AP Physics C or AP bio?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi, I’m going to be a junior next year and I’m not sure whether to take physics C or bio. I’m currently in physics 1, and I’m going to take calc BC next year. However, I’m not sure whether it would be more appropriate to take physics co-currently with calc or if I should take it senior year and take bio instead. Overall, I’m doing pretty well in physics 1 and am pretty strong in math as well. However, I was wondering if it would be too much of a workload since I am going to take 5 APs next year. In my school, physics C focuses on mechanics first semester, and E&M second semester.

2

Can you list out what you intend to take as a junior and senior? Have you taken Chem or AP Chem yet? AP Bio will have some Chem stuff at the beginning. Physics C will be much harder I would think for most students, but in your case I don’t think it matters in which order. You can take Physics C concurrently with Calc.

3

Junior year I plan on taking:

AP Calc BC
AP Spanish
AP US History
AP Lit
AP Physics C/Bio
An engineering class that I haven’t decided yet
Band

Senior:

Calc 3/Adv Lin Alg
AP Gov
AP Macro/Micro
AP English
AP Physics C/Bio
An engineering class that I haven’t decided on yet
Band

I haven’t taken AP Chem but I took accel chem freshman year.

4

I was also wondering whether it would be necessary to self-study for Physics C if I intend on taking it next year.

5

If you’re taking both anyway, it does not matter which you take when, since you will also be taking Calc as a junior. Taking Physics C as a junior may help with your jr/sr engineering classes

Sounds like there should be something that would be a more productive use of your time.

6

As long as you have calculus either concurrently or before, it doesn’t matter when you take AP Physics C.

If you are planning on engineering, I would consider taking AP chem instead of AP bio.

7

the 2 toughest classes on your list are AP Physics C and AP Lit (at least it was for my kid), so I would have those in separate years given your situation. And depending on what you want to major in, AP Chem may be more useful than AP Bio.

8

Did you take Bio yet?

I agree that AP Chem is better than AP Bio for engineers.

9

I haven’t taken bio but it’s required.

10

You could take Honors Bio if you think you have too many AP classes.