<p>I really want to take AP Chem next year as a sophomore, but I haven't taken a chemistry class at school before. I'm taking regular biology this year, and I will probably take honors chem next year if I don't take AP. This year, biology has been extremely easy, and I'm afraid that honors chem will be the same. I took the first month of Intro to Solid State Chemistry from edX, and I somewhat understood it. So how difficult would it be for me to take AP chem, and how should I prepare? I have an incredibly easy access to all sorts of chemistry textbooks, if that matters.</p>
<p>don’t do it. 10char</p>
<p>Take Honors Chemistry first. You’ll have a better time.</p>
<p>During the Summer after my freshman year, I self-studied Honors Biology and Honors Chemistry and then tested-out of the classes. I took AP Chemistry my sophomore year and I did pretty well. 95 both semesters. It’s completely feasible. (I had quite the rigorous schedule my sophomore year as well, and AP Chem wasn’t the class that made it hard.)</p>
<p>To prep for AP Chem, read the textbook your school has for your Honors Chem class over the summer and you should be fine. If there are topics you are not sure about, use the internet.</p>
<p>^ I wouldn’t recommend that</p>
<p>@OP Don’t do it. I’m having a hard time in AP Chemistry now and I took Honors Chemistry Sophomore year. Take Honors Chem, it’ll help you a lot in AP, and you’ll learn most of the building blocks that are expected in AP Chem. AP Chemistry is really conceptually difficult and you need all the help you can get. “Somewhat understanding” something won’t get you a good score on the AP exam. When I took Honors Chem Sophomore year, I thought it was the easiest thing. I understood the concepts and did pretty well. Now, AP Chem is a HUGE slap in the face. I have to read every night, do at least 10 practice problems a night and stay after school. I say this way too much, but chemistry is like building a house, you need a strong foundation or your house will fall to the ground. Taking Honors Chem is helping you build that strong foundation and prepare you for harder concepts. Once you learn one thing, most likely that concept will be applied to something else. </p>
<p>My best advice to you is to just take Honors Chemistry and then take AP Chemistry. My school won’t allow students to take AP science courses (except for AP Physics) unless you have 3 science credits under you belt, the two out of the three science courses are Biology and Honors Chemistry.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’d recommend you take honors first. I also thought Honors Bio was easy (A on every test), but AP Chemistry is killing me this year, even though I took Honors Chem.
I actually think chemistry is much harder than any class I’ve ever taken before (though this is just my opinion).</p>
<p>Well, our test-out policy was that we had to get a 90% or higher on the exam in order to get into the AP Science classes, so we were assured that we had a good base for AP Chemistry, which I personally thought was a super easy class. Since you won’t be able to test yourself on how well you know chemistry before taking AP Chemistry, I guess it would be better for you to take Honors Chem. I still believe it’s completely feasible to take AP Chem sophomore year. I did.</p>
<p>I took AP Chemistry as a sophomore last year with no prior chemistry experience/knowledge, so I was in a similar situation. If you’re up for it, I definitely think it’s possible. However, don’t be surprised if your grades aren’t as good as the ones you normally get. The class is very challenging, requires hard work, and may take a toll on your GPA, but if you find chemistry interesting and are up for the challenge, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to take AP Chemistry.</p>
<p>As for me, I learned that AP Chemistry was a possibility only two weeks before school started, and I had barely any time to prepare before I took the class. Rather than getting A’s like I normally do, I got B’s for my semester grades, but I learned a lot and got a 5 on the AP Exam!</p>
<p>After reading all of these replies, I might rethink it, but I really want to take it next year.</p>
<p>My experience was the same of that of mathrom: I took AP chem sophomore year as my first chem class. I got "B"s but a 5 and 800. I would recommend doing it if you care about having an interesting advanced class more than the difference between an A and B. I am assuming that you will do no worse than a B since you seem strong in science. Go for the challenge!</p>
<p>Oh, is the math level of AP chem really high? I’m currently taking adv. pre-calc at my school, and next year I’ll take analysis, basically the bridge between pre-calc and calc.</p>
<p>Math is not that hard in AP chem. If you are good with logs you should be fine. There are one or two sections where calculus is useful though.</p>
<p>Hi! I took AP Chem last year and was kinda unprepared for the class, but I worked hard.
To review for the AP exam, I did everything I could; I did every past FRQ from collegeboard, I did the practice books (I recommend 5 steps to a 5), I actually read (more like skimmed) the textbook, and I reviewed my notes from the year. In the end I was the only person in my school who got a 5 on it! I hope this helped! :)</p>
<p>It depends on how quick you learn and how hard you work(and the person in general). My honors Chem was pretty tough(I did miss some), but we also learned out of the same textbook as AP. I know that the AP Chem is more difficult even than my honors (or at least built a lot more on what we learned). I suggest being pretty good at math. Depends on the teacher, but some have you do some pretty advanced problems.</p>