<p>I'm thinking about switching out of
AP Stats and going into Physics.
Schedule:
American lit
APUSH
AP Env. Science
Precalculus
AP Stats
Academic tutor</p>
<p>I'm now a junior. Would switching into physics be better or worse? Also is physics a hard class? Help!</p>
<p>IMO physics is hard. Physics is probably the hardest science class you will take in HS. It kind of depends on what you plan on majoring in later on. If you want to go pre-med I would advise taking physics in high school. Physics will be challenging, but you will learn a lot. I think physics would look better on your transcript than AP Stats. Many schools consider AP Stats to be an easy AP class, and you could always take AP Stats next year. </p>
<p>Quick question: Why aren’t you taking a foreign language class??
Most schools recommend 3+ years of a language. </p>
<p>take physics. Many top colleges recommend if not require one year each of chem, bio, and physics for admission.</p>
<p>Which school or schools are you aiming for? Many schools don’t accept AP Environmental Science credit since it’s one of the easier AP classes. Check with college board to find out. It would be sorta stupid to take the class and memorize random laws if it doesn’t count. </p>
<p>Physics (the normal pre-AP physics) or AP Physics B (non-Calculus based) on Physics C (Calculus based)?</p>
<p>In any case, any of the three are useful, but you don’t have Calculus so would be limited to Physics B (which is VERY broad) or the non-AP (“pre-AP” at some schools) physics.</p>
<p>My son’s favorite AP (out of many) was Physics B (and BC Calculus) but it was a lot of work.</p>
<p>Physics B is not as likely to get college credit for STEM majors (since it is not Calculus based) but it is useful background for many things.</p>
<p>One huge factor in deciding which AP classes to take is teacher quality - can make a huge difference so even AP Environmental Science or AP Stats could be a good choice if the teacher is great (even though maybe not as useful in college as some others - stats can have some value if you do not plan to take a Calculus based stats in college).</p>
<p>I already took the required 2 years, and I really didn’t want to take the 3rd year so I talked to my counselor and she said I could take an AP test for farsi </p>
<p>I was going to say, if Physics C is available at your school, wait until senior year to take it with either Calc AB or BC. As mentioned above, where’s the foreign language? And, with your current schedule of AP Enviro, AP Stat, two of your three APs are considered “lite”. Consider AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Lang, or, depending on your school, AP Gov if it’s consider core there (very teacher dependant).</p>
<p>OP, there is no AP test for Farsi. In addition, if Farsi is a heritage language for you, colleges usually don’t value that as highly. </p>
<p>@Kia2062 there is no AP farsi test. Most colleges require 3 years of foreign language </p>
<p>I have to go to a university that has that language available and take a test there</p>
<p>That still won’t fill the foreign language requirement… Id drop AP ES and AP Stat if I were you and take foreign language level 3 and physics</p>
<p>I don’t think I would state MOST colleges require 3 years of FL. Many highly competitive colleges do, but not most by any means.</p>
<p>We forgot to ask the most important question - what colleges is OP looking at? It’s quite possible we’re telling OP to ramp it up when it’s not necessary. We’ve fallen into the CC trap of thinking everyone is aiming for HYP.</p>
<p>1) Check with your guidance counselor to be sure that 2 years of foreign language will be sufficient for the schools you are interested in. Many do want 3 years of foreign language. Your native language won’t count.
2) How hard physics is depends on how your mind works. My D found physics to be the easiest of the sciences while my son found it more difficult. If you don’t plan to pursue any type of science related major I think you’d be ok with keeping environmental science this year. Again, it depends on what colleges you are looking at (the most selective schools might look for Physics)</p>
<p>3 years of FL is a reasonable minimum, but note that various colleges recommend 4 years if possible at your High School (Harvard and University of Michigan for example). Even if not required for college admissions, foreign language proficiency (and knowing three or four languages is better than 2, and it is easier to learn when younger) is an important skill. My father in public High School in the midwest just before World War 2 took 3 foreign languages (and added one in graduate school). His language fluency helped him throughout his life even as a techie. Taking more than one foreign language in HS was rare by the time I went to HS, but my son and a few his friends took 2 different languages in HS (4 or 5 years total of language courses for these kids in HS).</p>
<p>Lack of language proficiency among Americans was described as a national security issue by some and there have been many public officials who have commented on the topic. For example:</p>
<p>To prosper economically and to improve relations with other countries,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared in 2010, “Americans need to read, speak and understand other languages.”</p>
<p>Depends on you, really. Some people dig physics. Others, like me, hate it.</p>
<p>That’s really going to depend on the person. If you’re mathematically inclined, you’ll have a much easier time with it. But it’s a lot more than just solving mathematical equations. You’re often deriving the equations and fitting the equations to numerous different scenarios. You can do a lot of stuff with F=ma in physics, but the fact that it’s so widely applicable makes it that much more complicated. That seemingly simple looking equation can get nasty sometimes. </p>
<p>I love physics. I’m a physics major, so I kind of have to. There are a lot of people who seriously struggle with it though. It’s a lot tougher than most classes are, and you definitely have to put the work into it.</p>