<p>Hey guys, I hope I can get a 5 on the AP Bio exam especially as I plan on doing premed. I assume, as in most colleges, the 5 on AP bio allows me to skip the General Bio year and take an upper level course. Is it worth repeating Gen Bio or is it best to skip it?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>You are probably assuming wrong. They will probably give you credit for a biology course in college if you get a 5 on the AP exam, but it won't be the biology course that the pre-med people are taking.</p>
<p>AP course credit is not the useful in college for courses in your major. If you are a science major, it is good to get a 5 in AP History because then you can skip the college history course. If you a history major, it is good to get a 5 in AP Bio or AP Calc because then you can skip the college science/math course. However, if you are a biology major with 5's in AP Bio and AP Calc, you will not get credit for the proper level of introductory biology that you need and you will just take a calculus course in college designed for people who did well on AP Calc in high school.</p>
<p>Don't skip it. AP Biology is not the same as it in college. Also, you will need college grades justifying how adept you are at biology - it is, after all, a requirement for medical school. Taking higher level courses, that is, those that aren't even required for medical school, does not even put you in a higher light. So take the courses over. (You would need good preparation for the MCAT anyway and frankly, AP Biology is not good enough.)</p>
<p>Still take the test as an indicator as to where you stand though.</p>
<p>Any other advice guys? Thanks</p>
<p>My AP Bio teacher advises students to skip it because Intro. to Biology (or whatever) is usually a huge weed-out claas, which could hurt your GPA and thus your chances at med school.</p>
<p>Well the premed student will have to go through a variety of weed-out courses - e.g. OChem.</p>
<p>"However, if you are a biology major with 5's in AP Bio and AP Calc, you will not get credit for the proper level of introductory biology that you need and you will just take a calculus course in college designed for people who did well on AP Calc in high school."</p>
<p>Uh, this is patently false at the vast majority of colleges. AP Bio places out of introductory biology in most colleges and allows you to take higher level classes immediately as a freshman. For premeds, 2 bio semesters are generally required regardless of whether you used AP credit or not (so instead of 2 semesters of intro bio a premed with AP credit could take, say, a Cell Bio class and Genetics course; this means that AP Bio credit is good for premeds who want to major in biology, but premeds who want to major in something else might as well just take the intro classes again and already know most of the info). For Calculus the AP test is often enough to satisfy premed and major requirements. Med schools don't care nearly as much about calc as they do the sciences, so usually AP credit (5 on BC) will suffice there with no additional classes in college (unless you happen to be applying to one of the few schools that accept no AP credit, in which case you could put off taking a math until last semester senior year anyway). It is certainly enough to fulfill the math requirement of a bio major, there's no need to take more advanced calculus unless you are going into something such as biophysics. You might need to take a stats class or whatever as an additional math requirement, but certainly not harder calculus.</p>
<p>A lot of medical schools (not pre-med) will not accept AP credits for their requirements. Here are a couple of websites from UPenn and Berkeley with advice:
<a href="http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/gradprof/healthprof/premed/apcredit.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/gradprof/healthprof/premed/apcredit.html</a>
<a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Health/MedFAQ1.stm#advanced%5B/url%5D">http://career.berkeley.edu/Health/MedFAQ1.stm#advanced</a></p>
<p>What I see people saying sometimes is that the intro bio and chem classes are used to weed-out the pre-med students. This is absolutely true. I don't think it is a good idea to try to use AP credits to skip them, however, when the alternative is to take harder bio and chem courses instead. This would seem to be especially true when you don't have the proper foundation to take the harder courses because you skipped the intro courses.</p>
<p>Most college science departments want you to take their intro classes regardless of how you do on the AP test. They still may give you the credits but require you to take their intro class. They want to make sure that everyone is on the same page before they move on to the higher level classes. That doesn't mean you shouldn't take the test, just understand that you will likely not get to opt out of the intro class.</p>
<p>Duke requires two semesters of intro biology. AP credit (4 or 5) will get you out of the first semester, but not the second*. For chemistry, you can take both semesters of intro chem (no AP credit), one fast-paced semester of intro chem (AP credit), or organic chemistry (AP credit + super smartness). I assume many schools offer similar credit. For chemistry, I would advise not using AP credit- organic chem as a freshman is rough. For biology, I would definitely advise you to use your AP credit. Upper-level biology does not depend nearly as much on fundamental concepts as chemistry, and intro biology is a huge weeder course. </p>
<p>*There is actually a loophole to this, but most pre-meds don't want to take botany or Marine Lab courses.</p>
<p>Medschools look down upon using AP credits to fulfill prerequisites, especially the core sciences (orgo, bio, chem, physics). Collegiate level intro courses completely floor anything remotely similar to high school level work (well, at least it does here).</p>
<p>My advice would be to take the AP credit and skip the intro freshman classes. Most medical schools don't allow AP credit to satisfy pre-med requirements, but you can substitute a higher class in its place. You would learn more and probably get a higher grade too.</p>
<p>.. but if you took higher level courses in place of the courses that you skipped because of the AP credit (and you would have to in order to meet the requirements for med school), then that might impress them.</p>
<p>I would say, though, that the main thing to impress med schools is a high gpa. It would be better to not use the AP credit, but get a higher grade in the intro course than hope that you can do well in the higher level course without taking the intro course first.</p>
<p>The complication is that the intro Bio and Chem courses are weed-out courses and that makes it sound good to skip them, but I think skipping them will just throw you into a higher level course that may not be a weed-out course, but is still harder without the preparation of the intro course.</p>
<p>Actually, the intro Bio/Chem are two course sequences. If the school gives AP credits, it is still only going to allow you to skip one of them.</p>
<p>It is also worth mentioning that higher level courses also rely on the introductory material. I experienced a disadvantage when taking genetics because all of my fellow classmates had already reviewed a great portion of the material and thus they did not have to memorize the rudimentary stuff.</p>
<p>dufus got it right -- the most impressive thing for med schools is a high gpa followed by high mcats. If you can score a 5 in AP bio, you should have no trouble earning A even in a weed-out class. Yes, there will be others who have already had AP Bio, but, then the class will also have others who have only had bio in thier HS Frosh year.</p>
<p>Try not to take Biology and Chemistry at the same time during freshman year. They are both weed-out courses and either one of them is bad enough by itself. Each one will probably have a 4-hour lab, too. Taking two simultaneous weed-out courses and then being in lab for 8 hours per week doesn't help your gpa.</p>
<p>This also applies to biology majors who don't even want to be pre-med.</p>
<p>I do not have any science my senior year but I have already taken bio, physics, and chemistry before senior year. I chose instead to take the most demanding course load that my school has for seniors eliminating a non honors science course in exchange for AP Euro History
My schedule looks like this
AP CALC
AP EURO
AP ENGLISH
DISCRTE MATH HONORS
THEOLOGY-catholic school i have no choise</p>
<p>are my chances of admission to a top school decreased by applying pre med?</p>