Should I take AP Bio & AP Chem in the same year?

<p>I wasn't originally planning on it for the upcoming junior year, but I found out that SAT II Chem is required for a lot of the accelerated med programs I wish to apply to. I wanted to do some kind of medical internship over the summer, that's why I'm taking AP Bio, plus to be prepared for the SAT II Bio. I am planning on taking 6 other AP courses that same year (junior), the only other science being AP Environmental Sci. I going to wait until senior year to take AP Physics, when I will be taking 5 other APs. I know I need to take SAT IIs in bio and chem for a lot of those programs before I apply at the beginning of senior year. Does this sound like a good idea or do you think it will be conflicting to take two intense sciences the same year?</p>

<p>Here's my schedule:
Junior year:
1. Ap calc ab
2. Ap eng lang
3. Ap euro
4. Ap bio
5. Ap chem
6. Ap art history
7. Ap human geo</p>

<p>2 dual enrollments (world religons & speech communications) on saturdays</p>

<p>senior year:
Ap calc bc
Ap eng lit
Ap govt/econ
Ap physics c
Ap environmental sci
Ap stats
random fun class like photography</p>

<p>1 dual enrollment on a saturday - health</p>

<p>the reason why i'm taking so many aps is because i need to maintain my #1 rank at my high school. </p>

<p>im also going to found my own club and have various other leadership positions, plus sunday volunteer work at a hospital and cross country practice after school.</p>

<p>ugh, writing all this has been so daunting. another question: will i die? lol</p>

<p>I don’t know if I even want to dignify this with a response. But I will because I’m such a nice guy. </p>

<p>YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT SUCCEED IF YOU’RE TRYING TO DO 7 AP CLASSES IN ONE YEAR, AND YOU WON’T MAINTAIN RANK #1 IF YOU’RE STRUGGLING TO MAINTAIN B’s AND C’s. </p>

<p>What is it with you hypercompetitive kids anyway?</p>

<p>Okay… oooookaay.</p>

<p>Let me try to find the best way to answer your question. Your junior year schedule sounds awfully packed w/ AP courses. Now I don’t want to be the one that discourages you drop them all but taking 7 is going to be more than an intense year. I am also assuming you will be taking the AP tests for each or at least for most of them. If this is the case, then at least let me give you some hints/tips that you might find useful during your tedious junior/senior year.</p>

<p>HINTS:
Does your school require you take AP Calculus AB before AP Calculus BC? At my school, after you finish Precalculus, you have the option to take either cal. AB or cal. BC. Usually you have to take Honors precal in order to take Calculus BC but you can take Calculus AB with at least a regular year of precal. The point of all of this is that if you don’t have to take Calculus Ab first, then you could save yourself a year of math by taking AP Calculus BC and skipping Calculus Ab all together. You can take calculus Bc and still get a 5 on the AP test because it covers the same topics that AB does except that it goes into more things that AB doesn’t like sequences/series that involve calculus and perhaps more advanced integrals. For a complete list of topics and info, check out collegeboard.com and find the ap course for calculus ab and bc. BOTTOM LINE? Ask your counselor about the calculus courses requirements. If you do, you might save yourself from taking an additional math course that will cover exactly what you took in calculus AB.</p>

<p>Why are you taking AP Art history and AP Human Geography?? It sounds to me like you want to go to the medical field and these courses have very little, if any, relation to medical topics. Plus, they will only cause you to work more, something you don’t really want to add on a high school teenager. You have to work hard in high school but taking 7 is very hard. How will you balance a social life? Will this schedule permit you to hang out w/ friends? Could you attend a Saturday night party invite from a friend or would you pass because you have to finish the enormous amount of homework? These are just sample scenarios but what I am trying to say is that if there is any way to eliminate AP courses, please do so. If you are taking a lot of AP classes to impress colleges, don’t be so sure you will impress them. Along with advanced and challenging classes like AP courses, selective colleges look at you life OUTSIDE of class. And from what I can tell from your description, you have none or didn’t list any. Colleges want to see bright students on their campus but they also want them to care more than just books and tests. Things like choir, student council, earth club, HOSA, National Honor Society, etc etc are ways for you to be involved in your school and make friends. Try to join activities that suit your own interests. If you like photography, maybe think about joining the newspaper or yearbook staff. If your into medical related things, try HOSA if its available. It deals w/ things that future medical people would encounter. Also, because of the rigor of 7 classes, there is a much higher chance of you getting lower grades such as B’s and C’s in the courses because you are trying to get finish everything w/ not enough time. BOTTOM LINE? Really look at your schedule and tell yourself if you really are willing to put great effort on your part to successfully do well in the classes. If you feel overwhelmed, just drop non essential classes. The world is not going to end because you dropped Ap art history. Just find a class that you might like according to your interests. If it happens to be art history, then keep art history, if you just added this class just to add more AP in your schedule, consider trying out for a sport. There is volleyball, basketball, tennis, cross country, track&field and more. There are rankings for those who are beginners and you might be that person. That’s fine because you will meet other beginner people. If you feel more advanced try Varsity level. Sports are a good way to relieve that AP tension, even if its temporary. </p>

