After taking Honors Chemistry Junior Year, What should I take

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I am a sophomore atm and will be taking Honor Chemistry next year in Junior Year. I have a goal to mantain a certain percentage which I think I could. After Completion of Honors Chemistry I could take AP Bio, AP Chem, Honors Physics, AP Physics, Honors Organic Chemistry. Which one out of those three should I aim for senior year, so I could aim to meet the requirement next year?? I've never taken physics yet and always wondered what it was like, but never have taken it.

What requirements? That would make a a difference, as I can't really tell what you're aiming for during senior year right now.

Originally Posted by Fuarky

I am a sophomore atm and will be taking Honor Chemistry next year in Junior Year. I have a goal to mantain a certain percentage which I think I could. After Completion of Honors Chemistry I could take AP Bio, AP Chem, Honors Physics, AP Physics, Honors Organic Chemistry. Which one out of those three should I aim for senior year, so I could aim to meet the requirement next year?? I've never taken physics yet and always wondered what it was like, but never have taken it.

I would go with either AP Physics or O chem. you'll have to take them in college and it wouldn't bea bad idea to have an idea of what these classes consist of before you take them.

I know at my school in order to graduate with honors you have to take physics. If that's something you want to go for, you might want to check with your guidance counselor to see if that's a requirement.

I would go with AP Physics if you're not interested in or already have experience in Chemistry or Bio. My chem teacher, who has a PhD (why she teaches at a suburban high school is beyond me), said that O-Chem is basically memorization. You probably won't remember most of the stuff by the time you take it sophomore year in college. Besides, it would help to have experience in each of the 3 main sciences before starting college. I'm probably going to do basic physics over the summer just to have a basic idea of it.

Of course, you have to be interested in physics somewhat to survive the class.

Also if your goal is to keep the GPA up, you might want to take ap physics senior year. It seems that a lot of people struggle with it, mostly because it's the most math intensive of the group. However, if you're good at math, a lot of people in my class struggled with ap chem.

Not wanting to start a similar thread I have a similar question:

At my school, it is a required pre-req to AP Physics to take a Physics class before so I cant do AP Physics. Would you guys recommend doing AP Chem or Bio and not have any backround in physics going into college or just take Honors Physics instead?

I would go for Honors Physics, personally. Having had some prior exposure will be useful when you take it in college. Or so I'm hoping, I'm taking Honors Physics right now largely for that reason.

Originally Posted by mrwiggles3

Not wanting to start a similar thread I have a similar question:

At my school, it is a required pre-req to AP Physics to take a Physics class before so I cant do AP Physics. Would you guys recommend doing AP Chem or Bio and not have any backround in physics going into college or just take Honors Physics instead?

I took AP Chem without any physics because of scheduling conflicts. Personally, I would take a physics class so you have that background going into college. It will help your grade and make the transition a little bit easier.

Originally Posted by Fuarky

I am a sophomore atm and will be taking Honor Chemistry next year in Junior Year. I have a goal to mantain a certain percentage which I think I could. After Completion of Honors Chemistry I could take AP Bio, AP Chem, Honors Physics, AP Physics, Honors Organic Chemistry. Which one out of those three should I aim for senior year, so I could aim to meet the requirement next year?? I've never taken physics yet and always wondered what it was like, but never have taken it.

I agree that it would be good to gain some exposure to physics, but I have a question - is AP physics at your school trigonometry-based or calculus-based? If it is calculus based, you should make sure that you are taking calculus in the same semester (or that you've already taken it). If it is trig-based, I would probably skip it altogether because it'll be a cheap version of what you take in college.

If you have to choose between AP Bio and AP Chem, I would personally suggest AP Bio. Most people re-take intro bio and intro chem in college anyway, and (in my experience), AP Chem was almost an exact copy of my first year chem course...which meant that I never went to class and probably got off on to a questionable college start. I didn't have that problem with into bio (I took both AP bio and AP chem, for the record). I'm not saying that will be the case for you, it's just something to think about.

Originally Posted by mrwiggles3

At my school, it is a required pre-req to AP Physics to take a Physics class before so I cant do AP Physics. Would you guys recommend doing AP Chem or Bio and not have any backround in physics going into college or just take Honors Physics instead?

I think it's worth going for honors physics unless you are really in need of an AP class for some reason. At my high school, AP classes were out of 5.0 while honors were out of 4.5, so some people loaded up on APs for that reason.

