I just wanted to start this thread to see if anyone has any thoughts on AP Bio (difficulty, amount of homework, AP exam, is it worth it, etc) because I will be taking it next year as a senior. Also, thoughts on taking precalc versus algebra 3 if math is not something I am good at? Is it a really big difference to colleges? I have a feeling I would not do well in precalc. Thanks in advance for any information!
I love the class, no comment as to the AP exam yet lol
I didn’t know there was an Algebra 3 but personally at my school AP Bio is difficult but it just comes with the AP territory. As for not being good at math, you might just need to apply yourself more. Math is a pretty essential topic and once you get past/master the basics the rest will be intuition and skill. I guess which math you would take comes down to what you want to do in college. Most seniors graduate having taken calc if they wanted to do a STEM related major.
I am currenlty taking AP Bio as a junior and I love it! Hands down my favorite class ever! Not as hard as AP chem but not as easy as AP Psych. My teacher doesn’t give us homework, we just have lab write ups!
It honestly depends on how good your teacher is and how much time you’re willing to spend. My teacher was terrible and constantly gave us random quizzes that set us up to fail. He gave us mcqs and two essays to write for every two chapters and it was just ridiculously hard. If your teacher has a great reputation for actually teaching and you are willing to memorize/understand a lot, then I would take it the class. Haven’t taken the test yet but the format changed apparently.
What is Algebra 3? Does it go under another name?
the exam is a big troll job depending on what you expect, you need very little actual memorization of bio knowledge. Mostly interpreting graphs, drawing conclusions etc. I was lucky enough to get a 5 cause I’m naturally good with that stuff, but it’s more like the ACT science section than the tests your teacher will give you(i.e. explain the Krebs Cycle). For the free response you need to have some knowledge, but really only one of the FRQ’s last year required you to just say facts(the one on the immune system). Good luck!
The AP test was really hard. It was basically like the ACT science on steroids. Prep books were kind of useless (I used Barron’s). They reviewed all the concepts but didn’t help at all with the new style of questions. Use Bozeman science videos on YouTube! They’re much more helpful.
@MissSuzyQ it’s called algebra 3/trigonometry. Essentially it’s the same material as precalc but it goes at a little bit of a slower pace than precalc.
Thanks @TotallyTrudy @Chryse @biobabe101 and @schakrab for the replies! I’m definitely better at interpreting graphs than memorization so hopefully that will help. Is the class typically a lot of homework per night?
For me, the only homework we would regularly have were lab reports and guided notes that accompanied the textbook readings. It wasn’t a lot of homework, but it could take awhile.
Hey! So I took AP Biology freshman year, to my teacher’s chagrin (She did not want a freshman in her class).
Regardless…
The work load was a lot, I’m not even going to sugar coat it. A chapter could be up to 50 pages or as short as 15 pages, yet a single page in the textbook could equate to two pages of notes. There was a bunch of information available in every sentence. If you have a passion for science, it’s fun and isn’t something to drag your feet in.
We would have reading quizzes, with notes, and those were good checks to see if we understood the information. The tests were quite difficult, yet with memorization and understanding, it wasn’t hard to answer the questions.
I maintained a high A in the class with no background knowledge in biology whatsoever, and many people in the classroom also got A’s. My teacher was unfortunately TERRIBLE and she didn’t explain what to do for the exam and seeing as it was my first, I didn’t get a review book until two weeks before. It was awful. I studied like crazy and was going insane. I pulled off a 4. The exam was redesigned to ask questions in a more scientific manner, with not so much as memorization, a sharp contrast to the classroom tests. (Keep that in mind!!!) I felt the best part were the FRQ’s: the questions were so subjective that we all got many of our points that way. In fact, I feel that’s what got me from a 3 to a 4. Because the multiple choice was so overly subjective that it was almost impossible to be 100% sure the answer is correct, considering another answer could also make sense.
On a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 the most difficult, AP biology is an 8. In my school, we consider it the hardest AP class. Maybe it’s different in other schools, i don’t know.