<p>I need some advice on what do with AP credit for biology. Should I move onto the next level course (not sure if its 26) or should I take Bio 19 for a refresher? How much work does each require and what is the difficulty level in each class?</p>
<p>Much depends on what you want to do in life and for your degree. Note that there is no BIO 19 course; the AP credit for 19 is the equivalent of actually taking 25.</p>
<p>I have this question too...I'm planning on being a Biology major right now but I hear Bio 26 is impossible and to take that in the spring always. What should I take in fall then? I got a 5 on AP Biology, yeah, but that was back in 10th grade.</p>
<p>Bumpppppppp</p>
<p>Possibly nothing. Chem, Math, Foreign Language, W20/Standard is the usual premed curriculum.</p>
<p>Erm - Arex Ree - if you're gonna bump, you gotta help us out by answering the questions posed :-D Whatcha want to do with your life?</p>
<p>Oh sorry, I was bumping for Entril's question. I really have no concrete idea on what I want to do, but my major is engineering (biomedical) and I'm open to the idea of applying to medical school. There's a chance I may switch to Trinity and study a general science like chemistry or bio. I just need to know what's the "best" route to take in terms of the bio courses. Any insight into the workload and difficulty of particular courses would be helpful.</p>
<p>Er...mike, what if I'm not planning on doing pre-med?</p>
<p>Oh -- bio major non-premeds, unfortunately, I have no idea. Sorry.</p>
<p>Alright - I'll take over - I'm in the zone given that all my grades are now in anyway. Main thing is this - if Biology is gojng to be in your future (and that means bio majors and pre-meds), then you need to do a positive self-assessment of your actual abilities at the intro level. If you really earned the BIO 19 credit, then it is best to move on and build on your abilities. If the BIO 19 credit was flukish, reject the credit.</p>
<p>Note that above advice is WHOLLY DIFFERENT from what I would give folks who could give two BMs to Bio. <em>those</em> folks should suck the marrow right out of whatever credit they are given and move on to other things :-D</p>
<p>Well, see, I was REALLY good at biology, I learned the material well, etc. But again, that was two years ago. How much am I expected to have retained?</p>
<p>I'd agree with the above; most of the required biology classes (118, 116, etc.) above the 25 level are hard (the mean of the curve is set at the C+/B- cutoff). Not sure about 26, but I've also heard it is more difficult than one would anticipate from a basic organismal biology class.</p>
<p>On the upside, Bio 25 is lectured (at least for part of the semester) by Ron Grunwald, who is great - I had him for 118, and he was definitely one of the best lecturers I've had during my time at Duke.</p>
<p>I've heard that the intro bio class is much harder in terms of grading because it's graded on a curve (weeder class). The next level of Bio may be more difficult and more comprehensive, but I heard the classes tend to be smaller and the teacher's are easier on grading. Someone can counter this if this is simply untrue.</p>
<p>I opted to skip Bio25 and move strait into core courses when I was a freshman. Whether you decide to do that or not should be based on how well you think you've mastered the material from the AP course. If the last time you took bio was junior year, then it might not hurt to take Bio25. You might find that some of the material might even be new to you and it will definitely help to get you used to bio exams at duke which tend to be a lot more analytical/experimental/open-ended than you are used to from high school. The next course you should take, should you decide to skip 25 would be 116 or 118 in the Fall. Bio26 is a small class in the Fall and is only open to rising sophomores (in the Spring it is in a large lecture format).</p>
<p>Please e-mail me if you have any specific questions: <a href="mailto:w.lee@duke.edu">w.lee@duke.edu</a></p>
<p>What do you mean by "the mean of the curve is set at the C+/B- cutoff"? Do most people get C+/B-'s in upper level biology classes then? How many people actually receive As?</p>
<p>Here's what it meant in Bio 118 when I took it last fall. The average was set at a B-. With the way the final grades fell, if you got 4 points above average, you got a B. 4 points above that was a B+, etc. I'm not sure how the curve works in other classes.</p>
<p>I'm actually a non-premed bio major. I took the AP test as a junior in high school and got a 5, and I skipped Bio 25. I'm taking Bio 101 in Australia this summer to replace Bio 26 (there are classes at Duke that can replace it as well). Bio 118 is going to be a very tough introduction to the biology major if it is your first class. My first semester I did FOCUS, and my elective was chem 21 (Focus solved the "what courses do I take?" problem!).</p>