<p>Does your school offer AP physics B ? In your senior schedule, you have physics C which is a more advanced physics course, but you have never mentioned physics B . I suggest you take physics B because the math isn’t as hard and therefore the problems aren’t as involved as physics c. However, if you wanted to skip physics B to get to C, that is not advisable. In addition to it being a little easier, physics B helps students get accustomed to word problems, slowly guiding them to more harder questions that will appear in physics C. If you have no physics background, physics C might seem an impossible course. It’s not, and it just might be that you have a weak world problem ability----something you worked on in physics B. Just think about this.</p>

<p>TIPS:</p>

<p>I took AP english language. Its an advanced english class that takes a unique turn in what you have been used to. In previous english classes, you took a multi-dimensional look at the English language. You read literature, you might write an essay, you might analyze what the author was trying to say, and looked at literary elements such as theme, mood, and the more common ones such as metaphors, similes, irony, etc . This class is not like that except for one major part… you WRITE WRITE WRITE. yes, you will write a lot in this class. But you won’t just write anything, you will write to tasks that you will have to perform in the AP tests. The 3 main writing styles in this class is: writing an argument, writing a synthesis essay, and writing about how effective a particular author wrote his/her own argument and explaining what he/she used to reach his purpose. You will also read books that you would otherwise have to read in junior year such as Huckleberry Finn, Scarlet letter, Great Gatsby, and others.</p>

<p>AP Calculus AB mainly deals with derivatives, limits, and its applications. This class is fundamental for science majors in college. However, remember what I said above? If you can skip this class, DO IT !!! Calculus Bc covers the same topics Ab does but at a quicker pace and explores more topics. The math is not extremely hard to do but its the understanding of what the math means that counts. For example, its pretty easy to find the first derivative * something you will know when you take calculus* but its a bit harder to understand what the derivative stands for. So what I am trying to say is that, during lectures, try to understand what the math calculations mean. Ask yourself, why am getting this answer? This will help out since the math is not as bad as people say it is. Its the intuitive understanding that killed me.</p>

<p>Bottom Bottom Bottom line: Just look at your schedule and try to find AP classes that you might want to eliminate to give you more breathing room. If you can, try to fill the spaces with things like sports or choir or something that interests you. If you can’t find anything to delete, then I wish you the best of luck. Definitely buy some review books to condense all the information you are expected to learn and to understand in easier language. Try this reading technique when reading chapters in textbooks: [SQ3R:</a> A Reading Technique](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Stay Motivated in High School – BigFuture | College Board)</p>

<p>Make your high school years count!!!</p>

<p>That schedule is absolutely tough for a junior, but if you are really motivated to ace all of them, then keep it :)</p>

<p>In my opinion, the best class to pair with AP Bio is APES. AP Chem does not relate to AP Bio in any sort, but APES does; all the ecology things you learn in APES will strongly reinforce concepts you learn in AP Bio.</p>

<p>Agreed AP bio & apes go well together.</p>

<p>Oh, you can do it.–At my school, chemistry (this didn’t seem like a hard class for us) and calculus is mainly doing a few problems that you can finish with class time and if you have a good teacher, you don’t have to study. English Language is might be mainly in class timed essays so that might also take a load off of you.</p>

<p>Art History, Human Geography (well my teacher assigned ESSAYS and ridiculous amounts of homework–I say 20% of it is useful), Euro, and Biology are your roadblocks.</p>

<p>Back against the wall technique for those classes–when you don’t have enough time to do the work with your extracurriculars: BS the homework that doesn’t have to do with the curriculum if you can, use review books instead of the textbook (I would encourage the textbook if your schedule was lighter), and google and course-notes/sparknotes are your friend. I wouldn’t recommend this, but staying home from school or copying, but valedictorians do it all the time.</p>

<p>Your schedule for Junior year is nice–it meets life science, lab science, and I forgot what type of science chemistry is, English, social science, and art general ed credits. I actually think it is pretty good, just that I would’ve spread some of what I call the hard classes into different years.</p>

<p>I took AP Chem and AP Bio together… it was a fantastic experience. I had the chemistry background to understand the nitty gritty of the biological processes and the biology background to understand the applications of the chemistry. They are wonderful courses to take together. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. </p>

<p>Added Plus: If you end up taking the Chem SAT II, the “curve creating” questions usually relate to bio. Vice versa for the Bio SAT II. You’ll be far more prepared for exams if you take both courses together.</p>

<p>Personal Anecdote: On the AP Chem exam, there was an entire question dedicated to solubility and the concept that “like dissolves in like.” This is not emphasized at all in Chemistry… but it is heavily referenced in bio. Needless to say, I was one of the few people in my class who knew how to approach it.</p>