<p>I took Chemistry this summer and I now have a choice between taking AP Biology and Honors Physics. As I have 10, 11, & 12th grade left, I could either take 3 AP sciences without Phyiscs, or take Physics with only 2 AP sciences. My friends are pressuring me to take Physics, as they think it's one of the "more difficult" science classes. But, to tell the truth, I don't think that I'm going to enjoy that class very much. Sooo... which of those two classes should I choose?</p>
<p>If you plan to major in a science in college where you would have to take physics to meet your major requirements, you should DEFINITELY take physics.</p>
<p>I was a biology major in college. As part of our major, we had to take two semesters of physics. The students who had not taken physics in high school found the college physics course very difficult. And there was no way for them to make up for the deficiency in their preparation. You cannot take high school physics in college.</p>
<p>In some high schools, you do not need to take four years of social studies. So it might be possible for you to take physics and take all three AP sciences by taking two sciences in one year and skipping social studies that year.</p>
<p>take the AP. AP bio is hard.</p>
<p>Marian, I spoke with a biologist/biochemist (actually a food scientist) who told me that biochem/bio is all math. I thought that biology was one of the sciences where math is not needed as much as physics/chemistry, and where the math is more toned-down. Is this true ? Also, how exactly does physics apply to biology (it applies to cardiology [heart]); it seems to apply to biology in limited ways, no ?</p>
<p>There are many aspects of biology. Some are very mathematical; others less so. My main interest was microbiology, which is not especially mathematical. Biochemistry is a different matter (especially for Mr./Ms. food science, whose work may involve a lot of physical chemistry).</p>
<p>As for physics, I have to say that it was never a lot of use to me, although it may have been useful to the biochemistry people. Biology majors have to take physics, though, whether or not they will ever use it. At most colleges, a year of physics is a required part of the biology major. Having a high school physics background is useful to anyone who needs to take college physics.</p>
<p>You might want to take a look at the biology major requirements at some of the colleges that you plan to apply to. I think you will find that the math requirements are fairly modest (perhaps a year of calculus plus one statistics course), and the physics requirement is also within reason (often, one year of physics, and you may be able to choose physics-without-calculus rather than physics-with-calculus in some cases). But people whose main interest is in one of the more math- or physics-oriented areas of biology may be advised to take more math or physics than these minimum requirements.</p>
<p>thanks Marian ! JJUYA: You say that you can take ""3 AP sciences without Phyiscs, or take Physics with only 2 AP sciences. "" It depends what the 3 AP Sciences will be. If it's 3 AP Sciences, one of which is Environmental Science, I would just take physics instead (and thus have 2 AP Sciences). Otherwise, if you really like environmental science, and think it will help, then I'd say take the 3 AP Sciences without physics. However, I think it's always best to have the all three: bio, chem, and physics. Also, if you do decide to take 2 AP Sciences with physics, that's not bad at all, and if you're really despairing about it, try to take more APs in other subjects to make up for it.</p>