<p>I'm taking it this year (rising junior), and I heard it was one of the toughest courses at my school. If you've taken it, how hard did you find it? What aspect(s) of it did you find tough (for example, I think physics is tough because of the problem-solving skills needed)? Of course it's different for everyone, so I was interested in hearing about your experiences. Thanks!</p>
<p>Simply learning all of the vast curriculum. I had a bit of a problem with remembering plant structure, too. It’s a pretty easy course, though.</p>
<p>Not much about the class is that difficult, as it is an introductory course; the difficulty stems from the breadth of the topics you must cover in order to be prepared for the test. Like stuff from annelid development to transcription factors to secondary xylem, in other words. Don’t do what I did and learn 1/3 of the stuff that was to be on the test the week before the exam because my teacher was lazy - that sucks, but I did end up with a 5.</p>
<p>In other words, don’t worry too much about it :)</p>
<p>1/2 the test is on plants</p>
<p>after i found that out, the ap was a breeze</p>
<p>some of the concepts may be a little hard to understand at first (ahem Krebs Cycle) but if you go back into your textbook and reread it you should be fine.
by the way, i self studied this. just a fyi</p>
<p>I agree with some of the previous posters, the vast range of topics that AP Biology covers is very intimidating and also some concepts (something that comes to mind: neurons and synapses->how messages are sent, “depolarization and such”) are somewhat confusing.</p>
<p>However, you’ll notice there is a bit of “repeat and elaborate”, like in plants.</p>
<p>It’s simple to manage an AP Biology class, but it is pretty time consuming, I would say if you take AP Bio (and plan on doing well on the exam), to self-study or take a class and maybe cap your AP’s for that year to maybe four.</p>
<p>it’s funny because there was practically nothing about plants on my AP exam</p>
<p>the toughest part of AP bio is just the amount of **** you need to know.</p>
<p>Essays. The multiple choice is easy, because if you have enough Bio knowledge you can reason your way to the right answer. But some of those essays you just look at and haven’t a clue what to write.</p>
<p>I lucked out. I wouldn’t have gotten a 5 if the essays this year didn’t happen to be relatively easy.</p>
<p>Memorizing everything.
The plants unit was especially bad.
There are just so many things you have to memorize and know.</p>
<p>Am I the only one that picked up plants pretty easily? I thought animal systems and especially reproduction were much harder.</p>
<p>The most difficult part is trying to acquire a general knowledge of so many different subject areas. Either your teacher will try to cover each topic without spending enough time on them, or they will cover the topics that they think are essential while leaving ones out entirely. Regardless, I had to do a ton of independent studying, moreso than any of my other AP classes.</p>
<p>i don’t think that plants are hard, i just think they’re boring. i actually find animal systems interesting, so it was easier for me (since i wanted to learn about them)</p>
<p>I took Anatomy at the same time as AP Bio, so I already had background knowledge pertaining to animal systems. Plants weren’t too difficult except for plant reproduction. I barely went over Phyla because it was confusing and tedious; it’s probably what I had the most difficulty with.</p>
<p>There really wasn’t that much about plants this year… maybe it was just me, but there seemed to be a lot about DNA, electrophoresis, protein synthesis, etc. But the year prior the test apparently felt like AP Botany! I wouldn’t be suprised if human anatomy and/or phylogeny were big topics on next year’s exam… phylogeny :-(</p>
<p>The hardest aspect is definitely the memorization of so much stuff, but the thing is, if you actually understand what’s going on rather than memorize it, you’ll have no trouble.</p>
<p>except for ****ing plants. they suck.</p>
<p>Like everyone else said, the sheer amount of information WILL overwhelm you if you don’t prepare in time. Get the Cliffnotes studyguide, and make sure you start studying at least a month in advance. I had a 10 hour drive to Miami and I read the entire book on the way there a month before the exam, and then devoted whatever time I had during the school week to making sure that I was familiar with as many terms as possible. I got a 5 using Cliffnotes for the more detailed explanations and Princeton Review for a general overview.</p>