Taking ap chem and ap bio in same year?

<p>10th grade:
0 per- span 2 (brought it to school)
Ap Bio
Ap Euro
H Math Analysis (trig and precalc, if u take it u go straight to ap calc b.c)
H Eng 10
Tennis Team
AP PSYCH OR AP CHEM?</p>

<p>Im not sure whether to take ap psych or ap chem in 10th grade. I am aiming for HYPM and heard for mit they wanna see ur ap exam score for bio, chem and physics so if i take dual sciences i can take ap physics b.c in 11th grade. I will then take ap psych in 12th. If i take ap chem in 10th my classes will be MUCH HARDER than if i take ap psych.</p>

<p>One of my my main e.c's is science bowl. During off season you stay like from 3:00-6:00 once a week, then it gradually goes to staying till 8:00 4 times a week and sometimes even later. We meet everyday over spring and winter break and study for hours, and even in summer.</p>

<p>What would you guys recommend since im not sure i want to go to mit?</p>

<p>Either
Ap Bio
Ap Euro
Ap Psych
span 2
H math analysis
H eng 10
Tennis Team </p>

<p>or</p>

<p>Ap Bio
Ap Chem
Ap Euro
span 2
H math analysis
H eng 10
Tennis Team</p>

<p>Tennis team ends at 4:30 maximum and i can do my h.w in span 2 so its like a study hall ;D. H Math analysis takes like 2 hours a day. Thank you so much, i have been contemplating this for weeks now...</p>

<p>THANK YOU SO MUCH! ;D</p>

<p>You don’t have to have taken AP bio, physics, and chem by the end of junior year. Normally, it takes people in the top track to the end of senior year to take all three. I took the equivalent of AP physics as a senior.</p>

<p>AP chem requires a lot of time–it’s probably best to have that as your only AP in science. </p>

<p>Also, I wouldn’t take AP physics until you ideally have had a least a semester of calculus. I don’t know what your school suggests, though. </p>

<p>Whatever you do, don’t take AP physics and AP chem at the same time. That is the hardest combination.</p>

<p>BTW, if you feel that you want to be more advanced, you are better off taking a summer class at a university or community college. I took bio at Harvard Summer School and it was a great class. Though I had a good background in bio, I hadn’t taken AP bio before I took it and still was able to get an “A”. So you would have sufficient background to do well in the class even without taking AP bio first.</p>

<p>I had 0 AP science scores when I applied to MIT. And I won’t be taking AP Bio. I don’t really think it’s that big of a deal.</p>

<p>Anyway, I currently find AP Chem pretty easy. I’m doing with AP Phys C, and there are some people doing AP Phys with AP bio, but I don’t know anyone doing Bio and Chem together.Bio here isn’t too bad either. But of course, the manageability of the classes entirely depends on your school, so I would suggest you talk to students there.</p>

<p>As a side note, I really enjoy chem homework, so I rarely complain about having to do it or consider it to be a burden. This may affect how I perceive the difficulty of the class and the workload.</p>

<p>The only reason to take both AP chem and bio is if you’re serious about the National Science Bowl. My daughter went to nationals with her team several years ago, bringing home a big check for the school, so I’m familiar with the preparation. In that case, those classes may be useful. You’re a 10th grader now, so you have two more years of competition, and as prep for that EC (regardless of whether you want to apply to MIT), your schedule makes sense. Except for the AP Psych class…just a waste of time, in my personal opinion.</p>

<p>Yes I’m 100% sure that you only take ap chem and bio together if you are serious about the national science bowl (System.out.sarcasm). I took both AP Chem and AP Bio in school last year (except I basically did all the chem on my own outside of school) and I self-studied for AP Calculus BC as well and got 5s all around. AP classes and scores will no nearly nothing for college admissions. I was the only person in my class to independently study two exams last year (Calc and Latin) and get the highest scores and it didn’t help me all that much. A person with a 3 on AP chem got into MIT instead of me (I was waitlisted, and I suspect that she got in because she was a she and wanted to major in a non-STEM field).</p>

<p>^ Perhaps you misunderstood my post, which was directed to the OP. His proposed schedule only made sense to me (both AP bio and AP chem the same year) if he was indeed serious about the science bowl. Otherwise, it just looks like AP padding in the schedule. And as you point out, loading up on AP courses doesn’t always work out, if college admission is the only goal.</p>

<p>I am taking both right now; it’s challenging but feasible.</p>

<p>Oh alright I understand now CalAlum I didn’t really read over the OP too carefully.</p>

<p>I took ap bio and ap chem together my junior year. i got 5’s on both. not bragging, just wanted to say it’s doable.</p>

