Should I take the following AP courses to prepare for my engineering degree?

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
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<p>I'm thinking that I want to be an engineer when I grow up. I am currently a rising senior. In my schedule I have a lot of AP classes. Some aren't exactly math/science, but most are. Does anybody know which of the following best suits or follows an engineering degree in say chemical or civil or environmental engineering? Here is the list to me which are the best to study for:</p>

<p>--AP Calculus BC
--AP Chemistry
--AP Biology
--AP Environmental Sci.
--AP US Govt.
-AP Macroeconomics</p>

<p>I am thinking I should study the most in calculus and chemistry but I am unsure. Also, could you please give a brief description of each course and its difficulty, and what you did to get a good grade in the class/ap test ?</p>

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<p>Just my opinion…</p>

<p>in order of most important 2 least important
calc bc, chem, environ sci, macro OR us govt, biology</p>

<p>all the courses you mentioned will play a role though</p>

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<p>Calc BC, Chem, and Macroecon should be great for you. Most schools require humanities/social science electives and economics usually fits that categories. You probably won’t get anything for US Gov. as an engineering major. The only reason I don’t mention biology is because I see right now that it may not exist in the curriculum. I don’t understand why, but I have friends going into engineering that don’t have biology anywhere. (this is also personal experience since I am engineering and did not receive bio credit in my program).</p>

<p>Don’t strain yourself just the three and maybe bio would be great.</p>

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<p>Thanks you guys. I will focus on those courses the most.</p>

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<p>calc chem and econ are you major ones I’d say. hope you are a math person because AP Chem is a whole lot of math.</p>

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<p>I beg to differ with the above post. AP chem does have math in it of course, but the math isn’t even precalc level. What’s hard about the class is the concepts, especially since you don’t actually learn WHY some of them are true.</p>

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<p>Is physics c offered at your school? you’ll have to take cal-based physics as a basic degree requirement and you can pass out of it with physics c. real good credit to have from what ive heard.</p>

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<p>Yes, physics c should be on every engineer’s AP arsenal</p>

<p>It’s good that you’re trying to take a variety of AP exams, but still I don’t think AP US Gov. or AP Biology will really help you as an engineer</p>

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<p>I have to agree with all of the above posts. AP Gov might help with a gen ed, but it is not nearly as important as the others. I am actually looking into the same engineering fields as you and am a rising senior. This year, I’m taking: AP Calc BC, AP Chem, AP Physics B & C, AP Stats, AP Eng Lit, AP Latin Vergil. So, for engineering, Calc and Chem (because of the engineering you’re looking at) are great. But, as above posters were saying, Physics is a GREAT course to have if it is offered (especially Physics C). AP Env Sci may help, but honestly I don’t think it is going to do much. Macroeconomics would be good because of the usual econ requirement. Good luck!</p>

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<p>I am hesitant to agree with this. In my AP chem class, it wasn’t uncommon to see two page calculations on labs and such. Yeah, you don’t really need to know calculus, but a lot of the other students were making errors in the algebra or just going slowly overall on calculations, which was significant on the tests and labs. I think introductory chem is more concept based, AP chem is more about solving problems using these concepts and a lot of math.</p>