<p>I have the choice of taking AP Calculus AB or AP Statistics next year as a senior. I plan to major in Biochemistry for pre-med. </p>
<p>As a sophomore I took Algebra II Honors and had a hard time and ended up with a C 2nd
semester so Junior year I took Pre-Calc non honors. Pre Calc non honors was a breeze for
me but I felt like I never learned anything and it was all a review. </p>
<p>I am worried that I will have a lot of trouble with Calc and will get a C or lower and also not be paying enough attentiuon to my other classes. </p>
<p>I guess my question is would Calc be extremely more beneficial than Stats? Also would it hurt my application to have Stats instead of Calc? Thanks!</p>
<p>C’mon guys don’t leave me hanging!</p>
<p>In terms of college apps, I suggest you take AP Calc, because it will give you more credits and prepare you for the higher level math you will have to take in college. If you think you won’t do well at all, prepare before or get a tutor, or just really work hard and try your best. But AP stats won’t be as beneficial to you as AP Calc will be, at least in my opinion. Good luck!</p>
<p>I suggest AB calculus also. Not taking calculus just puts the problem off until later. If you plan to major in biochemistry or something similar, you’ll probably have to study at least two semesters of calculus in college.</p>
<p>If you are worried that you won’t do well in AB calculus, which teaches one semester of college calculus in two semesters of high school, quite frankly I have trouble seeing how you’d do better by taking it in college. Not only is AB calculus slower than college calculus, but high schools also tend to have some of their best, most experienced teachers teaching calculus. Universities, on the other hand, often assign calculus classes to some of their newest teachers–their graduate students.</p>
<p>I wish you luck, but if you were my own kid, I’d be a little worried that your math struggles might interfere with your science aspirations.</p>
<p>It sounds like the precalc class reinforced your skills from Alg II and you should be prepared for Calc AB.</p>
<p>Calc is the track for serious students. It is the next class in the sequence. It is a core class. AP Stats is an elective. You might be fine if you substitute, we can’t predict. But it won’t be the strongest schedule.</p>
<p>I advised my own kid to take AP Statistics instead of AP Calculus. I think it’s a “real” math class, even if it’s not as difficult as AP Calculus. And I teach math.</p>
<p>And my kid got into college just fine. On the other hand, she had no intention of becoming a scientist. She knew she wanted to study international relations. I thought an understanding of basic statistics would be more useful for her than the first-derivative test.</p>
<p>Taliarryan is talking about majoring in biochem and trying to get into medical school. That’s the key difference, to my mind. And IMO that’s the reason why Taliarryan should take calculus instead of statistics.</p>
<p>You should take AP Cal, imo. If you’re looking at med schools, you’re going to need 1 year of college mathematics that is calculus or higher, and I think getting a 4 or 5 on AP Cal waives 1 semester. However, this could be just for BC; I haven’t done much research into AB, since I’m self-studying BC right now. </p>
<p>Calculus is kind of intuitive once you understand something, and it really is a beautiful form of mathematics. All the previous math we had to do (Algebra, Trig, etc.) pales in comparison to how awesome calc is.</p>
<p>You could do stats, but if you do so, then you’d have to take an entire year of college cal.</p>
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<p>This^^^ and not to mention, the calculus in college will be much harder as you’ll be immersed in a BC calc equivalent. If you’re serious about Biochemistry, calc is the way to go. However, if you definitely cannot afford another C no matter what then play it safe with stats, although if you’re wiling to put in the work it shouldn’t be a problem. </p>
<p>Or perhaps take both and demote the difficulty of other classes so that if you need to drop one you can. I decided to take the easiest physics class so that I could handle both these math classes. I’ll let you know how that goes lol… (I am no math genius either).</p>