My 9th grader is considering self-studying AP Biology with Apex online (it almost impossible to take it in HS given her choices of extracurriculars and restrictions by school). She will be taking Biology honors concurrently at school.
Question is, will self-studying for AP Bio concurrently (with Bio honors) help her or will it negatively impact her studying Biology honors at school?
IMO your child should focus on: 1) doing as well as possible in his/her HS classes and 2) getting involved in ECs he/she finds interesting. There is no real benefit in the college admission process to self-studying for AP exams.
Taking bio and AP bio concurrently is like taking Algebra I and multivariable calculus concurrently. The pesky HS requirements are there for a reason.
What’s the reason for self-studying the topic?
If she’s passionate about Biology, take it after 1st year Bio. She doesn’t have the knowledge from the pre-requisite course which will make it very difficult. Probably more like Algebra 2 along with Algebra 1, but still a problem.
If she thinks self-studying an AP will impress a college admissions committee - it won’t.
Thanks for your replies. We completely agree that taking it later is ideal. However, as I wrote in my original post, she won’t be able to fit it in because of band and art ECs and she also wants to take AP chem later. This year, she’ll be doing remote learning through school and remote ECs. So has a little more time on her hands than would have otherwise. Would your answers be different knowing this scenario?
No. If she has extra time on her hands she can study a course more appropriate for her grade and preparation
I’m a HS teacher who teaches both regular bio and AP Bio.
At my HS, AP bio is a typically a sophomore class. The science progression for advanced students is:
9th: AP Environmental Science (serves as the accelerated freshman science class) or Physical Science
10th: AP Bio
11th: AP Chem or AP Physics
12th: AP Physics 1 or AP Physics C.
Going straight into AP Bio without having regular bio first is certainly possible. Dozens of kids do it every year at my school. My daughter did that track and got a 4 on the AP bio test as a sophomore. But it is very fast paced and you have to skip over a lot of background biochem stuff and assume that they got it in 8th or 9th grade physical science.
As for the question about how well online AP bio will track with your school’s regular or honors bio? No one can say. AP Bio has a very well prescribed national curriculum and most teachers follow a similar recommended course sequence. You have to have your syllabus approved by the College Board, for example. But regular bio classes are all over the map depending on the state, school, and teacher. So who knows. They may not track at all. And it is very unlikely that you’d be covering the same topics at the same time in both classes.
To successfully teach AP bio you have to spend nearly the entire school year drilling and testing the kids with sample AP questions so they are really comfortable answering the open-ended questions on the AP exam. There is a real art to it that the kids have to learn. Unless your online class does a lot of that and has a lot of drill with open-ended AP questions that are graded by a teacher who knows the exam, I question how much success your freshman will have.
These are what the questions look like and they don’t lend themselves to computer-graded online practice. You have to have an actual experienced teacher grade them by hand: https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/ap/pdf/ap18-biology-q1.pdf
My advice? Freshman year is hard enough, especially in this quarantine year. I would just make sure your child is in regular courses with the appropriate rigor and not worry about trying to tack on extra online AP stuff on top of everything. Colleges aren’t going to care. They will look at your school’s offerings and make a judgement as to whether your child took advantage of the offerings that were provided. So if your school offers lots of AP it is good to do some of them. But they aren’t going to care about one specific AP class over another. And if your child pursues a college career in biology she is going to have to take it all again anyway.
@Aspiringmom your kid doesn’t need to take AP bio ever. You say she will be taking honors bio.
I’m not sure why you think it necessary for this kid to self study this AP course.
It would be far better for her to spend her time getting the work done that is in her school schedule.
You mention that she has always wanted to be a doctor on another thread or two. You need to forget about this right now as well. This may or may not happen…in seven years when she is maybe applying to medical schools. So much can change.
Let her be a ninth grader. You say she has arts courses and ECs that interest her. That’s terrific. Let THOSE be her extra work this year…and next and next. Let her have the time to develop interests that are not academic. Self study if an AP course isn’t going to impress anyone.
Thank you so much for your kindness, thought, and time in responding! I see that kids who want a stem career take two ap science courses in her school. So I fear her transcript will stand out negatively relative to her peers if she takes only one science ap. Or will it balance out with her plan to pursue ECs of band and art all four years? Also, will her college science classes be more challenging if she’s not taken ap sciences in hs?
Transcripts are view in the aggregate. Nobody is counting the number of APs per discipline. It it far preferable to have a rigourous courseload across all core subjects.
