<p>My daughter is going to be a sophomore next year. Her school allows and encourages sophomores who have already taken Honors Chemistry to take AP Chemistry. She is currently taking a fast-paced "Ace" Algebra II class that combines precalculus. She will take Trigonometry the second semester next year; a full year of preparation before calculus is not needed because she is taking pre-calculus this year. She is a straight A student. </p>
<p>However- State Dept. of Education recommends a student take AP Chemistry after they take trigonometry. She took HS biology in 8th grade. We are hoping that she continues with straight As as we could really use the financial help that an academic scholarship would provide. Do you think she should wait to take AP Chem and take AP Biology next year instead? </p>
<p>Thanks for any input!!!</p>
<p>I took AP Chemistry as a freshman and I didn’t find it particularly difficult - in general, however, I wouldn’t recommend it unless one has very good mathematical problem solving skills. Most of the math is simply basic algebra, but converting the chemistry to mathematical equations requires problem solving ability that many kids struggle with.</p>
<p>If she prefers raw memorization to problem solving then AP Biology is probably the better option for the moment. It really comes down to the problem solving ability. </p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>I would encourage her to take AP Chem instead of AP Bio. You do not need trig for AP Chem. As for AP Bio, they are changing the AP test (introducing a new test) this year for the may 2013 exam. Thus, it would be better to “put off” taking AP Bio until the test has been out for a while, so that she can have more practice tests available. I’m not sure when they are revamping the AP Chem; might be 2015, but you should double check that as well. At our schools, the kids take AP Chem as sophs, with no prior Chem classes.</p>
<p>I talked to my Guidance counselor about this same thing, and she was like
“No!” and “I would be suprised if you had any hair left by the end of the year.” (I have straight A’s in honors physical science, under the ‘more challenging’ physical science teacher.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor and my grandmother (Who taught AP Chemistry for 16 years) both said that it does not involve trigonometry in any way. </p>
<p>Some Geometry is used in the angles of compound bonds.</p>
<p>Hope this helps,
Adam John.</p>
<p>The geometry is given to you, normally memorized, and the angles are usually just remembered. In my current school algebra I is all that’s required for AP Chemistry and in my experience doing it currently as a sophomore I’ve never remembered math trouble that falls on lack of math learning. Quadratic equations in AP chemistry exist but instead of being solved are converted to simpler math problems which shows how much AP chemistry likes math. Currently biology arguably has longer math since I’m not sure if the new AP bio test added it, but it now has standard deviation and chi square calculating.</p>
<p>At the same time which one she does first really comes to whether she’d prefer to do the one she’s more interested in now or later and which she cares for more.</p>
<p>Lastly I’m basing this off the current chemistry test and it is being revamped for next year. Based off experience with the Biology revamp it’ll likely require less memorization and more analysis but the content itself won’t change much. I’d guess the biggest change is longer multiple choice questions and less of them that require figuring out what its asking first from some real life based problem instead of directly saying how many grams is produced from this reaction with this many moles of each reactant.</p>
<p>Yes Chemistry is supposed to have little to no geometry but lots of algebra.</p>
<p>Some college sophmore chemistry requires some Calculus.</p>
Thanks for the replies. I thought I would share outcome of taking AP chem Sophomore year along with AP Stat and AP Art History.
Background info:
DD had Math IQ tested by school when she was younger and they placed her at 146.
She was simultaneously taking Honors Algebra 2 combined with Trig
All other classes were at honors level.
She got 5s on AP Stat & AP Art History. She got a 3 on AP Chem exam.
Of note is that her AP Chem class was curved and she ended the year with an A+ at 110%.
Unfortunately, three things had negative effect on her AP Chem exam.
- She had a serious case of the flu for a good week before the exam and could not find the time to study because she was exhausted and spent most of the time sleeping (and coughing).
- I don’t think the teacher taught for the revised test.
- They missed almost 2 weeks of school due to winter storms where we lived. I really feel this impacted the quality and quantity of instruction for this class.
I think if she had taken the old test and not had the flu just prior to AP exam she would have scored a 5 because she excels at the problem solving portion of chem.
Also wanted to add that she really liked her Chem class. I think she made the right decision to take Chem before biology because she enjoys problem solving more than straight memorization that is found more in Bio.