<p>Next year I will be taking a Biology Honors course at my high school and I am considering concurrently self-studying AP Biology. The course I would use to self-study would be the Campbell / Reece AP Biology book as well as the Mastering Biology website. Also, I have already had some exposure to Biology, as I have self-studied a beginning high school biology course as an 8th grader. If I self-study the course I would plan on completing it over a school year’s time and taking the AP Biology test in the spring. One might suggest waiting to take AP Biology in my Junior year (my school doesnt permit students to take it before that year), but in order to stay on my preferred accelerated track, (Physics and AP Calculus concurrently Junior year) I will not have enough time to take AP Biology*.</p>
<p>*Please note that I wish to apply for science internships during high school and major in a science related field during college, and therefore must keep a science/math centered course load throughout high school.</p>
<p>My questions are: </p>
<li><p>Is it realistic to take on such a big course load?</p></li>
<li><p>Do you think I would find success in self-studying such a challenging course as a freshman? </p></li>
<li><p>Do you think that it will help that I will be concurrently taking a required honors Biology course while self-studying? </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The only AP class my school will allow sophomores to take it AP Human Geography. But my goal is to prepare myself to take as many AP exams as I can before I apply to college.</p>
<p>I appreciate any insight anyone might be able to share. Thanks.</p>
<p>I self-studied as a sophomore because I couldn’t take it as a freshman. It was not bad at all. You will be successful if you really study. Honors bio will help you more than you can imagine. </p>
<p>Don’t take AP classes/tests just to take them, take them because they’re interesting.</p>
<p>i took an ap bio course my freshman year, but the teacher didn’t give homework and basically didn’t lecture so it was kind of like self studying. the only advantage of being in the class was he’d give tests every so often, so i’d know what i had to read by when. you can use your honors bio class for that purpose, except they’ll probably cover less than your ap bio class. so you’ll want to design your schedule so you’re slightly ahead of theirs.</p>
<p>i read through campbell twice, the second time i took notes from the book. it’s really effective and you’ll still remember stuff years after taking the course, but it will consume lots and lots of your time. i got a 5 easily. the material is basically common sense. it’s just lots and lots of reading.</p>
<p>i think the hard part is staying on schedule and not falling behind. which your class should help with.</p>
<p>yea
a good way to avoid that,
is find someone else who also wants to study ap bio
and you can hold each other accountable
kind of like a workout partner</p>
<p>That’s weird. I procrastinated, didn’t read the book too much, and still managed to get a 5. I think several people in my class did the same thing and got 5’s or 4’s. Perhaps the test was unusually easy that year.</p>
<p>It would be possible, but difficult. AP courses and exams are usually much more challenging than Honors level courses. Self-studying would require a good deal of dedication and time. In addition, a huge part of AP Bio is the labs. I have not taken or studied AP Bio, but I’m not sure how you would be able to make that up. </p>
<p>If you really want to do it, commit to a study schedule and try to coincide your AP studies with your Honors studies (i.e. study Honors and AP DNA material at the same time). Develop a good relationship with your Honors teacher, or the AP teacher at your school, and go to them with questions. </p>
<p>lolz. ap bio has nothing that requires asking questions.
even regular students should be able to comprehend and assimilate the information.
its more about not procrastinating lol.</p>
<p>I actually had the same question and I talked to my counselor about it but she argued against it because apparently, colleges might think that you’re self-studying AP Bio just to get out of a hard class. It’s better to get school credit for classes like AP Bio.</p>
<p>I’m still studying Campbell’s book on my own though; not for the test, but because I want to. But I’ll probably be taking AP Bio soph year (assuming that I get chem credit over the summer. I’m still fighting for that with my counselor currently…)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone!!! This is all very helpful! I am mostly considering this option because my school doesn’t let kids take any APs until Junior year (except AP Human Geography)!!! Any other input would be great!!!</p>
<p>Definitely take it. The ninth grade honors biology teacher at our school was absolutely brilliant but ridiculously tough, and upperclassmen would always say that his class was on par with AP Bio in terms of difficulty. So … yeah, he was a good teacher, but he also demonstrated that loads of freshmen are able to handle what is essentially an AP workload. Do the self-study! You’ll appreciate actually learning something freshman year. ;D</p>