I’ve heard people say that AP Biology is beneficial to someone who plans to major in biology because it refreshes your memory (from 9th grade bio) and I’ve heard people say that it’s useless because the college credit doesn’t factor into anything if you’re going to be learning biology for 4 years…
I suppose it’s useless, assuming you took a sufficiently rigorous biology previously.
If you take AP Biology and attend a college that awards credit for AP exams, you should be able to get credit for their introductory biology class and take a higher-level class in your first semester.
I suppose taking a placement test might do that, too.
You can look at the websites of colleges and see if they’ll give you credit for AP Biology. There is no general rule. But I wouldn’t say it’s worthless.
As a bio major, you might as well take it since you’re interested in the material.
AP Bio for a biology major is about as useless as AP Physics for a physics major.
Unless you really want to take another class, take AP Bio. It makes sense since you plan to major in Bio.
I was a biology major in college, and I’m not sure I understand this argument at all. AP Biology isn’t useless (and this is coming from a biology major). If your college accepts AP credit for biology, then you can skip intro biology and move onto more advanced courses. This can have a number of potential benefits in college: it could help you graduate earlier, it could give you more room to take classes of interest or more advanced classes, or it could allow you to take a lighter courseload (which can give you more time for other things–socializing, joining clubs, working, doing an internship, volunteering, etc), just to name a few. And even if you don’t get credit or you decide to retake intro biology in college, then having previously taken AP Biology will make the college class a lot easier, which is always nice. Having an easier time in the college class will give you the ability to dig deeper into the material, will give you more time for your other courses or for other activities, and will provide you with a GPA boost.
And, I’m assuming, since you want to major in biology, you have an interest in the subject, so taking AP Biology shouldn’t be too much of hardship =D Is there a reason why you don’t want to take AP Biology? If it’s something like a scheduling conflict, then that’s a decent reason not to take the class, but if it’s just because you don’t think it’ll be useful, then I have to disagree with that.
Take AP Biology. If you can not get credit or are encouraged to retake it in college by your advisor, then consider it a vacation during class. You already know the material. The prof will just be doing the reviewing for you. (Ohh, the labs)
@baktrax I am looking forward to taking AP Biology, it’s just that I was having some doubts about the usefulness of taking for college credit. Now that I see the benefits, I’m wondering why I had doubts in the first place 