<p>I have to decide between taking AP chem or AP bio next year. What should I do? I'm already enrolled in chem and my teacher recommended me and everything, so it might be too late. I'm not too inclined to take one over the other, but AP chem is rumored to be notoriously difficult at my school. The other kids call it "A death sentence to your GPA."</p>
<p>Bio is okay, I guess, but even though the kids get high grades in the class, they don't do so stellar on the exam.</p>
<p>TONS of kids want to be in bio and there's a long waitlist for that class. The teacher said she'd choose the top 30 students with the highest grades in regular biology and that state test, and my grades are better than a lot of the kids who want it. </p>
<p>So what should I take? I hear that chem is mostly understanding concepts and doin math, while bio is a lot of memorizing. I'm not especially wonderful at either of those skills, but I don't suck either. CHEM OR BIO?! :O</p>
<p>What do you want to study in college (as of now)? Biology is an enormous amount of material and requires a lot of work to fully comprehend and memorize the information. Chemistry is more complex in content, but there’s a lot less memorization. Both are good classes, so do what you are more interested in.</p>
<p>That’s the thing: I have no idea of what I’m more interested in. I just want to take the class that I’m going to understand more and am likely to get a 4 or 5 in, which might be neither, which might be both. I’m totally lost.</p>
<p>If you don’t really know, I’d take AP Biology. The class covers a lot so you don’t go extremely in-depth, which helps with understanding concepts. And it’s not really traditional memorization as in learning the definition of words like in English or foreign language, but being able to understand the concepts enough to regurgitate them in an essay. I’d say you probably have a higher chance of getting a 4/5 on biology as well. Plus you learn a little bit more about chemistry (not really, but at least they talk about functional groups) so you could get a little bit of both. </p>
<p>If you don’t really have a preference then maybe it doesn’t matter which one you take.</p>
<p>Thanks, that’s seems like some sound advice. :)</p>
<p>But I’m afraid I might be too late to switch over, but I’ll talk to my guidance counselor tomorrow. I hope I still have some time left.</p>
<p>If I were to take AP bio next year (as a junior), I wouldn’t be able to take any AP sciences senior year. The chem teacher at my school teaches both regular and AP, and she doesn’t let and kids take AP chem unless they took regular chemistry the year before. She says this because when students do AP chem nonconsecutive with a different science in between, they don’t do so well in the class because they forgot all the basic material.</p>
<p>If I take AP chem next year, I’d be able to do AP bio senior year.
If I take AP bio next year, I wouldn’t be able to do AP chem senior year. I’d probably take regular physics or no science at all.</p>
<p>It sounds like you’re asking us to plan out your science sequence for you. Why don’t you just do what you want to? If you like bio more than chem, then take bio. If you like chem more than bio, then take chem. If you like neither, take neither.</p>
<p>Depending on your future college, you’re likely going to want to get Biology done because it gets a Life Science GE out of the way if it is not in your major!</p>
<p>I just took AP Bio and I think It would be easier than AP Chem, because of the memorizing. If you read the book and do all the assignments and study books for the AP test than you should do good on it. My teacher this year was a first year AP Bio teacher and I think I got a 4 or 5 on the AP test just from reading the book and the review books.</p>
<p>In response to your question, just take AP Bio if you want to do it this year. If you do a major in the sciences you’ll be required to take general bio/chem/phy, so do the one that you want to get out of the way in college. For example, if you intend to major in biology, you could take AP Bio to show colleges that you are able to take an intro course and do well, and also to get credit so you can take more advanced courses as a freshmen.</p>
<p>AP chem is more math oriented and ap bio is lots of reading. Pick your poison.
I took AP chem because I’m better friends with math than 800 page textbooks.</p>
<p>I think you should take AP Chemistry because you had just recently took about chemistry and you have a good grasp of knowledge of chemistry stored in your head than that of biology, which you took in 9th grade.</p>
<p>Firstly, if they say at your school that it’s “A death sentence to your GPA”, it gives you an idea of the course load. It varies from school to school and perhaps the AP chem in your school is a lot harder than the others. Secondly, in chemistry you need to memorize as well. It’s not like you just have to understand a few concepts and then you take the test. There’s a lot of memorizing involved (I know this because my sister took AP chem). If I were you, I’d take AP bio for sure but if you feel you can do the adequate math for chem and are willing to cope with the stress, then pick that. Your call!</p>
<p>At my school, AP Chemistry was also a “grade killer”. I normally get A’s in almost all of my classes, especially math and science. However, I didn’t take regular chemistry, but I decided to take AP Chem last year. I ended up with quarter grades of B’s and B-'s. I often found myself way behind the rest of my class. Nonetheless, I had a very good teacher, and ended with a 5 on the AP exam. I enjoyed taking the AP Chem class even though it was definitely a challenge.</p>
Why don’t you just do what you want to? If you like bio more than chem, then take bio. If you like chem more than bio, then take chem. If you like neither, take neither.</p>