<p>The AP Physics class at my high school is known for being very challenging.. should I take the class, in my senior year, if I might end up receiving a C in the class? I think I can pull a B but I really am not too sure... FYI, I am aiming for top universities. thx. </p>
<p>I don't know.. maybe I can get a low B.. do you guys think that would be better than getting say a low A in AP Psychology?</p>
<p>Go with the one you will do better in. They are both APs, anyway.</p>
<p>Coming from a psychology major, go for AP Psy.</p>
<p>C's kill. Take psych.</p>
<p>Which subject do you like better?</p>
<p>If it were me, I'd risk it knowing I'd learn a lot in AP Physics. (Actually I'd learn a lot in psych as well, but physics appeals to my inner geek far more than psych does.)</p>
<p>AP Psych is considered the joke AP at our school, we avoid it like the plague.</p>
<p>It's your senior year. First semester is a LOT easier than second semester. I went A first semester and C second semester.</p>
<p>Take physics only if you are sure you won't have to worry about getting a D. It's your senior year. Your grades won't matter nearly as much so either go with the classes you're interested in or go for easy classes if you want to cruise through your last year.</p>
<p>The Harvard admission officer who came to my town for this year's Exploring College Options joint program actually gave an example (perhaps with a made-up name of a high school) of admission officers knowing very well if a particular high school's AP physics has notoriously stringent grading. If your question boils down to asking, "Should I take a challenging class, or an easy class?" the answer is to take the class that everyone knows is challenging at your high school. (Any class with any name can be either easy or challenging, depending on what local conditions are where you go to high school, but don't go out of your way to take easy classes. Admission officers make it their job to know where the hard classes are.)</p>
<p>OP: Don't take a course if you will get a C on it? It is not worth. It is much better to get a B or A in an Hons. course.</p>
<p>As I said before, getting a B (and even an A) first semester in Physics C is not THAT hard, but second semester is a different story. Second semester senior year grades don't matter unless you have like straight D's.</p>
<p>yeah take psych lol</p>
<p>and no one D will probably kill u</p>
<p>Don't do it. There will be plenty of time to take the same material you would get in AP Physics in college. The scenario at my high school is that the AP Physics teacher was brand new - a transplanted electrical engineer (any engineer can teach AP Physics, right? Wrong.) With a week to go before the AP test - he tells us we're 7 weeks behind and we'll be covering a chapter a day in electricity and magnetism. Great. I paid 80+ dollars to take that portion of the AP Physics test and I'm going to learn it in a week. In my school, no matter what ANYONE said, the GPA counted. My school does not weight grades OR give students taking a more rigorous academic load a 'weight' when deciding who the valedictorians would be. So, in hindsight - I would not have taken AP Physics.</p>
<p>How many of you have ever asked an admission officer this question? </p>
<p>Aiming for top universities? Hopefully you can do well in AP Physics then. Just a little something to think about. :)</p>
<p>I took Physics last year (junior year) and as hard as I tried, it was pretty friggin hard. It would be dumb of you to take the hardest class in the school your senior year. You never know what will happen. Maybe that C will turn into a D, and you are SOOL for college. </p>
<p>Take it semi easy during your senior year. A couple Aps (math and english) but no sciences you cannot be sure you will get a B or better in. GPA is more important than the class you take in this situation.</p>
<p>How about you take whatever interests you and let the grades fall as they may? People trying to game the system do so at their own expense.</p>
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GPA is more important than the class you take in this situation.
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<p>Does ANY college admission officer say this when asked the question directly? Of course the ideal situation is to get great grades in challenging courses, but I would like anyone who claims that taking easy courses to preserve a grade average (especially bailing out of whole important subjects like science) is better than taking hard courses that are known to be hard to PROVE IT. Who says so? What colleges suggest this strategy to their applicants?</p>
<p>TAKE PSYCH.</p>
<p>I took AP Physics C this year and deeply regret it. Sure, if you're good at it, go ahead. But it looks like you're in the same boat as me: decent but not great at physics. Really, it's too much work for not enough payoff. If you take Psych, your course load will only look slightly less impressive. Basically, I know admissions officers say that they want to see a difficult schedule even if it means worse grades, but when they say that, they mean honors and APs. The difference between TWO APs IMO is minimal...</p>
<p>how many years of lab science have you taken? Are you aiming for an engineering program? Can you take another lab science -- even AP Enviro? Can you afford a tutor?</p>
<p>IMO, the most difficult segment of Physics AB is occurs in the first semester. The second semester is much easier if you've completed trig.</p>