Best Preparation Techniques

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>I'm a rising Sophomore. </p>

<p>To give you an idea of my High School career so far, I will tell you that my unweighted average is hovering around a 97 or a 98 (I haven't gotten the scores from my finals back yet, though, so we'll see). As a Freshman, I took all Honors classes. I took Biology in 8th grade and Earth Science in 9th grade. </p>

<p>Next year, I'm set to take AP Chemistry, AP Statistics, and AP European History. I squeezed into AP Chem and AP Stat with recommendations - I do not have the prerequisites. </p>

<p>I am not worried about AP Statistics. At my school, it is not unheard of for a Sophomore to take AP Stat, but it is rare. I took Global History H this year, so I have the prerequisite for AP Euro. </p>

<p>It's AP Chemistry I'm worried about. I only know of one Sophomore who took AP Chem this year. I have not taken a chemistry course in my High School career, but I do read a lot about chemistry on the internet. I find it fairly easy to grasp, but I am skipping Honors Chemistry. At my school, Honors Chemistry and APUSH are supposedly the two most difficult classes to maintain a high average in. </p>

<p>Here is my dilemma: </p>

<p>I have to learn much of the Honors Chemistry curriculum on my own over the summer. I haven't independently researched a curriculum yet, so I was wondering if you AP veterans out there could help me out. I would like to know how I would go about studying this curriculum on my own.</p>

<p>So far, I have heard that I should take notes from three separate textbooks covering the same topic. This way, I don't miss any information. After I take notes, I was told to take tests on the chapters that I read. This method may be effective, especially with the help of the Honors Chemistry teacher over the summer. </p>

<p>Does anyone have any other tips?</p>

2

<p>I haven’t taken AP Chem and I hate to be a killjoy (sorry), but I was originally going to do the same thing as you (skip honors chem and take ap), but I talked to the ap chem teacher and he strongly advised against it. To get your background in science, what’d you take freshman year? Is there some scheduling conflict preventing you from taking AP as a junior/senior? Chemistry (I have a lot of junior/senior friends in AP this year) has areas that are extremely hard to grasp conceptually without a teacher.
If you honestly feel like you’re up to it, I’ve heard that Brown’s Chemistry: The Central Science, is a good chem book, but again, AP is meant to be taken after a first year chemistry course, unlike ap bio and physics which can be taken at any time.
Just some food for thought</p>

3

<p>I took Earth Science in my Freshman year. I conferenced with the AP teacher, the Honors teacher, and the head of the science department. They didn’t seem against it, but they did make it clear that it will be a challenge. </p>

<p>I took Earth Science this past year. It was way too easy. I don’t feel that I’ve ever been truly challenged by a class, and I just feel that it’s a waste to be sitting through hours and hours of lessons that I understand perfectly well in several minutes. </p>

<p>And there isn’t really a scheduling conflict, I’m just trying to cram as many APs as possible into the next three years. </p>

<p>I would take AP Physics or AP Bio, but I ran out of periods to take any more classes. Thank you very much for the book suggestion :]</p>