No college expects multiple science APs The expectation from top colleges is a year each of bio, chem, and physics plus a year of an advanced science. Not taking an AP class will not make college classes more difficult. And getting ahead of ourselves but know that most med schools do not accept AP science classes as fulfilling prerequisites.
And finally, AOs are less than impressed with self studying APs
My daughter is a first year resident…yes, she is a doctor.
She took NO AP science courses in high school. She didn’t even take calculus. Her highest math course was honors precalc. She took two AP courses…Music Theory and AP Government. She also took a dual credit Anatomy and Physiology course.
Her undergrad major was engineering, with a biology double major. Imagine that. And she want to a very highly regarded undergrad school. You can PM me for the name.
As noted above, a full compliment of biology, chemistry and physics, and calculus plus a ton of higher level math courses were required to get her bachelors degree. Her college did not allow AP courses to be used to fulfill course requirements in the major. YMMV on this.
My point is…you are worrying about things that may not have any actual importance.
We did find that many of the colleges DD was interested in required three lab science courses in high school. But NONE of them needed to be AP courses. So she took three lab science courses. None were APs.
1 Like
I don’t know anything about your kid’s school, but personally, the difference between my school’s Honors Biology and AP Biology is not that vast. Compared to Chem and Physics, there is not a huge gap in knowledge between what kids in Honors Biology learn and what kids in AP Biology learn. If your kid feels like they can handle it and they really love biology, then they should go for it. I loved the class and didn’t feel that it required much work, but I also learned the course in an actual classroom. I do think that it is a lot of pressure to put on a 9th grader when it will have little effect on her future education.
In four years of high school, if your child has no time to take AP Bio, it will affect…literally nothing. Especially not self studying it, and especially because her high school does offer it.
Colleges like to see kids doing well in AP classes offered in high school. My child self studied an AP. She did it because our school didn’t offer it and she knew she would major in it it, which indeed she did. She was truly interested in the subject
I think in her case, it was looked on favorably, but it didn’t tip any scale for her. In fact, before she started college, she asked a professor if it was a good idea to skip the intro level course because of the 5 she got on the exam. The prof deferred to her own judgement. My daughter took the intro class and was very glad she did. Self studying really isn’t the same as being instructed by a teacher or professor.
In addition, paying for an online course from Apex or whoever is truly a waste of money. There are some excellent AP study guides for a fraction of the price. If the goal was to earn course credit whihc might be accepted by a college, then maybe it would make sense. However, that isn’t the case here. In short, this is unnecessary.
That’s extremely helpful to know! Thank you! How can I PM you? Don’t know to use the function here.
Just click on my screen name in this post, you will get my profile page and you should see a “message” button. Hit that and you will see a text box. Type your message and hit send.
The situation above where kids are put straight into AP bio soph year is unusual. Some exceptionally advanced kids, but not common. Many hs don’t even offer a big enough array of AP to keep up rigor through senior year, if you jump ahead too fast.
As pointed out, most colleges are well satisfied by the 3 core lab sci and at least one advanced.
The important thing is to aim for the right balance. Stem and humanities. And, depending on how competitive her eventual college targets, if she does choose to state a probable stem major/premed, some relevant experience outside hs clubs.
This is important from my point of view:
My daughter was at no disadvantage in college because her high school science courses were not AP courses. And she didn’t feel at all at a disadvantage taking calculus in college instead of high school.
If this is still a concern at the end of high school, you can always ask the guidance counselor to write a note explaining that involvement in music and art caused some scheduling issues that precluded taking an AP bio class, despite her interest in it. One of my kids didn’t even do the usual 3 science classes due to (intense) music activities and the colleges didn’t mind at all. But the GC did include info on this in his note with transcript.
Seriously doubt this will be necessary but if it helps your daughter relax.
Also, the kids I know who got 5’s on AP math and science, still took the intro classes at college 
Honestly, the subject matter is not going to be that different. AP will be much faster-paced and go more in-depth in terms of memorization and vocabulary. I’ve taught both. In a regular bio class we might spend an extra day on each subject and then have a dedicated review day before each chapter test. in AP you just grind through the material at light-speed with no pause because there is more to cover and the AP tests are in early May.
Where it will be difficult for a 9th grader is that they will be two completely separate classes following two completely separate scopes and sequences. So when you are in genetics in honors bio you’ll be doing cell structure or something else in AP Bio. They won’t complement each other. There is no set sequence for teaching biology or what gets emphasized. So when your student is learning say Punnett squares and the principles of genetics in honors bio, she’ll be struggling with something different like RNA transcription or photosynthesis or whatever in AP bio. By the end of the school year they should have covered at least 70% common material, give or take. But it will be unlikely for any of it to be synchronized.