<p>^^^ My D is a freshman in Engineering at Berkeley. She followed Berkeley CoE’s advice for kids who scored highly on APCalcBC, looked at some of the old exams posted online, and decided that she was rusty enough to warrant re-taking second semester calculus. She is in Calc 1B now, and it is presenting plenty of challenge. She is finding gaps in her HS preparation, and stuff that she has just plain forgotten. She may end up with an A in the class, but she will have worked for it.</p>
<p>D is also taking Berkeley’s Chem1A, repeating HS Chem AP, because the CoE warns:
She is finding the lecture part of the chemistry class to be almost entirely repeat, and the HW is easy for her, but the labs are a struggle. Her HS didn’t have block scheduling, so they were able to do only the most minimal lab work in the 55min class period. Chem1AL is teaching her lab skills that she’ll need in subsequent classes.</p>
<p>Her HS only offered PhysicsB (non-calculus based physics), so that AP earns elective credits but does not fulfill any CoE requirements. Ditto AP Statistics. She took credit for her English, foreign language, and humanities APs, which fulfills the majority of her breadth requirements. That has both advantages (skipping out of basic humanities classes one might otherwise find boring) and disadvantages (narrowness of college curriculum, and the prospect of many semesters of all STEM classes). Yes, it’s true that passing out of basic-level humanities opens space for possibly-more-interesting electives later on, but she is concerned about jumping into those classes w/o adequate background and having to compete with classmates who have more inclination and experience with college-level writing.</p>