AP Physics C or AP Bio

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I am very interested in Biomedical Engineering but am not sure of it yet (if not BME, I'd go Biochem). This year I took AP Physics B at my school. Next year, I have the option of taking AP Physics C or AP Biology. My dilemma is that the AP Physics C teacher is the same as my Physics B teacher, and frankly he is not the best teacher for my style of learning. Plus, not many people can get an A in that class. I did do well in his Physics B class, but it was an uphill battle. The only reason I'm worried is that I know engineering requires an understanding of physics and thus Physics C might be seen as a "plus". </p>

<p>Side note: will AP Comp Sci be helpful for engineering?</p>

<p>So my schedule options are:</p>

<p>1:
AP Bio
AP Comp Sci
AP Gov and AP Comp Gov
AP Lit
Multivariable Calc
Spanish
Advanced English</p>

<p>2:
AP Physics C
AP Comp Sci
AP Gov and AP Comp Gov
AP Lit
Multivariable Calc
Spanish
Advanced English</p>

<p>3 (not sure I can handle this one):
AP Bio
AP AP Physics C
AP Gov and AP Comp Gov
AP Lit
Multivariable Calc
Spanish
Advanced English</p>

<p>So my question is should I take AP Physics C with a teacher that doesn't mesh well with me or take AP biology.</p>

2

<p>what level of spanish are you going to be in?</p>

3

<p>Spanish 5</p>

<p>10char</p>

4

<p>Are you better at memorizing or math and problem solving?</p>

<p>Bio is memorization and graph comprehension. Physics requires intense math and problem solving skills. Since either class would work with your intended major, take the class that fits with your skill set. I’d skip the bad teacher if I were you. He’d just make your senior year miserable.</p>

<p>Does your school have an engineering class or club or something? Do some extracurricular engineering stuff. That’d give you the skills and background you’d need and would be a whole lot more fun.</p>

5

<p>FWIW: My daughter took AP Bio and thought it was the most difficult AP she took in high school because of the sheer breadth of material needed to master. Assuming the grade distributions on Wikipedia are correct, that may be why fewer students receive a 4 or 5 on AP Bio than AP Physics C:
[AP</a> Biology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Biology]AP”>AP Biology - Wikipedia)<br>
[AP</a> Physics C: Mechanics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Physics_C:_Mechanics]AP”>AP Physics C: Mechanics - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>Forgetting the teacher, or the grade you might receive on the test, which course do you think you would enjoy the most?</p>

6

<p>They’ve changed the AP bio exam though. It covers less material now.</p>

7

<p>Do 2 if you can’t handle 3.</p>

8

<p>If you can’t handle 3 I would go for 1 because you are not sure if you want to do BME or Biochemistry. Both majors share a lot of biology, and therefore 1 would be good even if you chose to pursue a degree in Biochemistry, where physics is not that essential.
PS: I have your same dilemma :)</p>

9

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<p>Gibby, I would not draw conclusions based on those statistics. The number of students that took AP Physics C was ~15,000-20,000, while well over 130,000 students took AP Biology. AP Physics C is usually regarded as the most prestigious/difficult science AP, and so only attracts the best students.</p>

<p>As an example, at my school, the AP Physics C class this year consisted of 15 students. There are three AP Biology sections, with a total enrollment of almost 80 students. Next year, there will be ~20 students in physics and over a hundred in biology.</p>

<p>The point being that the higher average on AP Physics C is due to the fact that only the best students take it, as opposed to AP Biology (this is also the reason why AP ESci has the lowest scores of any AP class, despite being commonly regarded as one of the easiest APs).</p>