AP Sciences and Doubling Up

Alright, so I want to double up on AP Sciences in my junior year. I want to take AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics I. Which of the following is best:

  • AP Bio + AP Chem
  • AP Bio + AP Phys I
  • AP Chem + AP Phys I (This option seems like the best one to me)

I will take the remaining AP Science senior year. I want to major in biology/chemistry, neuroscience specifically and minor in math/physics (for a computer science side study).

I will be taking AP Lang and Comp, Math Analysis H, AP Comp Sci A, and US History I CP my junior year (the same year I plan to double up). I also will take study hall in order to compensate for the two lab days for each AP Science.

My D took AP chem and AP physics C senior year. Lots of work but manageable.

I’ve heard not to take bio and chem together because of the labs.

Word of caution - do not double up at the expense of another core subject. So, if you can no longer take foreign language, reconsider your plan

Foreign language is not a problem b/c I took French 4 freshman year and AP French Sophomore year so I finished the highest level of language that I can take. This gave me more space on my schedule.

I concur with this. Many schools double-block AP Bio and Chem ore require before/after-school time for labs.

At our school, every AP Science has 2 lab days. We can skip the gym for a max of 3 days in a week for a 2 credit gym overall. B/c 2 AP’s have 4 lab days, I take study hall to compensate.

We have the same, and the few students that do it take the labs on two different sets of two days for the same period.

So:
Bio period 1
Bio Lab period 2 Mon and Tues.
Chem Lab period 2 Thurs and Fri
Chem period 3.

If it’s Physics 1, I would use that as one of the two to double up with. Physics C would be more difficult, but probably still preferable to Chem and Bio together.

What are the lab schedules? When I was in HS, our AP Chem was last period and lab was after school until 4:30 every Friday.

My daughter has AP chemistry and AP Bio. Her school has 8 periods. I’m not sure TBH how it works but its periods 6,7,8 for her. I know there is another grouping of 3,4,5. In her case she has band 3rd period so it had to be this way. PE is not necessary if you have 7 class periods and a lunch. She gets 3 credits total. Each class is 1.5 credits.

So our school has 10 periods:

Period 1: 50 mins
Period 2: 50 mins
Period 3: 50 mins
Period 4: 25 mins
Period 5: 25 mins
Period 6: 25 mins
Period 7: 25 mins
Period 8: 25 mins
Period 9: 50 mins
Period 10: 50 mins

Usually, we have 5 days of H&PE (i.e. 5 credit gym). When we have a lab day for science, we skip our gym class and take two periods of science that day. This is for an honors science course or a CP science course. For example, when I took honors bio period 1, I had gym period 2 and would skip period 2 when I had a lab in bio. So bio was basically periods 1 and 2 for a single day. this makes a 5 credit gym 4 credits, b/c I miss one gym day due to lab. And the lab becomes an extra period so Hbio is now 6 credits (btw, we need at least 120 creds to graduate through all 4 years). Like that…

AP Science classes have 2 lab days every week. So gym is 3 credit and science is now 7 credits. If I double up, I have a total of 4 lab days (two for ap chem and two for ap phys 1). So out of the 5 day week, I can’t skip gym 4 times. The lowest credit gym is 2 credits. I have to take a study hall instead and skip study hall twice a week for the lab. The study hall will be placed around one of my ap science courses and the other ap science course will be before or after gym.

^Thats all just info on lab days^

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My counselor alrdy resolved this issue. I want to know which of the above double-ups can minimize academic stress. And yes, I acknowledge that ap chem + ap bio double up is a… bad idea. Ap bio and ap phys 1 seems manageable, but I feel like finishing ap chem before ap bio is beneficial…
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Thanks!

taking academic classes exempts you from gym? Here there are no exemptions everyone even athletes need to take 3 semesters of gym 5 days a week and 1 semester of health. It can not be taken online, elsewhere or over the summer though perhaps there are alternatives for kids who don’t start out as freshman at the school.

Our school works this way. We skip a day of gym for labs. We don’t skip the gym completely, just one day out of 5 weeks for the lab.