<p>I have a question about whether to skip the beginning two quarters of calculus and three quarters of gen. chem with ap calc and ap chem credits. My ideal major is chem. engineering.</p>
<p>I am thinking whether to skip and get a lot of space for other fun classes for freshman year or skip only the first quarter of both calc and chem and perhaps qualify for Early Admission for Engineering department(which if I don't get in I can still have a second chance with Upper Division Admission). Early Admission requires you take alteast 15 credits of pre-req classes at UW.</p>
<p>My S is in a similar situation – strong AP chem student planning on MSE or ChemE. He met with UW Chemistry Advising who strongly discouraged him from placing out of the intro chem sequence (142) and going directly to organic chemistry. The chem dept prefers that you take college-level intro chem before doing their organic chem. Note that there is a more rigorous Honors intro chem (chem145) if you want more challenge. There used to be an advanced intro chem 144 that was an intermediate level of rigor.</p>
<p>My S plans to do the chem145 sequence, which has a prerequisite of a 4 or 5 on the AP chem exam. </p>
<p>If you a chemistry student who did well in AP chem and has either taken one of the intro chem sequences or placed out of intro chem and gone directly to organic chem, then how did that work out – was the regular intro chem challenging at all after AP chem? How hard is chem145 or organic chem after a 5 in AP chem?</p>
<p>Similarly for math. You can certainly place out of intro calc (124) but there are also two tracks of honors calc (124H, 134). Honors Math 134, like honors chem 134, requires a 4 or 5 on the AP exam. Any students out there who had a strong AP Calculus score care to share their experiences with any of these intro calc sequences? Or, if you skipped all of these, how did that work out?</p>
<p>I am a freshman at UW and skipped the entire intro calc series. I got a 5 on the AB test and received credit through a community college for 126. At most, you can place out of 124 and 125, i.e. AP credit will not get you out of 126. I did not take 126 at UW but my friends who took it after only taking AB said the class was pretty hard (especially since the avgs were always pretty high). Unless you really enjoy math, I would not recommend taking the honors series, the class is very competitive and if you’re still trying to get into your major, you want to keep your gpa as high as possible. Also, the honor series starts with 124 stuff so a portion of it will be review.</p>
<p>Lastly, the AP Chemistry teacher at my high school who previously taught at a local community college strongly recommends that kids do not dive into O Chem.</p>
<p>Triseradad, you have given me a new option. I have heard organic chemistry is extremely difficult so the honors chem series will hopefully be good preparation. I hope someone answers for the calculus portion though. I want to know if I can skip the two quarters of calc with a 5 on Calc BC test.</p>
<p>Honors Chem is definitely an option. There’s “regular,” “advanced,” and “honors.” The advanced Chem (144) has a pace between regular and honors. You can always drop down to a lower chem series if you want. For example, you can start with Chem 145 (Honors) and if you feel like it’s taking a huge toll on you, time and/or GPA wise, you can take the second quarter of chem with the advanced class or regular.</p>
<p>For Math 126 (3rd calc class), you need to know basic integrals and derivatives. To be honest, it was the most straight forward of the 3 calc classes, at least for me. I had AP credit to skip Math 124 but retook it since I was a bit shaky with some of the later concepts.</p>
<p>Hypothetically, you should be fine with skipping calc… but it depends how confident you are with AB/BC material. Remember that you’re stuffing an entire ‘high school’ school year into 10 weeks. It’ll be a LOT more fast paced than what you’re used to and many of your classmates would be already settled in/transitioned into UW and the pace of the classes.</p>
<p>Since you’re still trying to get into your major… Grades can really go both ways. A friend of mine took Math 126 the fall of his freshman year (waived 124/125 with Ap credit) and got a 4.0. Other friends were failing calc (okay, well to get into competitive majors, “failing”) with 2.5s or 2.7s, which is just about or below average for intro courses. </p>
<p>My thought behind deciding what classes to skip is “better safe than sorry.”</p>