<p>I plan on majoring in Bio and I was wondering assuming I get a 5 on the AP Bio exam would it be to my advantage to use the AP credit and skip intro to bio or should I take AP Bio? Really what i'm asking is intro to Bio an easy A if you have a 5 on the AP exam? or is it easier to just move on in hope of keeping your GPA competitive?</p>
<p>No, it is not to your advantage. Take the easy A and retake the class.</p>
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<p>+1<br>
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<p>I’m just wondering because some people say that it is not an easy A because the intro courses are really hard and used to weed people out.</p>
<p>People typically weed themselves out, schools really don’t have to put much effort into it.</p>
<p>also some schools dont take the ap credit. you dont want to limit yourself when applying.</p>
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<p>So why do you think med schools should accept your AP credit as an equivalent course?</p>
<p>(most of them don’t)</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s a definitive answer. If you think your bio AP class was good, then there’s no reason to retake intro bio. If you think your bio AP class sucked (and it’s possible to get a 5 on the bio AP test even without much mastery of bio), then retake intro bio. I found my intro and upper dev bio courses to be about the same in terms of difficulty.</p>
<p>I dont understand. </p>
<p>if you skip out of intro bio with an AP credit but take like a sophomore bio course, that still fulfills the biology requirement for med school right? I heard from a Stanford friend that the upper level classes are easier.</p>
<p>^ My guess is that, when some students said this, it could mean that he really does not choose to take the hardest classes which are often taken by the best science students there (those who ends up landing on the “best” PhD program or MD/PhD programs.</p>
<p>A problem is not all upper level classes are created equal. I have the impression one UC medical school (not the very top UC one) insists that all applicants take all intro science classes likely because of this.</p>
<p>I heard that, at Stanford, there is a not so hardcore biology program called “human biology” (kind of “premed biology” as it may go quickly into “human aspect” of biology, including psychology, human behavior like UPenn’s BBB maybe?) instead of the traditional biology program. You need to take more classes (many premeds are very good at this :)) but not all classes for that major are really meant for those who are into the academic biology on the research track. Many other top schools provide some of these “softer” programs (specially tailored for those GPA-hungry premed who are not interested on research-oriented classes? :))</p>
<p>I do not think the hardest upper level bio classes at Stanford are easy, when a 3.8/3.79 ORM kid from there could be admitted to UCSF/UCLA/Stanford, depending on the quality of their ECs.</p>
<p>As someone who retook my APs, upper level classes were most certainly not easier in my experience. Harder exams, more complicated material, and a more competitive group of students in the class.</p>
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mmmcdowe, I think it is because you are a hard science major. (Are you a chemistry major or some related major – just like shades_children?)</p>
<p>A while ago, sakky (a CCer who often has a quite “distinctive” opinion, graduated with a chemical engineering major from a big state university in California and later pursue other career path) posted that, pure science classes only get harder and harder as you go from freshman to senior, even compared to many engineering classes.</p>
<p>I also heard that the biochem test at one particular school needs to be taken on Saturday because they could not schedule it in any other way – the test lasts almost half a day. One CCer (who got into YSM eventually about 3 years ago with a high but not very very high GPA, a high MCAT score and likely very very good research ECs. So he is definitely not a slacker and knows his school very well and knows “how to premed”) said there are very very few premeds who are graduated with a chemistry major from his school.</p>
<p>For science majors at many schools, in addition to taking upper level electives, there are usually a sequence of “core” science classes that every student in that major needs to take (e.g., a set of “bio core” classes for a traditional bio major at Stanford.) I believe some (but not all) of these core science classes required by the science department could be quite challenging and/or time-consuming. This may be one reason why some students who even get very good grades from their lower-level science classes would rather not major in science – they do not have to “suffer” through all of these required science classes (e.g., p-chem for a chemistry major, some particular bio course – which one highly depends on the school – for a bio major.)</p>
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FYI, UCSD has surpassed UCSF and UCLA in terms of median admit statistics. UCSF probably still have the highest average matriculate statistics though.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was a biochem major. However, even things like cellbio, genetics, microbio, etc were harder to me than bio 1 and 2… I don’t know any higher than bio 1/2 classes with labs ( a requirement for med schools) that are easier. I’m sure there were a few though, some kind of non-life sciences mamby pamby class perhaps.</p>
<p>D. had both Honors and AP Bio (“5” on exam) in HS with Honors Bio using the same textbook as her very first semester of Bio in college. NO, first Bio in college WAS NOT EASY. Class was known as weed out killer that she ws warned about before she started classes. According to her, good that she took it, since it would be extremely hard to catch up and do well in next Bio classes. Do not kid yourself, AP Bio is much easier than college Bio. D. took lots of higher Bio classes later, all of them being hard, but the first one has been one of the hardest, that either prepared students for what was coming next or made them change their major completely. </p>
<p>However, it was a great advantage to use credits for AP English, AP US History and AP Calc, all of them being outside of my D’s interest. Using credits for these classes allowed D. to have minor (completely unrelated to her major) that she greatly enjoyed.</p>
<p>i took an assload of bio classes at UCSD, they were all easier than AP bio.</p>
<p>I also decided to skip the lower div bio classes because I didnt want to relearn the material for a sake of an easy A, and I had no problems getting interviews and acceptances to med school.</p>
<p>^Apparently it depends on school. So, one need to ask current students.<br>
However, at D’s school as I mentioned before, first Bio was known to be ridiculously hard and people were talking about it before school started, even kids in different majors were mentionning how their roommates were spending all time studying for this class and doing lab reports. It was a big eye openner for most, D’s A in this class was not easy at all, it was a big surprise as some of very top honors students fell out of pre-med track after this class. AP Bio at D’s HS was hard but not as hard as some other AP’s (like English and History). She got “5” on her AP Bio.
Rainbowbrite, congrats on med. school acceptances! D. also has few.</p>
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UCSD won’t let you take lower div bio classes if you have AP bio credit.
Also, while UCSD upper div bio classes may be easy for you, they are not easier than AP bio in general.</p>
<p>i took ap bio, didn’t really ever pay attention in class, so i spent a few days with the princeton review book and i got a 5–easily =) </p>
<p>i guess what i’m trying to say is the test really isn’t that hard. like, the subject test was a lot harder for me, if only because of the obscurity of the questions (then again, i didn’t prep for the subject test because i assumed prepping for the ap test would be enough) i got a 750 btw</p>
<p>i really want to skip out of all the classes that i can. i have taken 6 ap tests and gotten a 4 or better on all of them. i really want to use all of my credit. i’ll just take a higher division bio class at cornell where the median grade is not a B-, the lowest median grade of any class at cornell. i’d rather not get weeded out, which is what i am assume is happening when it’s curved to a B-??</p>
<p>If you can’t get an A or B at an intro course at Cornell that you’re taking for a second time, how do you expect to get through med school?</p>
<p>Upper div and lower div courses are roughly equal in difficulty. Upper div courses have more generous curves but they also have stronger students and tougher material. Retake bio if you feel you are unprepared (it’s possible to get a 5 on the AP test and still feel unprepared because you can miss practically half the test and still get a 5). Don’t retake if you feel prepared. There’s no need to play the GPA game.</p>