How do science classes work?

<p>I think my school is similar to OP’s. Most people take Bio freshman year, Chemistry sophomore year and Physics junior year. So if you want to take multiple AP sciences, you basically have to double up once (I did this junior year).</p>

<p>So my science classes looked like:</p>

<p>9th grade:
Honors Bio</p>

<p>10th grade:
Honors Chem</p>

<p>11th grade:
AP Chem
Honors Physics (I took this so I could take AP Physics as a senior)</p>

<p>12th grade:
AP Bio (AP Physics didn’t work with my schedule)</p>

<p>Varies from school to school.
My school follows the bio-chem-physics sequence. You have to take all 3, but the level (regular, honors, or AP) is up to you, and you can double up (or triple up or even take 4 if you have room in your schedule). We also have AP psych, APES, nutri-sci, astronomy, forensics sci, orgo, microbio, animal behavior, epidemiology, post-AP chem, post-AP bio, and post-AP psych as electives. Most people try to take AP chem, bio, or physics; the lazy ones take AP psych or APES, and then the ones who get rejected from the ap-sciences take the other electives (excluding post-APs).</p>

<p>I took:
9th - reg bio
10th - reg chem
11th - honors physics
12th - ap chem + ap physics c </p>

<p>but I had a friend who did
9th: bio
10th: honors physics
11th: ap chem + ap psych
12th: post-ap psych + ap physics c</p>

<p>also had a friend who tripled up on science (honors physics + ap bio + ap chem in 11th).</p>

<p>My school does
9th: AP Enviro and Honors Bio
10th: AP Bio and Honors Chem
11th: AP Physics B , AP Chem is optional
12: must take AP Physics C or AP Chem if not taken previous year</p>

<p>Ah crap. Should I cut out Orchestra or Chinese?</p>

<p>Why do you want to take an AP science so badly? Is science your favorite subject or something? If you don’t really have a viable reason for cutting one of your electives, then don’t, as I’m guessing they’re probably important to you since you don’t know which to cut.</p>

<p>If you already have at least 3 years of language, then cut out Chinese.</p>

<p>@CE527M Yeah, I really like science. I remember in the beginning of 7th grade I really wanted to take Chinese, but I now realize that most of the kids in my class weren’t good at the language, and my teacher seriously inflated the grades, so almost all of my middle school Chinese class is in honors (same as me). Even though inflated grades would be nice for my weighted GPA, I really don’t think I would benefit much from Chinese. I mean, Even though I really wanted to learn the language, in the end I’m half Chinese and colleges would probably think that I’m taking the easy way out to get good grades. I’m just really confused about what to do. My mom says it’s a good idea to cut out Chinese, and I’m thinking about it, but it’s a tough choice. Thoughts?</p>

<p>In my school you can take as many science classes as you want provided you have the prerequisites. The core classes are:</p>

<p>9th: bio
10th: chem
11th: physics
12th: anything you want </p>

<p>But our school lets you skip with summer school and stuff. Our school also offers all the AP sciences and a few other honors classes. Some people double or even triple up on sciences and take like AP Phys, chem, and bio all in the same year</p>

<p>Either way, it’ll look bad if you CUT an instrument or language, compared to ADDING an extra science class. From what I’ve heard, AP classes just get you like introductory class credits (101) at college, and maybe one more. </p>

<p>IF you cut out Chinese, since your half Chinese, then how will you take the AP for it, so you kinda wasted a year (or two in middle school). I was deciding between Spanish/Latin like you, but I am just sticking with Spanish because I did it in middle school, and I won’t have to get used to a different language freshmen year.</p>

<p>Each school handles this differently. At my school it goes like this:</p>

<p>Freshman: regular or honors earth science</p>

<p>Sophomore: regular or honors biology
some take regular chemistry 2nd semester (no honors chem offered at my school)</p>

<p>Junior: chemistry, environmental science, and or anatomy and physiology (chem is a prereq).
Some take either AP chemistry or AP bio, and general chem is a prereq for both.
Juniors may also take AP physics C, for some reason there’s no general physics in my school, just AP physics C.</p>

<p>Senior: Choose from any of the junior science classes that they haven’t taken.</p>

<p>At my school, you can take AP Physics B right out of chem as long as you have completed algebra 2/trig</p>

<p>Well at where I attend, chem and physics are interchangeable meaning you can take one or the other. Also you can double up on science classes (for example taking both honors physics and AP chem in the same year)</p>

<p>Our track is very different. Our school has more than 20 science courses once you reach your junior year (Environmental Science, Marine Biology, Forensic Science, Anatomy, etc.). We also don’t have honors science courses. </p>

<p>The typical “advanced” track would be:</p>

<p>9th Grade: Biology I
10th Grade: Chemistry I
11th Grade: AP Biology or AP Chem
12th Grade: Research in Molecular Genetics or AP Physics B </p>

<p>Science-oriented kids almost always double in sciences junior and senior year (the most common combination is taking AP Bio and Chemistry II junior year.)</p>

<p>I found the prerequisites for AP classes in my high school. For AP Bio and Chem you have to take both Bio H and Chem H. But that means I can’t take physics in high school. Do colleges look down upon you if you don’t take physics? Should I take honors physics in online school next summer?</p>