AP physics C or Ap Chemistry?

phobos
Mon, 29 May 2006 03:46:48 +0000

Quit lecturing him on the difficulty of the classes and stuff, I am pretty sure he knows that both are hard.

i wouldn’t be too cautious with the warnings…i’ve taken both classes, though not at the same time. chem AP last year and got a 5 on the test, physics AP this year (and a 5 is HIGHLY doubtful, not even sure about a 4). and i dont think i would be here had i taken both in the same year…i mean, this is high school, not masochism haha. your schedule’s a lot more structured thus locked down, and there’s lots of required homework, so the “you’ll be doing it in college” think doesn’t work as well.

Physics C seems impossible to get through more than one part of the course (Mechanical or Electricity & Magnetism). i mean…theoretically its possible if you do part of it over the summer, but it seems very unreasonable, at least if you want to do good in both. the content in Physics C Mech also seems a lot harder than anything i’ve ever seen in a science class. it’s mostly due to the fact that there are so many equations, and your ability to succeed relies on your ability to creatively (yes, i said creatively) manipulate them…you really, really have to understand equations, and every related equation. proofs for some equations? dont ignore them (not totally at least), they come back to haunt you. there’s no simple step by step procedures (ex: cellular respiration in AP Bio), or even a rough skeleton of how to solve something (ex: advanced titrations in AP Chem). so i guess you can see where i’m leaning…toward AP Chem. but, i’m just leaning that way. in my experience, there was less busy work in Physics because it relied more on logic than process memorization. that said, you still need to read up and do lots of practice problems (something i didn’t do much of this year that might have hurt me).

i think as long as you take a lot of APs, exactly what AP you took is almost a moot point to college acceptance people, even if you’re applying to the engineering school at a university. i had taken AP Bio and AP Chem (5s on both) but Physics wasn’t completed and obviously no AP score came in, and USC, UCLA, UCSD, and UCI all took me handily. given all were in state, but that’s not to say some of the schools i applied to weren’t competitive…