I took Honors Chemistry my sophomore year, and I can honestly say that I have never had a teacher so unattached from and uncaring about her class or the curriculum. She would zip through a hilariously complicated powerpoint, ask if we had any questions (and her answers were equally complicated), and then move on, already planning to give us a quiz on it the next day. The only people who did well in the class were people who already knew most of the curriculum just because they liked chemistry.
In spite of that, I desperately tried to not outright fail the class. I came in before school, during lunch, and after school to try to fathom what in the h.e.c.k. I was doing. Somehow, her explanations made me more confused. Through the help of one of my classmates, I managed to scrape through the class with an 88. How I did it, I still don’t know.
Anyways. My question is, can I feasibly take AP Chem next year? It’ll have been two years since I’ve seen the material. However, I am very interested in a medical career of some sort, and I don’t want one bad apple to ruin chemistry for me. I will be taking AP Bio next year (3 years since I took Honors Bio freshman year? Hopefully that will be all right. Yikes.) as well.
Yes of course you can take AP chem next year. But you should be aware, based on your experience to date, that you may need to invest more time in it than your other classes. You have struggled learning on your own when the teacher has not presented the information in a way that has been clear to you initially, so you may want to have some other resources lined up just in case. I would think about how this fits in with the other demands on your time, but if you are interested, you did well enough in the first class that you should be able to progress.
I’m essentially starting from a clean slate, though. I just looked at an overview of the curriculum (for HONORS chem, mind you), and I felt like I was sitting right back in that class again, feeling inadequate. (The class seems to have given me PTSD.) I did not recall much of the curriculum.
For someone who, basically, has not learned anything substantial in chemistry, do you still think AP Chem is viable?
That changes my answer! At our school, it is known as a hard class and recommended only for students who did well in the first year of chemistry. My concern for you is that you found the first year of chem confusing and couldn’t work it out with the textbook alone. Why do you think this experience will be different?
That sounds really rough, OP. The mention of the feelings which resurface is hard to get past.
Do you know the Naviance stats on kids from your school who get in to the types of programs you may want (or the schools you may want)? It may not be necessary for you to show that you have completed AP Chem, but perhaps AP BIO.
Self-study in AP Courses is routine among students I have known, to augment the gaps which occur in instruction because the classes are designed such that further, independent work must be done by the student in order for the teacher to reach all of the teaching points outlined in the teacher’s AP curriculum guide.
All in all, you did a great job holding your own and meeting a goal with that Honors course.
Isn’t AP Chemistry a hidden requirement to enter any sort of medical profession? I’d hardly be much of a med student if I had no clue about chemistry. I can’t very well jump from Honors Chem in HS to Orgo in college, I don’t think. :/. @gardenstategal
@Waiting2exhale, by Naviance stats, do you mean the scattergram? Because individual students’ stats are kept anonymous.
As a side note/question: Does AP Chem start with the assumption that you knew what you were doing in Honors Chem? Or does it start with review and then have a very accelerated curriculum?
AP chem should be the equivalent of chem 101. (Which comes before organic chem.) You can take it in college freshman year. Or you can take it over the summer and again in college. Or online and again in college. You will need to master the material at some point. The question is when and where. Pretty sure most pre meds take the intro course whether they have taken AP or not. So yes, at that point, you’d be disadvantaged if you hadn’t seen the material before and most of your classmates had. The real question remains whether doing this next year makes sense given the rest of your course load and what would be involved in being successful. Could you get a tutor?
It is crucial to learn as much chemistry as you can in high school because chemistry is what trips up most premeds. Like it or not you’ll be better off mastering as much of it as you can before college. You can spend the summer trying to get ready for AP by using online resources like MIT open courseware or Khan Academy.
@mohammadmohd18 : “Does AP Chem start with the assumption that you knew what you were doing…”
Well, yes, the cumulative nature of the information, the pace of the introduction of the new material, and your ability to work from the foundations of what helped you to get to the AP course are all the basis for having a healthy start in the class, and on the exam.
