Which class is less difficult and/or time intensive, AP Chemistry or AP Physics 1?

Next year is my senior year and this is my schedule so far:

AP English Lit and Comp
AP European History
Anatomy and Physiology
Spanish IV

and then online on virtual high school I’m taking:
AP Calc AB

So I want to take an AP science class on vhs as well. For me its between Chem and Physics, as those are the courses I am most interested in taking. However, I’m starting to become worried about my workload and stress next year. I had signed up for Chem originally but I only just recently switched from my school’s regular calc class to the online AP one. Now I’m picturing myself doing schoolwork every night for hours and getting no sleep at all. I also play soccer which takes up a lot of time, and I do marching band, which I’m considering quitting in order to maintain my sanity during the fall.

So, between AP Physics 1 and AP Chem, which is less work, less stress, and less difficult? I’m not trying to be lazy, as I am challenging myself already by taking one of these courses at all. However, I want to be able to sleep 8-9 hours a night and have a small amount of free time. For some background, I already took both an honors physics course and an honors chem course junior and sophomore year. We had a much better teacher for physics and we covered a good chunk of the material, whereas for chem we spent most of the time doing random and pointless presentations. I excelled in both, and enjoyed them equally.

So, if any of you have taken one/both of these courses or have any knowledge about them, which one do you suggest I take? Thanks alot!

It very much depends on the school. Ask former students.

Also depends on the teacher. Some require much more supplementary work than others.

It all depends on you and the school/teacher. I have students breeze thru AP Chem and totally bomb with AP Physics 1. If you are comfortable with algebra and lots of calculations, AP Physics I will suit you better. AP Chem will deal more diverse topics and the calculations are nowhere as difficult as AP Physics 1. That said, due to the sheer volume of material AP Chem covers, some students could slack off for a week or two and never catch up for the rest of the course. Just don’t take both of them together for sure. If you are good with algebra and comfortable with math problems, stick with Physics. Just a reminder though, to get a 5 for AP Physics I is very challenging (just 5%), in fact 58% of students took the AP Physics 1 test in 2017 got either a “1” or “2”. AP Chem has better distribution for the 3, 4, and 5 for the 2017 test. JMHO.

Can you take something else for AP Euro? It might be time intensive as well.

Have you already taken chem, bio and physics in high school?

I don’t really have to take AP Euro. If I didn’t, I would probably take band again as an elective (which I took freshman year) or just take a study hall. However, I don’t think I scored well on my APUSH exam at all and I want to get my history credit. I also don’t want to only specialize in math/sciences as I don’t even know if that’s what I want to go into. I also know the teacher for Euro, because he is the same teacher I had for APUSH, and I already know what the workload will be like (not too heavy).

Yes, I took honors bio freshman year, honors chem sophomore year, and honors physics this year. We didn’t learn much in chem, and I don’t remember much from bio, but I feel I have a strong grasp on physics due to my course junior year.

Check the AP policy of the colleges you are interested in to see if and what credit they give for AP Euro.

And if you already took honors bio, chem and physics, and A&P counts as a science class, you could just take that instead of AP physics and take band.

I’m not sure whether Anatomy and Physiology counts as a science but I know that it doesn’t count as a “lab science” in my school. We are only required to take 3 lab sciences (in which we had an extra period per week to complete labs) but would colleges know the difference or care about the fact that my fourth year sceince isn’t one? I don’t think my school would regard the online ap physics/chem courses as lab sciences either but the ap curriculum does include labs and colleges probably know that. I don’t reall know though.

Do you want to apply to highly selective colleges where you need the “most rigorous schedule” designation by your guidance counselor?

Then you would need to make sure you take the highest level course offered at your school in all core academic subjects like math, English, science, social studies, and 3-4 years of foreign language.

But if not, then you can take the classes you want and match your interests, as long as you satisfy high school graduation requirements.

What does your guidance counselor say about your schedule?

Also is A&P related to your prospective college major? If you have satisfied all graduation requirements with your science classes, it might make sense to take something related to your major, for example my D was interested in pharmacy and had already taken all required science with lab classes in HS, and decided to take Biochemistry senior year.

Unfortunately I honestly have no clue what colleges I want to apply to, and I really have no idea what I would life to major in. I can’t even definitively say I want to go into sciences, to be honest. For now I guess I’m just trying to explore whatever does seem to interest me at the moment and then see how I feel next. I might even go to a community college for my first two years of college if I really can’t decide (I can go for free with the NJstars program). My guidance counselors don’t really care, they don’t really do anything to be honest. So for me, this is why I think it comes down to difficulty and interest.

Drop A&P and take AP physics1.

If you have good test scores, don’t go to community college first since full tuition scholarships are for freshmen only ( and so for your last two years you’d be full pay).

TCNJ, Rowan (for science), Rutgers honors are all good possibilities. And then you have all the LACs in the Mid Atlantic that have food scholarships.

What are your test scores and GPA? Do you know your EFC?

I got a 1340 (out of 1600) on my SAT my first try, which I know isn’t good but I did this without doing any studying. I got a 720 on english and 620 on math. I plan to study math this summer and raise my score (hopefully to about 1450) by taking it again this August. I actually don’t know my GPA but I know that I’m second in my class (I don’t really care about my rank though and my rank will probably drop after next year because people are making their schedules easy in order to raise their ranks). My parents are pretty set on me going to community college because of the nj stars but you do bring up a good point. I don’t know if my sat score is high enough for good scholarships though and I’m not taking any subject tests. By the way I come from an extremely tiny and quite poor public school that has very bad education so even though I’m at the top here I probably don’t compare to other students from better schools.

@stressedgirl21

Don’t fool yourself @stressedgirl21 , you did very good with a 1340. I think with the recent trend of high competition in schools, so many students are pressured into believing that they need to get into high calibur schools which by necessity require very high sat scores. Many schools trash any applicant with less than 1450 and I understand their need (supply/demand). I was once duped into believing that lie but I’ve learned my lesson and I believe the best way to select your 10 is to aim yourself with your sat higher than their 75 percentile. This ensures that you won’t be killed with stress from their rigor level, as well as placing you in the view of getting some merit-awards for your academic level. College (to some degree) is what you make of it while you’re there. Good luck.

Is band important to you? How would you feel about having to drop it?