I’m creating my schedule for next year and am wondering about these 2 classes. I’m currently taking AP Chemistry (I got an A first semester) and was the only A in my class. The class has a reputation of being extremely difficult, so I should be fine with these classes, but I’m still worried. I’m currently also in Honors Physics (A first semester also). We have both AP Physics MECH ELEC & MAG and just AP Physics Mechanics. I’ve opted to take just mechanics since i’m taking AP Bio & 4 other APs. My honors physics teacher teaches mechanics & says it’s extremely realistic to obtain the same grade in mechanics as you got in honors, and I’ve heard from many kids it’s mostly like a repeat of 400 (honors) with a few more topics & slightly more difficult. However, I just want to have an outside perspective on how difficult AP Physics Mechanics only is if you’ve taken an intro physics course prior. AP Biology is also a topic of interest for me regarding difficulty. Both my honors & AP chemistry teachers have told me that AP Bio is EASIER but much more time consuming than AP Chem (readings are much more brutal). They said I can get an A since I have in AP Chem, a harder class, but I’m still a little worried. I’ve heard that AP Bio is extremely challenging, but this comes from people who are taking it as their first AP Science. (The class is also more popular than chem due to difficulty, so a larger pool of kids w different abilities can account for that). How hard are these classes generally, especially for a person who has already taken an AP Science course and gotten an A? Will it be realistic for me to get an A in both of these classes at the same time? Thanks!
My daughter found mechanics to be fairly straight forward. E&M was much harder.
I took AP Bio last year & am currently in AP Chem.
I made A’s in Bio both semesters & made a 5 on the exam. I made an A for the first semester of AP Chem, but obviously can’t speak for 2nd sem or the exam till I’ve actually done those.
I found AP Bio to be much easier than Chem - but, I’ve always been much more interested in biology. In my opinion, biology was more interesting and the tests & labs were generally easier. The class is more conceptual whereas chem is more mathematical. If you’re good at vocab and are okay with LOTS of memorization, you’ll do fine. The workload wasn’t any worse than chem for me (just different - more reading as opposed to math) but that will vary among schools and teachers.
Kids who are taking AP Bio as their first AP science do seem to say that it’s really hard, but part of that could just be due to the fact that AP sciences in general are relatively demanding, and the transition from the rigor of honors to AP is tough. All those I know who have taken AP Bio in addition to other AP sciences including myself tend to agree that biology is one of the easier ones.
I can’t speak for AP physics as I’ve not taken it, but there was a girl at my school who walked out of the exam crying. On the other hand, I’ve heard from a fair amount of people that it’s not so bad as long as you’ve taken some kind of physics in the past and have a calc background. Good luck!