Some kids are able to do this without Honors Chem, just jumping in after a complete, successful year of Chem, meeting whatever the pre-reqs in terms of grades, labs and mastery the school requires to enter the AP course.
I like gardenstategal’s response here, “So yes, at that point, you’d be disadvantaged if you hadn’t seen the material before and most of your classmates had.” This tells us that exposure to the material provides the better footing for success in the course, even where one is first exposed to it at the college level. (And many will be.)
Your rightful concerns about the coursework re-igniting your feelings of desperation and worse are worrisome enough that I would advise you to see if there are other AP courses you can take in the classroom for credit as you seek to earn your HS diploma.
As for Naviance, yes, I realize that you will not be able to know exactly who earned what in this-class, or that-class, but perhaps knowing a little more about what the kids who have successfully applied to the same types of programs/universities as those to which you will, could help you to know what to aim for to prepare you as a candidate from your school, with its unique profile.
@Waiting2exhale, I am planning on taking AP Bio next year, if that counts as a course for credit. My issue is not earning my HS diploma, though.
@JAMCAFE and @gardenstategal & exhale, chemistry is just such a huge wall that I can’t seem to find a way through. My worry is that even if I somehow, miraculously find a way to squeeze in between the cracks to the other side, and I take AP Chem without committing GPA suicide, it won’t matter. If the basic college-level coursework that is essentially the intro to an intro class that is a pre-req for med school is this difficult for me, I doubt I can survive med school. My motivations for wanting to be a physician are still there, but if high-school level sciences stump me, the whole endeavour seems futile. I might have to rethink what I want to pursue.
A med student hopeful who struggles with high school chemistry is as laughable as a pilot who is afraid of heights.
The statement above is really the answer to your question. While you spend time moaning as if a B is a bad grade (it’s not), and you could do well in AP Chem, I would not recommend taking AP Chem and AP Bio concurrently. Both are extremely time consuming. Additionally to complete the labs, many schools schedule double blocks during the day or before/after school sessions. So you not only have the increased workload for an AP class, but you’re spending more time in each class. Throw in the fact that you are planning on taking AP Physics 1 as well - it’s suicide.
No. Chemistry is needed. But it can be taken in college. Many med schools will not count AP Science credits as meeting the prereqs so an applicant would either need to retake in college or take a higher level to meet the prereqs. Additionally, med schools could care less what an applicant took in HS.
" If the basic college-level coursework that is essentially the intro to an intro class that is a pre-req for med school…"
OP, thing is, you may well benefit from the time between now (HS) and then (college), as you are growing, expanding, deepening the conceptual connections you make, and grooming yourself for more in-depth,advanced work.
Thus, my telling you to look into other courses for completing your HS diploma, which sounds mundane and like I don’t know your aim is med school, but I was just saying aim for now. Do well now, and when you take that intro college level course, for which you will have had at least the Honors college material, in addition to the exposure through self-study with the open courseware courses mentioned by JAM, you * may * be in a better place.
But you have to get there first.
Unless what you really want is someone to talk you down off the ledge. In that case…
@Waiting2exhale, I think it’s more like I was wanting someone to talk me over the ledge haha. I’ll do the self-study, and I hope it opens up for me. Thank you for all your answers. My stress levels have dropped.
@skieurope: I never complained about the B in the class. On the contrary, I was ecstatic with it at the time. Why it behooves you to assume that I was “moaning” about it as if it was “a bad grade,” I don’t quite understand. My thread was about my struggle throughout the class; I never complained about the end result.
Easily feasible. Currently a soph in AP Chem, and skipped honors chem. A lot of people thought I couldn’t do it, but I’m pushing through the end of the semester with an A. It took me a lot of outside studying, but if I can do it you can do it no problem! Consistently study, stay on top of homework, and choose good lab partners.
My stress levels have dropped.