<p>D1 is enrolled in a top high school in our state and started AP Biology as a high school junior two weeks ago. She has sailed through honors Biology with straight A without much studying, so we did not have expect her to have problems with AP Biology. In addition, her teacher is an extremely tough grader. </p>
<p>Every day she comes home in tears. Yesterday was the worst…her teacher gave out examples of good quiz answers and bad quiz answers. And the teacher used her quiz answers as a bad example; she was mortified. (My understanding was that the teacher did not mention her by name, but she was mortified all the same, especially when the whole class laughed at the bad example.) D1 is a sensitive and shy girl as well.
(We’ve fired off an irate letter to the teacher and cc:'d the GC , but that’s another story…)</p>
<p>She is beginning to lose her strong interest in biology. I am wondering if those of you on this forum who are biology or bioengineering majors can share your experiences. Does struggling in AP Biology in high school means a person is not cut out to be a biology major or relegated attending to a less competitive school? How do we determine whether it’s the pace/depth of the subject material being taught, or the teacher, that is causing her to lose interest?</p>
<p>If she struggles with High School AP Bio it is not going to get any easier for her in college.</p>
<p>AP Bio will help her with her first couple of College Bio classes (general biology), but beyond that it will only become more difficult. If she struggles with AP Bio she will probably get crushed by college level Organic Chemistry.</p>
<p>That being said, if she truly loves Bio maybe she just needs to study harder. I think a person of average intelligence can learn almost anything, as long as they dedicate the time and desire to learn, practice and study the subject.</p>
<p>You have to ask her the question, why is she struggling in AP Bio?</p>
<p>No, I don’t believe that struggling in an AP class necessarily means that she’s not cut out to be a biology major. Nor do I believe she <em>has</em> to take AP biology in high school in order to be a successful biology major in college. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.</p>
<p>If your daughter has not had to work hard before because not much was demanded of her, but now her course does demand hard work, then that is probably a factor in her difficulties, to which I’d say: welcome to the club. It’s a hurdle that most really smart kids have to face and she’ll have to deal with it sooner or later, and <em>maybe</em> given who she is she’ll be in a better place emotionally and maturity-wise to deal with it later. </p>
<p>But there could also be other factors with this particular class and teacher. I’m appalled at what the teacher did assuming your description is accurate. I mean, I’m personally all for giving honest, unsugar-coated feedback, but there’s a way to do it that’s positive and builds a kid up and there’s a way to do it that’s just plain mean. I support your getting involved with this. Worse than moving ahead on a path that she discovers later she’s not really cut out for it would be being dissuaded from following a path that would be very rewarding for her, just because some unempathetic bozo unnecessarily crushed her spirit at a fragile time in her life.</p>
<p>Hope everything works out to your satisfaction (both of you).</p>
<p>Your daughter absolutely does not need AP biology in order to major in biology in college. (In fact, Chemistry is probably a more worthwhile foundation, if you had to choose.) AP biology might help with her general college biology course by giving her a framework and increasing her familiarity with key concepts. However, even if she gets an “A” in the AP course, there is no guarantee that she will pass the AP test at a level high enough to get credit to bypass the general biology course in college. Many colleges want you to take their own course anyway. </p>
<p>My daughter entered college this year after taking numerous AP courses. In general, I think AP courses are vastly overrated. Often they teach to the test and bear little resemblance to what a student would actually do in the equivalent college course. As far as I’m concerned the only reason to take an AP course is to save some time or money by entering college already with some credits, or to escape the dumbed-down level at which many high school courses are taught. </p>
<p>Your daughter’s difficulty might very well be due to the teacher. It would be most unfortunate if that teacher killed your daughter’s interest in biology. My daughter took a summer chemistry course at one of the top prep schools and the mediocre teacher nearly killed her interest in chemistry. At her regular school the next school year, she took honors chemistry and her teacher did succeed in killing that interest, even though she finished the course with a high B. That same year, she had a pre-calculus teacher who almost destroyed her motivation to continue in math. She passed the course with a C, but took it over to get a better foundation for calculus. She went on to get "A"s in both AP calculus and AP physics, but she wouldn’t go anywhere near another chemistry course. Partly as a result of this, she shifted from a longtime interest in majoring in molecular biology.</p>
<p>My point is that if the difficulty is due to the teacher, it doesn’t necessarily mean your daughter is not cut out for biology and it’s not worth killing her interest in biology to stick it out with that teacher. If your daughter’s teacher is that bad, can she switch to another teacher, drop the course, or take it with a different teacher next year? Also, could she possibly take general biology at a community college instead if her high school permits that option? </p>
<p>The exaggerated fear of “being relegated to attending a less competitive school” often keeps kids from taking an alternative course of action in these situations, but if it’s an unworkable situation with this particular teacher, she will recover more easily from switching teachers or courses than she will from a low grade. And, at least her interest in biology might survive intact.</p>
<p>She can most definitely major in bio without AP. Moreover, I do not think any student should dismiss a major because of one bad course/experience. So often it can be attributed to other things (the quality of the instruction being one important one). </p>
<p>To look the bright side, she might learn something quite valuable in this class even if she does not do particularly well. Moreover, it is better to learn how to work through a course struggle in HS than college; it is a common experience and its good to learn the world doesn’t end because you are having a hard time in a course and there are many many things one can do to overcome it (change study habits, try to work with classmates, hire a tutor, go on line for resources, study the text before class, and so on). Learn to learn when the going gets tough. </p>
<p>It is still very early in the semester, and much can change throughout the year. The best thing I would do as a mom is be encouraging, downplay it so its not a ‘big deal’ (so she isn’t constantly in tears), focus on using it as an opportunity to learn how to overcome a tough course and pick up additional study skills for college, and assure her it does NOT mean she’s not cut out for biology (or anything in particular) because of one bad experience in HS with one particular teacher. Seriously, its true!</p>
<p>Wendy, your daughter’s teacher meant this good vs bad examples to be a lesson for the general population of the class and probably didn’t mean to single out the students who prepared them. Clearly enough of her class answered similarly to your daughter that the teacher thought that it was worth sharing.</p>
<p>Bad news, high school biology is not a good predictor of biological sciences in college and beyond. If your daughter is less interested in biology in high school, it may have to do with her disliking a teacher, possessing a different learning style, not liking the specific material being covered or any number of other reasons. Until your daughter is exposed to the professional practice of biology whether it is via medical research, clinical practice, environmental lobbying etc she won’t know if she likes the field. I would suggest she look into applications of biology via shadowing or internships. My lab has had local high school students do projects in the past.</p>
<p>AP BIO definently helps, but it is not required. I had a horrible AP BIO teacher who told me i should settle for nursing. I ignored her and am premed. I was in the bottom of her AP BIO class in high school b/c she was incompetant, now i am number 3 out of 30 in my College bio class.</p>
<p>AP biology is a great indicator of how well someone will do. The content is not the point. The point is the style of learning - memorization. If it is not quantitative, it is memorization. Does your daughter have the ability to sit down for 5 hours to memorize a book and still possibly fail because she memorized the wrong thing? Or would she rather do a few (and really a few, like only 15-20) problems per week per class and KNOW that she’ll pass in a quantitative major? I suggest your daughter look at quantitative majors, they might be better. There are numerous, here’s some as a sample:</p>