Good plan for beginning of hs

Pre-College Issues High School Life
21

It’d probably help quite a bit if you also gave us what classes you plan on taking Junior and Senior year.

I don’t really understand where your going with taking AP World history as a freshman and no history class as a sophomore. You’d need at least 3 years.

I agree that you should take probably take physics before AP Bio, as you want to have at least one physics class and if you don’t take it sophomore year I’m not sure when you would. I would also consider taking AP Chem instead of AP Bio, as you still retain a good amount of the information taking it the year prior.

I’d also advise against taking pre-calc over the summer. Are you sure that your school and the CC will allow you to take the class? Also I’d worry about the rigor of the class as its meant for people in community college and not “geniuses”

22

Not even sure I should continue trying to help the OP since an 8th grader should know what rude is. But I feel I should offer a somewhat alternate viewpoint to @MYOS1634 's thorough and helpful posts.

First, the sooner you lose the “I am a genius” attitude, the better off you will be. You appear to be very bright and motivated, both of which are important for success. When your small world gets a little bigger you will learn that there are many people as talented or more so than you are and your attitude will not get you very far in life.

Now regarding your plan. AP world is sometimes taken by freshman. That’s one reason why the AP test scores are appallingly low. From reading this site I know that it its often not a senior course. At our school it is for sophomores. It is generally the first AP class our students encounter, and many of them have a hard time with it. The workload, as taught in many schools though perhaps not all, is crushing. It is the first class my daughter struggled with. I’m not telling you not to take it as a freshman but you should go in with your eyes open. If you will need to take an easier history class during your high school years, I suggest you start with that and delay AP world, unless it’s normal at your school for it to be the freshman class in your history sequence. You still need a sophomore level history class.

As far as the math goes, I would keep moving as long as you are finding it easy and want to do the work. But I caution you that precalc is bordering on remedial at the college level and you may not find a cc precalc class to be very satisfactory for your needs. That’s why I said to investigate it. It may be best to do as MYOS suggested and just take precalc as a freshman when you can get the honors class your high school expects. You should also consider that you will be working hard in high school and you may not want to spend your summers in class. This limits your time to relax and develop interests outside of school. Make a 4 year plan and see if that summer precalc is going to make a real difference to your high school program. If your plan includes cc classes, you need to consider scheduling, class availability, transportation, costs, etc. It’s easy to say you will do cc, but not always so easy to make that happen.

You should take Physics after chemistry before jumping into APs–unless you are planning to take Physics C with no prior class (this is ambitious and not advisable for most students), in which case I would defer until you are at least in BC, so taking the AP bio as a sophomore makes sense. As MYOS said, middle school physical science is not physics.

Personally, I think language online is not a good choice. There are some things that really require personal one on one interactions and language is one of those. I would have started it in middle school but that ship has sailed.

Actually, if you wanted to take a cc class, foreign language might be something to look at. The cc could well be more rigorous than your high school in language.

23

I don’t agree that taking physics before bio is necessary. Of course it depends on where OP lives, but at least in CA there is a requirement of 1 year physical science and 1 year life science. If anything, you’d want to get the bio in first.
Also, I know people who took AP bio in 10th grade; I personally took AP Physics B. It’s not as uncommon compared to AP Calc in 10th grade, IMO. However, this is the exception, not the norm; we only had this opportunity because of a program that my middle school had.
Honestly, I think it’s okay to take AP science classes without previously taking “regular” sciences classes. The AP teachers don’t expect you to remember the material or anything. In fact, there are students in HL/AP biology (It’s actually an HL class, but the HL curriculum also covers AP) who haven’t taken any biology since 8th grade.

24

Physics might help a little with AP bio but bio won’t help with physics. Also, for mathy kids, which the OP thinks he is, honors physics is likely to be a lot easier than AP bio. It was for my daughter. Also, basic physics pairs well with differential calculus. I personally completed BC before taking any physics and I do think it would have been helpful to see the material at the same time. The same thing happened to my daughter and she also felt it would have helped a bit to have the physics background which all the other calc students had.

25

The typical sequence would be to complete the “basic” classes (Bio, Chem, Honors Physics/AP physics 1 or 2) first, then take an AP science alongside calculus. One could, of course, take Bio then AP Bio, Chem then AP Chem.
AP Physics C requires one level of Physics (AP Physics 1/2 theoretically don’t, although the disastrous results at the AP exam might lead to a change.) Both AP Bio and AP Chem require one to have taken one level of Bio or one level of chemistry before. Typically, precalculus+ Honors Physics/PHysics 1, and Calculus BC + Physics C “pair” well, but having taken calculus before taking Physics C or General Physics (community college DE course) helps.
@drOwning: what the requirement means is that there should be a minimum of one unit from the physical sciences (physics, chemistry, geology…) and one unit from life sciences (biology, marine science, anatomy/physiology, environmental science…), and not two from one category and zero from the other. Obviously more than 2 units would be expected for selective universities.

26

Yeah, ik you guys were going to say this things about the summer pre calc thing, but yeah you’re right it’s rushing, but I really want to take AP world, I just don’t know lol, and also in the hs I plan to attend there’s no history class sophomore year

27

Also. Anything else for freshman schedule?

28

And oh yeah, is it better to go to a school that offers 4 electives instead of 2

29

What are the electives offered at each school and which are you interested in?

30

In one of them it’d be academy elective, and spanish, while in the other one id have spanish, academy elective, and two more maybe ap human geo and jazz ig

31

By more electives do you mea more class periods or more elective classes offered?

32

Class periods I mean

33

If you want more options then go to the school with more open periods, this will allow you to take more classes each year and perhaps allow you more time to explore different subjects through classes you would not normally be able to take.

34

Yes it’s a nice plan but make sure that either your algebra 2 class or your precalc class covers trig. Also, since you are taking AP Calculus so early I would continue with the next level math to keep expanding on your math skills. Obviously your high school won’t have those classes but you can take them at your local community college or online. You don’t want to get to college and be rusty because you haven’t done math for a few years. You should also talk to your high school AP calculus department teachers to make sure that your precalc college course is as competitive as the high school precalc class. My daughter took precalc with trig at a community college over the summer and although she got an A in the class, she still had to play catch up when she took AP calculus.

35

I don’t know what “Academy elective” is. My kids love the 8 period schedule our school has. My STEMy kid was able to take lots of science classes (she graduated with 7 science credits) while still participating in 1-2 arts classes every year. My artsy kid can take tons of arts electives and still have an academic program on par with the kids from the 6 and 7 period schools. That said, it’s a lot of work to take 8 classes, especially when they get into taking 5 APs and 3 other classes as upperclassmen, and I think the kids going to 6 or 7 period schools have a very significant advantage in terms of developing EC’s.