I am a freshman and I’m taking normal Biology. My school offers AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics (since I’m taking Calculus AB now) for me next year. Most students take AP Biology.
I am wondering if I should skip AP Biology. It seems to me that it is just a harder version of normal Biology. I am already going to skip Calculus BC to take differential equations as a sophomore though…
Your thoughts?
“Your thoughts?”
You’re going too fast. The goal of high school is NOT to keep taking harder courses until you fail.
I’m also a freshman, so I don’t really have any authority on the subject, but I think that if you don’t want to take AP Bio because you want to take a different class, I think that you should.
If you want to take a different science (or AP science), I think you should go with what you are most interested in and what you feel would be better.
You should not skip calc BC to take diff eq. They’re sequential classes. (Actually diff eq should come after calc 3-mulitivariable but yeah) If you take them at a college you can take calc 3 and multivariable in one year, idk about your high school. Calc 3 concepts only came up once in my diff eq class, BC was there constantly. We had one unit that was all about using series, which is something you learn in BC.
You don’t have to take ap bio if you don’t want to and it wouldn’t be helpful to your future major. If you want to continue in math you better take BC.
Well, *yeah, * AP bio is harder, and more depth and breadth than 9th grade bio.
Right now, you’re looking at this as a 9th grader, at your high school. Try taking a look at what some college targets expect in hs preparation (on their web pages.)
And since you want advanced math, can we guess an interest in STEM, in college? If so, don’t short yourself on hs science rigor. You’ll need to plan for all the cores, before jumping ahead in just math.
If I am unclear, by skip I mean learn all the material and then take the exam. So if I skip calc BC to take diff eq, I would still have all the knowledge to take the course. If multivariable is before diff eq, I can take that first or concurrently (my high school only offers up to calc BC, so I’ll have to go to a college to take it).
If anything, skipping AP Bio would lead to more rigor since after taking AP Chem and AP Physics, I would take a science course at a college. Colleges don’t expect 2 years of Bio. Harvard states they recommend 4 years of high school science. Stanford expects 3+ years of lab science. I think I would still fulfill these requirements, among others. I would still take AP Chem and AP Physics.
The point is if I’m learning Biology right now, and the AP course isn’t ridiculously hard, why should I take another year of it?
AP Bio is hard but if you’re more interested in another science, then do more of that.
Harvard and Stanford won’t use your logic. This is about the competition, who will have the 3 core AP lab sci, for STEM. Classes, not self study.
They don’t just go through a checklist, then throw darts. They will cherry pick and thousands of applicants will “have it all,” so don’t assume your own choices will reign superior. Especially not as a freshman, just starting to explore.
Just as a point of clarification, neither Stanford nor Harvard requires that all 3 core sciences be AP level. And while some successful applicants may indeed have taken all 3 science AP’s, that is not an item that is needed to move on to the next round.
@lookingforward is correct that these schools will not be impressed with self study, not for AP Bio, not for Calc. These schools will want its applicants to have taken as rigorous a courseload as possible withing the context of the offerings.
While these schools, and others, may have applicants that have advanced math and science classes, be aware that they are not a differentiator, and that these colleges are looking for students who have achieved things outside the classroom as well.
No, not “required.” But many kids miss that you’re positioning yourself among the competition who apply. Yes, you can get far. But what might stand out in your own hs, or seem a bold move, is being done by many others, across the country, even in your area. Likewise, many kids misjudge how ECs will be seen.
I’d be more comfy if OP were asking at the end of soph year/beginning of junior, with some ECs, more rigor behind him, grades, maybe scores, and some good ECs underway.
Or if this included summer school.
That’s all.
@skieurope So you mean it’s better to take the courses offered than to go to a college to take more/harder courses?
I don’t have many extracirriculars. I started a math team this year and I am trying to make AIME this year and USAMO soph or junior year. I am planning on doing student government, but where I live, the freshman school is separated from the other three years.
You don’t have to take ap bio if you’d rather take post-AP physics at the college. But, self studying Calc BC will not earn you any brownie points.
As would I.
No, that’s not what I’m saying. If you have exhausted the offerings in a particular subject at the HS, then taking college classes is fine. What I am saying is that I see no reason to self study HS classes to accelerate your level.
Additionally, and we are getting way ahead of ourselves here since you are a HS freshman and schools like Harvard and Stanford reject 95% of its applicants, but for many of these top colleges, going too far past the HS curriculum will not help you in college since you may have to retake the classes. At Harvard, as an example, it is almost impossible for an incoming freshman to bypass multivariable calculus/linear algebra and start with a higher sequence.
You need to take BC, then calc 3, then diff eqs. Math is sequential. Or, if you take it at the college, calc 2&3 next year, then whatever you want from their math offerings.
As for science, my recommendation for you would be to take AP physics1 at the high school next year.
Finally, make sure you’re in Honors English, Honors Social science/history, Honors foreign language, and that you have an art class.
Colleges want you in class, taking classes - not self studying.
Regarding ECs, those are crucial. So, work toward AIME, sure, but find something else (doesn’t have to be competitive) that you can be very good at.
@MYOS1634 I am in honors currently and also orchestra if that’s what you mean by “art”. I don’t think my school provides honors foreign language, and I am taking Chinese 2, although I am Chinese and I recently learned that looks bad on college applications.
So what I’m getting is I shouldn’t skip AP Bio or Calc BC, and instead I should focus on ECs.
^Yes, take BC. But rather, take AP Physics 1 next year. That leaves you with junior and senior year to decide if you want to take AP science or classes at the local college.
It depends what colleges you’re aiming for. Highly selective colleges prefer it if you learn a truly foreign language, but if you only knew how to speak Chinese but didn’t know how to read/write it before you took it at school you’d be okay. In any case for foreign language what matters is level reached, so you’d be expected to reach level 4 or AP in high school, or college level 3 or 4.
AP Bio is mostly molecular bio which requires a depth of chemistry knowledge. The sequence should be freshman bio - honors chemistry - AP Chem and or Bio. Lots of reading and lots of labs, not a self study course. IMO none of the AP science courses should be self study due to their lab content. My children took statistics and programming classes online to free their school schedules for lab classes.
*rather than AP bio, take …
so… AP Physics -> AP Chem -> AP Bio?
Most students at my school take AP Bio right after honors bio then AP Chem, so not sure how that works.
If you’ve already taken Honors Bio, the next two classes you need to take are Honors Chemistry and AP Physics1. Both are appropriate for sophomores.
Physics requires a good grasp of math, but you already have that. AP Physics 1 is a first level physics class.
After that, you can pick two from AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Physics C (or you can take 4 semester-long dual enrollment classes).