<p>If I validated Chemistry, for example, would I be allowed to take an elective for that class block or would I be forced to go straight into the YUK/yearling science course?</p>
<p>No electives til Cow year…sorry.</p>
<p>It can also affect other classes – my son validated history, so he went straight into yuk geography. Because it messed with the class schedule he began his language sequence as a plebe and did not take chemistry. He has both chemistry and physics as a yuk – the laws of unintended consequences can sometimes bite you! The good advantage is that it opens spots on your schedule for further electives when you are an uppclassman.</p>
<p>Though it depends on the subject, in this case, you would go straight to the advanced sections of Chemistry and/or Yearling Physics.</p>
<p>IMO, it is a good idea to validate as many courses as you can.</p>
<p>If you validate a plebe course you will take the yearling level course instead. This means you get to your electives sooner.</p>
<p>My son is a yearling (history major) and is taking two history electives this semester. He validated US History so he took yearling history last year.</p>
<p>He did not validate Chemistry so he had to take it for the third time (AP Chem in h.s. and college chem during his prep year). He was not happy about this but it worked to his advantage. He was able to be a company tutor for Chemistry which earned him extra passes last year. Plebes want all the passes they can get.</p>
<p>If you can validate classes do it as it will open up many opportunities in the future for elective classes. To add to USMA08Mom’s comment when my wife was a plebe she validated a lot of Spanish and ended up taking an advanced Spanish class with her squad leader as a classmate. Ouch!</p>
<p>if you validate chemistry you’ll take your language in its place. language is usually a yuk year course. only 6 plebes validated chem this year</p>
<p>Are you sure you’ll take a language course?</p>
<p>Because honestly I’m NOT interested in validating chemistry if I will be taking the next level science course (physics).</p>
<p>I validated chem this year and took a language instead. I did hear some plebes that validated chem took physics though. </p>
<p>If you know chemistry well, you could purposely do poorly on the validation exam so you could take the class and get a good grade. From what i hear though, there’s still a lot of tedious lab reports and problem sets to do.</p>
<p>“If you know chemistry well, you could purposely do poorly on the validation exam so you could take the class and get a good grade.”</p>
<p>Terrible idea. That’s not how USMA rolls.</p>