<p>ha i have 25 in my AP chem class, its the largest class she’s ever had. our class is all juniors and seniors, i bet u sophmores are smarter, a 4 on the exam! thats incredible!</p>
<p>IF it’s possible to take honors chemistry and ap bio at the same time, and hold off chemistry for one more year, it’s a great idea. I took honors physics and honors chemistry the same yaer, and then took ap chemistry the next year. Honors really introduces you to stoichiometry so that you don’t have to fret with that in AP and can just get the concepts down. It makes for a much more enjoyable, as well as meaningful, AP chem experience. That’s my suggestion.</p>
<p>AP chem doesnt require labs but the Ap chem test has questions on the “suggested” Ap chem labs that ur supposed to do. You can always just read about the labs though, like what they are to test and how they work etc.</p>
<p>AP Chem requires labs. They are asked about on the exam and you need to know how to do them, what equipment to use and what it measures, and the procedures. You could just read about them, but they are taken for a grade, so if you feel like getting an 85 because you didn’t do the labs, go for it.</p>
<p>I did the Honors Chemistry then AP Chem thing and it worked out really well especially since it is the same teacher. This year I doubled up on science w/ Honors Physics and AP Chem (no AP physics class is offered).</p>
<p>I got hosed by AP Chem. I’m a soph right now and I’m taking it, and it is a TON of work. And I’m really good at math too, it’s just that I unluckily suck at basically every science. You need to really pay very close attention in class otherwise it’s over. I made that mistake first term, and I’m trying not to repeat it. I’m the only soph in my school taking it, but in my school you’re supposed to take normal/honors chem before taking AP chem, but I took chem over the summer and passed their placement test. But it obviously wasn’t a good measure of preparedness for AP Chem. I’ve heard that AP Bio is one of the easier AP classes. I’d recommend that your kid takes AP Bio and Honors Chem (or regular chem) and then if he likes chem, he can take AP the next year.</p>
<p>michelec- How are thing going for you? I guess I am going to be doing the same thing (AP Chem/Physics) next year? Is it too much work? How are you handling it? How are you understanding it?</p>
<p>I’m doing Ok. The math sections are hard, but the teacher does a good job explaining the problems. I think Physics is easier though because its more of just concepts and formulas and in Chem you really have to understand equations. Practice stoichiometry now, it’ll pay off! thats what i struggle with the most. i have an A in the class so I’m doing great. ne other ?'s let me know :)</p>
<p>Michele</p>
<p>I’m a junior taking both AP bio and AP chem. I would reccomend for your son to take honors bio and honors chem sophmore year if he wants to take two sciences. That’s what I did and it worked out well. AP classes are meant to be college science classes, and college classes assume a year of high school science. Taking an AP science is possible but definitely difficult because the AP textbooks like Zumdahl for chem don’t spend a lot of time on the basics. </p>
<p>As for AP bio vs. AP chem, chem is a lot of math problems while bio is mostly reading. Both classes have a lot of labs although I would say the bio labs are more complicated and interesting. I would strongly disagree with anyone that says bio is all memorization. Bio is mostly about understanding various processes. There isn’t that much memorization (with the exception of taxonomy and classification).</p>
<p>Can you take AP Biology with first having regular or honors chemistry?</p>
<p>Depends on your school. In ours you just have to have Honors Bio first and probably a certain level of math, but then again there are always excpetions.</p>
<p>AP Biology is definitely heavy of memorization. Collegeboard always says they like processes questions and trends but that’s crap, they ask specifics. You will have to know detailed systems of photosynthesis (pigments, Calvin Cycle, etc.) and organisms such as plant structures (like know what the Casparian strip is) as just a sample.</p>
<p>With that said, AP Chemistry is still harder, definitely if talking about concepts. If you think stoichiometry is hard, wait until you get to equilibria and kinetics. The majority MC problems and almost every FR questions ask for calculations, many of them hard if you haven’t had them explained in detail.</p>
<p>At my school the standard for science students is to double up on Chemistry I-Honors and Biology I-Honors sophomore year. Then you usually take AP Chem or AP Bio your junior year (they are both double blocked at my school) and then the other your senior year (don’t forget to throw in Physics I/AP Physics too). Having taken both honors courses will really help you later on. For chemistry you will have the basic concepts and just need to expand. For biology you will cover the surface of many of the AP Bio topics. The difference is though is that the content of AP Chemistry covers a lot besides Chem I and sometimes AP Bio seems just like Bio I although I have to admit AP Bio would be a lot harder if I hadn’t had Bio I as a base. I made an A in AP Chem my junior year and a 5 on the exam, and I’m currently making a 98 in AP Biology and should easily make a five.</p>
<p>^^^^^^
cool username</p>
<p>Im a junior and have a 98 in ap chemistry. It isn’t that hard of a class, and your math skills don’t have to be great. My test average in honors algebra II was like a 73, the type of math in ap chemistry or chemistry in general is different from any math class that you take. I would recommend ap chemistry b/c i’ve heard ap bio is ridiculously difficult and requires a ton of memorization where as in ap chem you don’t have to memorize much if you understand the concepts, which all make logical sense.</p>
<p>(I hope you realize the thread is almost 5 years old)</p>
<p>bumping old threads = lame</p>
<p>On a side note, you don’t need to take a chemistry course before AP as long as you’ve had exposure to the elements, compounds, and the idea of 8 valence electrons at some point during middle school.</p>
<p>It depends on your strengths.</p>
<p>Chem AP was easier for me than bio honors (I took chem AP sophomore year). Bio AP is alot of memorization.</p>
<p>If you’re self studying AP Chem you need to have the labs in order to skip the college course. </p>
<p>If you’re son is very strong with math then he should be fine in AP Chem. But speaking as a sopomore in AP Chem, I would not recommend taking it without any prior chemistry course/knowledge.
AP Bio varies from school to school. My school has a very intense workload so AP Chem was the obvious choice. Does your son have all his prereqs down? As far as I know you can’t just jump into an AP science course.</p>
<p>Oh geez. Who was the idiot who bumped this thread up?</p>
<p>Epic fail @ necro…</p>