Help! Difference AP Bio and Regular Bio

Applying to College
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Hey guys, my school gave me biology as a mandatory class since we are a new and private school. Now we are being offered online courses, and one of them is AP biology. Would it be smart to take AP biology online, and does it contain the same content as the regular course Biology? NEED AN ANSWER ASAP

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From a Bio teacher:

  1. You will cover a lot more information over the course of the year. My AP Bio students cover in one semester roughly the same breadth of information that my regular students do over the entire year.
  2. You will go a lot deeper into each topic. My regular students study Photosynthesis and Respiration, learning the basic processes, my AP Bio kids have to memorize the names of every molecule in the Kreb's Cycle and Calvin Cycle. For cellular transport, my regular kids had to learn the basic kinds, for AP Biology, my students had to be able to calculate water potential and be familiar with the TACT Hypothesis
  3. In early/mid-May, you'll take the AP test, competing with well over a hundred thousand students nationwide. The top 50% of the test takers get a 3, 4 or 5 on the test. A score of 3 or higher is considered passing. Many colleges will give you credit for college biology for a good score on the test (but not all, some of the private schools resist giving away units since it costs them $$ in lost revenue). Part of this means that if you have an experienced AP Bio teacher, you'll have to take essay questions as practice for the essay portion of the exam.
  4. Most colleges/High Schools give a +1 to the GPA score of any class with AP designation to recognize that it is significantly harder than a regular class. This is how some students apply to college with a higher than 4.0 GPA.

Most students who take an AP course wind up using review resources beyond their class textbook. My students have recommended either the website http://www.brightstorm.com/ap/ap-biology which has really good video lectures and a bunch of bonus materials (some of which I’ve taken to use in my own classroom) or review books by Cliff Notes or Princeton Review. One of the things my students really like about the video lecture site is the guy’s focus on teaching you how to do well on the essays. The review books have a ton of info, but it’s not as focused/helpful. That’s one reason why many of my students have done both.