I’ve been told by some that it’s a joke class (meaning really easy to get an A as long as you memorize stuff) and I’m in between taking APES next year or taking AP Bio. If APES is straightforward enough I may take both. I’m currently taking AP Chem and if I can somehow pass this class I feel like these two AP sciences will be cake.
Is the course interesting? Or is it about more “boring” concepts like the water and rock cycle? What are the best things you learn in the class?
Thanks. 
It depends a bit on the teacher – my class wasn’t necessarily hard but took a lot more work than I expected because our teacher didn’t want to bore us. I found it pretty diverse in its topics; you do learn about the water cycle (and carbon and nitrogen), but also pollution and ecology. Some of it would overlap with the AP bio units on ecology and evolution.
The projects and field trips were my favorite part. Without them, I think the class would have been pretty boring.
It’s easy but it doesn’t mean it’s not important.
It is more important to take Bio, Chem, Physics at some level and then an AP version of one of those if possible. If you are particularly interested in Enc Science, then feel free to take that as well.
I always find it interesting that people say it’s a joke. I guess at most schools it’s an easy A, but it has a terrible pass rate. A lot of our kids double up APES and Chemistry in the same year, so maybe that’s why they don’t do as well, but most of our high level kids pull 3s.
2017 results:
5-9.4% 4-24.5% 3-15.5% 2-24.6% 1-26%
It’s easy to feel you get it, harder to actually master the content and its skills.