Originally Posted by URHere

I agree that it would be good to gain some exposure to physics, but I have a question - is AP physics at your school trigonometry-based or calculus-based? If it is calculus based, you should make sure that you are taking calculus in the same semester (or that you've already taken it). If it is trig-based, I would probably skip it altogether because it'll be a cheap version of what you take in college.

If you have to choose between AP Bio and AP Chem, I would personally suggest AP Bio. Most people re-take intro bio and intro chem in college anyway, and (in my experience), AP Chem was almost an exact copy of my first year chem course...which meant that I never went to class and probably got off on to a questionable college start. I didn't have that problem with into bio (I took both AP bio and AP chem, for the record). I'm not saying that will be the case for you, it's just something to think about.

It is Calculus based and I will be aiming to take AP CALC senior Year as well. As of Now I'm gonna aim for AP Physics B senior year. Great feedback guys.

thanks for all the advice guys

I agree with taking physics to get exposure. I think that helped me a lot with my physics classes in college. Even if you don't remember specific equations, to me doing physics is kind-of a different way of thinking and it helped to have experience with that. It took me a few months to get into a groove with physics in high school but it made jumping back into it in college so much easier.

AP chem, AP Bio get my vote personally as they are by far the most useful AP classes you take take for making your freshman year of college easy. If you understand AP Bio well, then you will get an A in Intro Bio 1 and Bio 2 with ease, likewise the general chemistry classes will be significantly easier if you've taken AP Chem.
In regard to Ochem in HS, well I know a friend of mine took a honors organic chemistry class in high school and it was truly just an over glorifed seminar on nomenclature and basic reactions that will be incompatible with a college level course. I.e something that you can learn in about a week of reading David Klein's Organic chemistry as a Second Language.
Honors Physics is a pleasant course, but you will take absolutely nothing from it into your general physics course in college, mostly because general physics in college is likely a 3rd year course, so by the time you take it you will have forgotten everything. Furthermore the theory component of the class is a joke and the mathematics is also relatively simple ( Unless it is a Calculus based class, which is not required unless you're going into chemistry or other physical science majors).

Also make sure you complete AP Calculus prior to beginning undergraduate, I recommend this as it will make a college calculus class very manageable. And in regard to AP credit and tests, there is no point in taking the Chem, Physics, Or Bio AP tests, as many medical schools will not accept them and if they do retaking them in college will obviously give you an easy A and a good start on your college career. For AP calculus you can take the AP exam as most medical schools I believe will accept the credit for that class.

Originally Posted by serenade

AP chem, AP Bio get my vote personally as they are by far the most useful AP classes you take take for making your freshman year of college easy. If you understand AP Bio well, then you will get an A in Intro Bio 1 and Bio 2 with ease, likewise the general chemistry classes will be significantly easier if you've taken AP Chem.
In regard to Ochem in HS, well I know a friend of mine took a honors organic chemistry class in high school and it was truly just an over glorifed seminar on nomenclature and basic reactions that will be incompatible with a college level course. I.e something that you can learn in about a week of reading David Klein's Organic chemistry as a Second Language.
Honors Physics is a pleasant course, but you will take absolutely nothing from it into your general physics course in college, mostly because general physics in college is likely a 3rd year course, so by the time you take it you will have forgotten everything. Furthermore the theory component of the class is a joke and the mathematics is also relatively simple ( Unless it is a Calculus based class, which is not required unless you're going into chemistry or other physical science majors).

Also make sure you complete AP Calculus prior to beginning undergraduate, I recommend this as it will make a college calculus class very manageable. And in regard to AP credit and tests, there is no point in taking the Chem, Physics, Or Bio AP tests, as many medical schools will not accept them and if they do retaking them in college will obviously give you an easy A and a good start on your college career. For AP calculus you can take the AP exam as most medical schools I believe will accept the credit for that class.

So for all colleges physics is taken in 3rd year of college??? If that is the case then I might take AP Chem or AP Bio and not AP Physics. What is the point of taking AP Physics if you take it in college 3rd year most likely all that information will be forgotten. If i take AP Chem or AP bio then I'll Be able to ace 1st year BIo or Chem classes in college. Need more information on this??? Obviously have long time to think about this and make decision

Some points to corroborate on serenade's post:

1. Agree with not taking the AP Bio/Chem/Physics exams. It's not even that med schools won't accept them, a lot of undergrads won't either because they want you to take "their" version of bio/chem/physics. For med school, they might accept it but ask that you take an equivalent number of upper-level credits in that department instead so you can demonstrate work done in college (eg, two upper-level bio classes instead of Gen Bio I and II).

