I took an introductory Biology course during my freshman year and felt genuinely interested in the material, but AP Biology seems intimidating. Looking at the workload for AP Biology, it really made intro biology look like a joke. I heard the teacher is good, but I also heard that few students take the class. I’m not the most studious person out there either. Last year, I spend 4 hours after class doing homework for only 2 AP classes (AP World & AP Span.), which doesn’t include studying (I didn’t do much studying). I’m just a generally slow person when it comes to certain subjects like math and chem. I knew that AP Bio didn’t consist of a lot of math, so I thought that it might be one of the few science courses that could fit me well. The thing is, AP Bio moves fast, and I don’t.The thing I’m most scared of is regretting my decisions. If I drop AP Bio out of my junior year schedule, I’ll probably regret not challenging myself. If I don’t drop it, I’ll hate myself for taking a class I can’t handle.
My main questions about the course are:
What kinds of students take the class, and who do recommend take the class?
How many hours did you spend on average doing homework/studying every night?
How would you describe your experience in the class (unbearable, interesting, hard, etc.)?
If you don’t mind sharing, how did you do on the AP test, and what did you do to achieve it?
I should probably also mention that I’m taking AP English Lang. and APUSH along w/ Bio.
At my kid’s HS almost all the highest track kids (probably the top 25%) take it as a 10th grader since it is the only AP class offered to 10th graders other than those who are eligible to take an AP language course. Many other schools require that you take it in 11-12 though. The class does require a little bit of basic math skills like gathering statistics. If you took Chem there are some Biochem material as well. My kid had a teacher whose English was hard to understand (I had to speak in his native language to understand him too lol), and usually has poor study habits so I wouldn’t glean anything from his experience. He got a 4 on the AP.
He took 10.5 AP classes and I would probably put AP Bio somewhere in the middle as far as difficulty and amount of work. I would say that Physics C, English Literature, Chem, and Calc BC are the hardest ones that require the most work followed by Bio. The rest (APUSH, Eng Lang, Psych, Stats, US Govt, Comp Sci A) are not that difficult but some of them can be very time consuming.
@bopper@ProfessorPlum168 AP Physics was available to me for junior year, but I’m not taking it because it is so math heavy. I’m not the worst at math, but I wouldn’t consider myself “advanced” in any way. I’ve been slow compared to everyone else, but still managed to keep up and understand most of the concepts. I’m working at grade level, but I still don’t think that would have been enough to succeed in AP Physics. That’s why I thought Biology would be a better fit, since I heard the class isn’t too centered around mathematics. I’m still concerned about AP Biology because of the workload.
You should have bio, chem, and physics, regular or honors, if you’re aiming for top 50 national universities/LACs.
Regular physics would be fine as long as you’re getting a B or higher in algebra2/trig.
Then senior year you can take AP Bio if you’re hoping to study science, otherwise APES if you plan on being a Humanities major. If you like Bio and did well in honors bio and honors chemistry then you could take AP Bio as your senior class out of interest.
@bopper Sorry, I should have mentioned that I am taking a regular cp physics class this incoming school year. When I said I wasn’t taking physics, I was referring to the AP course. It’s a requirement to take a 3rd year of science at my school, so I have to take physics whether I want to or don’t. I decided on a regular course because the AP course would be too hard for me.
To put it simply, I have to take physics either way. I chose between AP physics and AP bio in order to limit myself to 3 AP classes (because taking them both would be a nightmare for me), and thought bio would be a better fit.
I should also say that I’m not too sure about a STEM career yet. I’ve always been interested in sciences, but my difficulty with math has always been a limiting factor. I’m not bad with writing and humanities in general, so that is also a path that I am considering. I guess my hope for AP Bio is that it’ll show me whether I love sciences or not. Even though taking the class would be an experimental experience for me, I’m still scared I won’t be able to survive mentally when it comes to the work. Unfortunately, I have what some might call a fixed mindset :’(
Honestly I would like to thank you for posting this. I am going through the EXACT same struggle as you are. I am a decent student (3.5 GPA) and I have also taken regular biology (freshman year and last year) and now I am a senior and I am so scared for AP bio. I am just not sure if I will be able to handle it. I was thinking about maybe going into nursing which is why I am taking AP bio. I am taking the class to see if this is something I am interested in pursuing in college because It is a college like course.
@Seniorstudent01 It’s so relieving to know that I’m not the only one, thank you for commenting. I’ve also started the summer assignment for my class, and like you said, it’s long:(. My plan is to do the summer assignment and decide whether I want to keep the class or not. If I don’t, I’m going to beg my counselor to change it (supposedly we’re not allowed to make changes to our schedules after the end of the previous school year, but ¯_(ツ)_/¯. I’ll try)
I think you’ll find that as long as you’re not combining AP Bio with AP Chem or AP Physics C in the same year, the load will be manageable.
Question to @alondraaa - what are you going to take as a senior? If you’re taking Physics this year why can’t you just take AP Bio next year? Were you planning on AP Chem or AP Physics in 12th grade?
@ProfessorPlum168 AP Chem is a no for me, since I didn’t really grasp all the concepts in the regular intro class. I don’t think that AP Physics is for me either because I really don’t think that I’d be able to succeed in the course. I thought that next year I could take AP Spanish Literature (if it’s available, that is. I couldn’t take it this incoming year because of the lack of students. I also don’t trust myself to self-study for it), AP English Lit and US Gov OR Environmental science (still not sure). The reason I’m a bit more confident about taking 3 AP classes senior year is because AP Spanish would be easy for me, meaning I’ll have more time for those other subjects. My junior year APs are a tad more intimidating compared to my senior plan.
AP Chem and AP Physics are a no from me -for now-. I’ll really am considering taking them senior year, maybe when I’m a little better with my math. But I’m still deciding on that.
If, as per the summer assignment, you find that AP Bio is too hard, do you have an honors option?
Science majors in college will expect advanced, fast paced classes in all three sciences - often weedout and dominated by would be pre-meds. You may want to look at some applied science majors such as one may find in the college of agriculture (food chemistry, sustainable agriculture…), geography (GIS in particular) , forensic science…
(Also, bio majors have one of the worst ROIs. Because so many pre-meds are biology majors and 60% don’t get into ant med schools, you have all of these majors saturating a job market with few openings.)
For nursing, AP bio and A&P are must haves.
So are you saying you want to take Physics and AP Bio at the same time? Or take AP Bio next year? There is no need to take two lab sciences at the same time. Colleges don’t expect that.
@MYOS1634 Unfortunately, there isn’t an honors option. The options are to take AP Bio next year (probably not happening since my planned schedule for senior year already seems rigorous.), take it this year (I’m questioning whether I can handle the workload?), or not take it at all, ever.
@bopper Yeah, up until now I’m signed up for Physics and AP Bio. The reason why I wanted to take AP Bio this year was because next year’s schedule will be already to difficult for me to take it then. It’s either I take it now, or never in my high school career.
I guess my intention with starting this thread was to find out what the course is like and see if it would fit my schedule, that way I can email my counselor as soon as possible to discuss a schedule change.
Like:
What is the average daily workload like?
How many hours are spent on homework? (especially for a generally slow student like me)
What is the hardest part of this class?
etc.