<p>i’m a senior right now and i’m taking physics c (both mech and e&m), chem ap, cal bc, and stats. (and 3 other APs, 1 elective)</p>

<p>i took physics b, bio, and cal ab as a junior.</p>

<p>idk how important these things are for MIT… I never looked at the “recommended” courses, or whatever (I didn’t even know where I was going to apply to college!). I just took the classes I wanted to do (and thought I could handle) - you should do the same.</p>

<p>How do you know what’s doable? Is AP Lit Ap Latin Lit Ap US History AP Phys C Ap Chem AP Calc 1 doable all taken together?</p>

<p>AP Latin Lit is gone. Virgil is the only exam left. And yes that is a very doable schedule.</p>

<p>I doubled AP Chem and AP Physics B as a junior this year, but I personally would not make that choice again given the chance UNLESS I had a free period. The constant stress throughout the day really wears me down and right before APs I’m beginning to crash. It’s definitely possible, seeing as I’ve had a 95+ in both classes each quarter, making about a 96 average in Physics B and a 97 in AP Chem (probably one of the top 3 in my class of about 23 which includes seniors), but it’s SOOO stressful. It’s doable, if you don’t mind wasting a lot of your life in school (which for me includes ECs, but also leaves me almost no time over the weekend to do other things). Sorry, I’m ranting. If you wanna know more about doubling science PM me. Probably about 5 or 6 juniors in my school double AP Physics B with either AP Chem or AP Bio while another 4 or 5 double one of those three sciences with Psych. I’ve never met ANYONE who’s doubled bio and chem though (except one with AP Bio and HONORS chem)</p>

<p>On a side note… if you plan on taking the USNCO test, taking physics and chem together or physics first would be very helpful since I was able to apply some physics concepts to the chem questions on topics I hadn’t gotten up to in chem yet, giving me the highest score in our school (out of 3 kids that took it (well technically there was a 4th but he left after 20 minutes because it was too hard :P)… about 4 questions away from the cutoff out of 60 damn).</p>

<p>This year I took AP Chem and Advanced Physics (which my teacher even said would be the equivalent of AP Physics B). It was a challenge, that’s for sure. I also think it was worth it. My AP Chem teacher was a lot tougher than my physics teacher, but neither were a walk in the park.</p>

<p>If given the opportunity again, I would do it, despite my drop in GPA, because the information I gained from both classes was invaluable compared to taking the next level of Latin (which can be easily done during the summer).</p>

<p>So yes, if you feel that it would be a good experience for you and you can talk with kids who have taken either class in the past and feel comfortable with it, then I say go for it!</p>

<p>Studying Virgil is not a summer’s work. It’s hard stuff.</p>

<p>Sorry, haha. I agree studying specific poets/orators is not easy. I meant learning the more basic stuff, like subjunctive and such.</p>

<p>Last year I took AP Chem and AP Phyiscs B and this year I’m taking AP Bio and AP Physics C. For a sophomore, I wouldn’t recommend it, but as a junior or senior I think it can be very helpful and help prepare you for college, where you will most likely take more than one science class at a time.</p>

<p>I took AP bio and chem concurrently in 10th grade–while it was challenging, those were two of my favorite classes, and taking them together was fun because they occasionally presented similar information from two different angles. I got home by 6 or 8 pm every day, though, so I’m not sure how that would work out with science bowl.</p>

<p>AP Psychology is a fun class, and significantly easier than chem (at least for me). If you want a workload and a flood of new information, take AP chem. If you want a more relaxed atmosphere and more intuitive material take AP psych. Both are fun to study, though.</p>

<p>I would stay away from AP physics C until after you take single-variable calculus, though. I took AP physics C concurrently with calc BC, and while it was fun to see how the two supplemented each other, I had to constantly be a month or two ahead of my calculus class to keep up with physics. I didn’t take AP physics B, but I’ve heard that it is not nearly as math-intensive.</p>

<p>I’m sure taking AP Bio and AP Chem together would be doable…and maybe even beneficial, since there is a bit of overlap (especially in the beginning of bio w/ all the macromolecule stuff). </p>

<p>If you want to load up on your APs for an impressive resume, I might even recommend taking AP Statistics, since it’s fairly easy and doesn’t require upper-level math.</p>

<p>Whatever you decide to do, I don’t think AP Psych would the best idea idea. It’s a ton of reading, and you already have Euro as a reading-intensive class. Plus, Psych generally doesn’t look quite as good as Chem or Stats, if that’s what you’re looking for. </p>

<p>Hope this helped!</p>