests right after they're given to the AP bio students.</li>
<li>Find AP Bio exams (won't tell you where).</li>
<li>Find diagrams/tables for EVERYTHING. They really help, especially for respiration, photosynthesis, and characteristics of the different animal phyla.</li>
<li>The one time where studying keywords is acceptable is probably for ecology/animal behavior such as allopatric speciation, altruism, habituation, etc.</li>
</ol>