AP biology credit

[chess_king]

I got a 5 on the AP bio test and my school is giving me 6 credits (2 courses) in the introductory biology courses.

I am majoring in chemistry, so I could not take any additional biology courses at all. The problem is that I do not feel that I learned much in my AP course.

I do not want to take courses which I already have credit for, but I need to do well on the MCAT. Should I learn biology by taking upper level courses as electives, or should I just learn the material through independent study?

Does anyone else have this type of problem? The AP test which I took required very little biology knowledge. My essay question was "describe the difference between exponential and linear growth" and a multiple choice question was "is this graph increasing or decreasing". So everyone that could read and knew algebra got 5's.

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[Enkindu]

I got a 5 on the AP bio test and my school is giving me 6 credits (2 courses) in the introductory biology courses.

I do not want to take courses which I already have credit for, but I need to do well on the MCAT. Should I learn biology by taking upper level courses as electives, or should I just learn the material through independent study?

I was in the same boat. Take upper division courses- they'll help with the MCAT and with med school later on. Genetics, molecular bio, micro, anatomy, etc.

Any decent MCAT prep course will help you fill in the basic bio gaps before the test.

 

[ElKapitan]

I would take the easy A in the introductory Biology course, since you did well on the AP course. Don't get me wrong, it is great to take upper level biology, but overall it doesn't really help for the MCAT (at least in my humble opinion). Most of the MCAT seemed to be General Biology level stuff. Furthermore, it is good to take an easy A from time to time, especially if you have a heavy course load.

 

[musiclink213]

i got a 4 on the AP exam when i was in high school. Take some upper level bio classes, the med schools will really want to see htem if you got AP credit. Genetics, cell bio, physiology, something to show you can handle college level science courses.

another thing you gotta be careful about taking intro bio over again, your school may not let you do that. i know mine didn't, because it's like doing a course retake and you're only allowed to take over 2 courses that you took at the university. you can't retake transfer courses, which is what AP credit is considered.

 

[bloHaZaRd]

Also, some med school won't accept AP bio credits and will want higher level bio to fulfill their requirements.

 

[Darko]

Also, some med school won't accept AP bio credits and will want higher level bio to fulfill their requirements.

I earned 5s on AP Chem and AP Bio and took different paths with them. I skipped intro bio and went on to genetics, molecular bio, and biochem. In chemistry I ended up taking gen chem & orgo.

Let me tell you, take the credit!! I didn't miss a thing by skipping Intro Bio. Doing gen chem over again was sooo boring. Plus, you may not need upper Biology for the MCAT, but you will use it in med school. I know Bio majors who basically skated through M1 because of their great bio background.

 

[myodana]

i would definitely take a cell/molecular bio course (warning though, it's probably going to be tough -- the one at my school was the weed-out course for bio majors and premeds), and possibly a genetics or biochem course. both of those will help you a lot for the mcat (though they're not required), and since you need a year of bio for med school anyway...
i had ap credit too, though i was a bio major.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

Also, some med school won't accept AP bio credits and will want higher level bio to fulfill their requirements.

Yes! I wound up having to take two undergrad bio classes while in grad school for economics for exactly this reason. It will help you on the MCAT and you won't have to worry about which schools will take you.

Take biochem (probably required for your chem major, anyway?) and anatomy or genetics or microbiology.