<p>I got a 5 on the Bio exam and had a B final grade in the class. I usually got As on tests, but my teacher had so much hw that I couldn't keep up at times. Just curious about what to expect next year.</p>
<p>In your experience, is AP Chem harder, easier, or about the same as AP Bio? What is the courseload like?</p>
<p>I can’t speak for AP bio since I haven’t taken it, but I can say that AP chem is a quite a bit of work. We didn’t do any note taking though, so I think it’s a very different type of work than you do in AP bio. We had about four problem sets a week that consisted of probably 60% math and 40% conceptual questions. Each set usually took 30-60 minutes, occasionally they took up to two hours though. Labs were pretty tedious to do (especially graphing the data), but the understanding was pretty easy! Everything builds in AP chem, so you really have to stay caught up and often do a lot of supplementary textbook reading to understand class material. You do not want to fall behind. Your math skills, especially algebra, need to be very strong. If you put in the work though, I think the class is very enjoyable! I felt extremely well prepared (no additional prep for the AP test other than two full practice tests in class) and got a 5 on the AP test.</p>
<p>I didn’t take AP Bio but I do know AP Chem is regarded as one of the hardest, if not the hardest ap exam. Bio is considered moderately difficult. The course load mostly depends on your school/teacher; at my school it’s pretty rigorous. A couple hours each night on average.</p>
<p>It really just depends on if you’re a bio person or a chem/physics person. I got a 5 on chemistry with really minimal effort after having an amazing chem 1 teacher and an average AP Chem teacher, without really paying much attention in AP.</p>
<p>I’ve taken AP Bio and AP Chem together last school year. Honestly, the difficulty depends on your school and what you’re good at. I felt like AP Chem at my school was pretty easy, but in other schools I’ve heard of it being very difficult. I seldom studied on weekdays and did all of my homework in a few hours on weekends. AP Bio took much more of my time, but I still managed. I spent more time trying to understand what I was learning than actually doing homework. I ended up with A’s and 5’s in both classes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>
<p>Going into Bio I thought I’d like it because I want to do premed, but midway through the year I really started disliking it. Didn’t enjoy labs at all, some of the topics really bored me. It made me decide that I won’t be majoring in a science in college. But I needed my 5 either way and got it. I give credit to my teacher though, she was good.</p>
<p>I took honor’s chem last year and it was really a joke to me. Didn’t study a second all year and aced every test. Hw took minimal effort if I even felt like doing it (I got an A whether I did it or not due to 100s on tests). I was probably 2-3 days ahead of all the other kids on topics we’d learn in class; I would “get it” instantly and be bored all class while the teacher explained to everyone else. I enjoyed the labs and projects we did. Teacher was a 2nd year teacher so she wasn’t that good but she did have us doing some interesting things. People told me I was smarter than her all year long. Probably true.</p>
<p>I wish my school would have let me just skip the honors bio and chem and go straight to AP. I think I’ll do pretty good in Chem if I maintain effort all year long. Hope I don’t stress out with taking 5 APs (chem, calc ab, stats, lit, gov). I’ll be applying early action to Miami so all they will see is my courseload incase I have a major reality check first quarter.</p>
<p>I took AP Chem last year and scored a 5. I loved the class, but it was a LOT of work. Many late nights collaborating on labs, doing seemingly endless homework. It was challenging. But if I were to go back in time I would do it all over again. It made me decide I want to major in chemistry in college.
This year (senior year) I am taking AP Bio and am actually finding it more difficult. I think it is because there is such a different approach to biology vs. chemistry. Chemistry is a lot more mathematically & analytically based; biology has more memorization, more visual content, etc.<br>
Overall, each is difficult in its own way. Which one you prefer depends on how your mind works, I suppose.</p>
<p>Oh, your honors chem experience sounds a lot like mine. If you excel in honors chem I would say you’re likely to do well in AP. The difficulty level is definitely much higher in AP, but in a good way. If you have a good foundation in the basic chemistry, well, AP Chem just builds on those skills and concepts.</p>
<p>I took ap chem last year and found it was fine for me expect there was really a lot of work. This year I am taking ap bio and it seems to be more difficult because of the vocabs and the concepts.</p>
<p>@hmqhuange: Really? I found AP Chem to be somewhat difficult. I’m taking AP Bio now, too, and I find that it’s easier because there isn’t a whole lot of technical stuff involved. Most of the questions I’ve encountered on practice AP Bio exams can be solved by common sense, in my opinion.</p>