2. I also agree with taking AP Calc and the exam. Some med schools accepted mine and some didn't (or accepted it but wanted to see college math too) but luckily the ones I applied to that didn't take the AP credit only wanted one semester of math. So I took stats which was a lot easier. This totally depends on your teacher, but my AP Calc teacher was amazing and I ended up using her notes for college physics when we did calc-related stuff instead of my professor's.

3. The value I got out of taking AP Physics that some people I know said they were lacking is, like I said in my other post, learning to think differently. You're probably not going to remember the specific information (at my school most people take physics second or third year) but knowing how to work physics problems was IMO invaluable. However this can also depend on your school. I took AP physics but had friends in regular physics and we would come in to our teachers' shared after-school review sessions and be doing the same problems. The only difference was that AP moved slightly faster and we had some extra worksheets/activities that went along with our AP calc class. So in that case I'd say honors would be helpful but it depends on your school - ask around? I didn't think my college gen bio was bad at all, just a lot of memorization. I think taking AP Chem would have helped me though because chemistry is my worst subject and it probably would have helped to be more familiar with the material. I think in any case you're going to be familiar with the material if you've taking it just the year before or a few years before, any of them will help and it will come back to you. I took honors chem in high school and a lot of that was similar to gen chem I, and I remembered that even though I'd taken it about 3 years earlier.

4. Not all college physics classes are not going to be calc-based/not all schools will not require calculus-based physics. Our regular general physics (for any science major or if you wanted to go to a science-related professional school) was calc-based. I think we might have a physics-for-dummies but it's like if you just need a science credit for the core and I don't think it has a lab. So just to point out that that depends on the school too.

Originally Posted by Fuarky

So for all colleges physics is taken in 3rd year of college??? If that is the case then I might take AP Chem or AP Bio and not AP Physics. What is the point of taking AP Physics if you take it in college 3rd year most likely all that information will be forgotten. If i take AP Chem or AP bio then I'll Be able to ace 1st year BIo or Chem classes in college. Need more information on this??? Obviously have long time to think about this and make decision

While taking Physics in your 3rd year of College isn't necessarily a requirement, if you're majoring in a Biological Science or Biochem, you'll most certainly have to take Gen Bio/Gen Chem your first year. I wouldn't recommend adding on General Physics to that. I personally took Gen Phys at the same time as O-Chem (Which by the way, O-Chem in HS is almost nothing like O-Chem at a University Level) and I had enough information to start studying for the MCAT in the entirety of my Junior year.

Originally Posted by crmellon

While taking Physics in your 3rd year of College isn't necessarily a requirement, if you're majoring in a Biological Science or Biochem, you'll most certainly have to take Gen Bio/Gen Chem your first year. I wouldn't recommend adding on General Physics to that. I personally took Gen Phys at the same time as O-Chem (Which by the way, O-Chem in HS is almost nothing like O-Chem at a University Level) and I had enough information to start studying for the MCAT in the entirety of my Junior year.

It's not a requirement, but the alternative is either Physics your second year or the summer in between second and third year. I personally don't think Organic chemistry + Physics is that great of an idea, if it's Organic 2 + Physics 1 then sure you can pull it off. However I couldn't imagine taking Organic 2 + Physics 2 at the same time, it would be much too bothersome.

Also almost every major university usually has a algebra based physics class that suffices the general requirements of medical schools. Calculus based will be unnecessary and usually be significantly more work and little gain as Mcat physics is only algebra based.

Originally Posted by serenade

It's not a requirement, but the alternative is either Physics your second year or the summer in between second and third year. I personally don't think Organic chemistry + Physics is that great of an idea, if it's Organic 2 + Physics 1 then sure you can pull it off. However I couldn't imagine taking Organic 2 + Physics 2 at the same time, it would be much too bothersome.

Also almost every major university usually has a algebra based physics class that suffices the general requirements of medical schools. Calculus based will be unnecessary and usually be significantly more work and little gain as Mcat physics is only algebra based.

I should've clarified that Organic and Physics were both taken my Sophomore year. I agree with you that Calculus based Physics isn't really necessary.

Originally Posted by crmellon

I should've clarified that Organic and Physics were both taken my Sophomore year. I agree with you that Calculus based Physics isn't really necessary.

No, I inferred that you took them at the same time, however it leads to a significantly more difficult sophomore year.

Originally Posted by serenade

No, I inferred that you took them at the same time, however it leads to a significantly more difficult sophomore year.

Wisdom. However, it led to a significantly easier senior year.