<p>I noticed that many of you guys either are forced to take or voluntarily take an regular/honors version of a science course before taking an AP course.</p>
<p>I found it odd (and a bit redundant) to do so considering I'm used to my school's system of:</p>
<p>9th: Physical Science H (mostly Earth Science)
10th: AP Biology
11th: AP Chemistry
12th: AP Physics C</p>
<p>So I wanted to hear what your guys' take on this is and how your school system works with AP science courses.</p>
<p>We are required to take Honors-level sciences courses before taking the AP course in that subject. Except AP Enviro, but I think Honors Biology AND Honors Chem are pre-reqs for that.</p>
<p>Your school’s system may not be a bad idea for Bio, but I can’t imagine AP Physics C without any prior physics knowledge.</p>
<p>DS school it is required to take:<br>
9th grade - Bio or Honors Bio
10th grade - Chem or Honors Chem</p>
<p>then 11th and 12th you can choose
AP Bio
AP Chem
Honors Engineering
Physics (non-calc based)</p>
<p>Seems to be a norm at over half the schools in our area that the honors version is required before taking AP.</p>
<p>College courses in chemistry and physics sometimes list high school courses in chemistry and physics as prerequisites. So it can make sense for a high school AP course to have the regular high school course as a prerequisite, though strong students may be able to handle the college or high school AP course without having had the regular high school course.</p>
<p>At my school you have to take regular or honors Bio and Chem to go on to AP. I’m not sure about Physics because some years we have it some years we don’t.Sophomore year I took Honors Bio and this past year I took Honors Chem, and next year I will be going into AP Bio and AP Chem. I think our system is pretty useless. I suppose they want to “prepare us” but most kids at my school just take the regular class in summer school and go in to AP the following year. In my opinion, don’t take them if they aren’t prerequisites.</p>
<p>For my school (well the district really), to take AP Biology you have to have taken regular or honors/Pre-AP Biology OR regular or honors/Pre-AP Chemistry (it is because to take any Chemistry class you have to have had taken a Biology class). AP Chemistry only requires a lower level Chemistry class, and AP Physics B doesn’t require anything (except for concurrent enrollment in Calculus). My district doesn’t offer Physics C (I took the exam anyway, haha!)</p>
<p>Basically, it runs down like this:
AP Biology (Prerequisites: a lower level Biology or Chemistry course)</p>
<p>AP Chemistry (Prerequisites: a lower level Chemistry course, plus Algebra II since that needed for Pre-AP/honors Chemistry)</p>
<p>AP Physics B (Prerequisites: a lower level Physics class recommended. Concurrent enrollment in Calculus)</p>
<p>AP Enviornmental Science (Prerequisites: a Biology, Chemistry, and a Physics class of any level)</p>
<p>My school requires the high school class before the AP version, so if someone wants to take all 3 AP science classes (APES & Physics C are not offered) they have to double up most years.</p>
<p>The typical schedule for a student wanting to take all 3 AP science classes looks like this…
9th grade: Pre-AP Biology
10th grade: Pre-AP Chemistry and General Physics
11th grade: AP Chemistry and AP Physics
12th grade: AP Biology</p>
<p>I think this system works well. This year, my school offered AP Physics B for the first time, and allowed seniors to take it without general physics first since the science sequence was different for them and most hadn’t taken general physics. However, all the seniors that took AP Physics without general physics ended up dropping down to general physics. So I think the pre-ap version pre-requisite is a good one. But keep in mind my school is an average public school, not an elite private school or even a superior public. So it works well for my school, but I’m sure some private schools out there are just fine offering AP Biology to freshmen or AP Physics to students without prior physics knowledge.</p>
<p>My school is the same. The non AP version is required to take the AP version.
Typical outline goes like this
9th biology
10th chemistry
11th physics
12th an AP science course.</p>
<p>To take AP physics you need to have taken either physics OR calculus. My friend ended up teaching himself precal so he could take calculus sophmore year to be the only junior taking AP physics. As for me as I sophomore I taught myself calc bc thinking I could take a credit by exam for the HS calc credit to take AP physics the next year but found out there was not one. So I learned it anyways and took the AP bc test and proabably got a 5 and took a regular physics credit by exam to take AP physics next year, ;p</p>
<p>There are no honors science classes:
If we were forced to take the regular version before the AP, I realize by calculation, a lot of students wouldn’t take the AP.
For the GPA extremists:
A 4.0 and a 5.0 makes 4.5.
Top 10 folks range from 4.65-4.8x. (but a 4.9x is certainly possible!)</p>
<p>So therefore… That would make AP Sciences “bad.”
Mine is
9th: General Science or Biology regular (If took honors science in 8th or used a challenge test)
10th: Biology Regular or AP Chemistry (If took Biology in 9th)
11th/12th: APES, AP Physics, AP Bio–can double/triple</p>
<p>The interesting thing is that you only get each AP class for a quarter to half a year. And you get other classes during other parts of the year–which allows us to take a ridiculously high amount of AP classes. And with the new Chemistry curriculum and their expectations of prior chemistry knowledge, I wonder how next year will go!</p>
<p>My school offers introductory, AP, and often post-AP classes. Entry is contingent on math class level, but you can choose any allowed science level to start with.</p>
<p>So mine was:</p>
<p>9th: Intro to Bio (transition year)
10th: AP Chem
11th: AP Bio, AP Physics C. Independent molecular bio research.
12th: Independent molecular bio research. Maybe orgo or fluid mech.</p>
<p>For my school
Ap bio prereq- reg/hon biology and reg/hon chemistry
Ap chem prereq- reg/hon chem and reg/hon alg.1
ap physics C & B prereq- reg/hon physics OR ap calculus AB or BC
My school alternates between physics C & B (ex. my sophomore yr we offered c,my junior yr we offered B and now my senior yr they offer C) (which I am taking lol)</p>
<p>I have not taken a physics class before but since I have taken Ap calculus I can ap physics lol</p>
<p>AP Bio prereq- Hon Bio
AP Chem prereq- Hon Chem
AP Physics C prereq- Hon Physics
AP Enviro prereq- nothing though most people have taken hon bio and hon chem by this point</p>
<p>Me:
9th: Hon Bio
10th: Hon Physics + Hon Chem
11th: AP Chem
12th: AP Physics</p>
<p>My school requires:
9th: Biology or Biology Honors
10th: Chemistry or Chemistry Honors
<p>We offer all the AP Sciences, Honors Physics and a 3 Year Research Course in addition to Honors Biology, Honors Chemistry</p>
<p>Me:
9th: Honors Biology
10th: Honors Chemistry and Science Research I
11th: AP Chemistry and SRII Honors
12th: AP Biology, Honors Physics, SRIII Honors</p>
<p>I could have taken AP Enviro in 10th grade, but chose research over it. So worth it. </p>
<p>We are required to take the honors course before for every AP except for Enviro, which just has Biology (standard or honors) as a pre-req.</p>
<p>(It’s not weird to make students take the honors course first. My school is ranked in the top 30 high schools for STEM by USNWR and they make us do it)</p>