Classes to take as a pre- med high schooler

[Strivetosucceed]

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Hi guys,
I am currently a sophomore registering for what classes to take next year as a junior. I can't decide if I should take 3, 4, or 5 AP classes. I am also in the marching band and various clubs-- which takes up quite some time.

Here's what I am thinking:
AP Calculus AB
AP Chemistry
AP Literature
AP Biology
AP US History
Band

Is that too much to handle? Should I go from AP US to regular US History?
Thank you so much

 

[Maygyver]

You should be fine. Go for it. Tough classes build character.

 

[EyEnStein 07]

Since this is probably your first time with AP's i dont recommend you taking 5. Why take AP Bio and Chemistry at the same time? Take one junior year and one senior year. As far as history goes keep AP US history. It will be useful come time for college credit. Assuming your school has good passing rates with the teachers, you should be ok with the AP's. Make sure you study alot, these are not easy classes, and dont fall behind. The reason i tell you not to take AP bio and Chem is because unless you have fairly good background in them, all of the courses may be too much for you to handle.

ON the other hand, if you feel you can do it then by all means, go for it, it looks good.

 

[Pepipanda]

I'm in the same situation(sophomore registering for classes), but I've already turned my form in.

Here's what I'm taking:

AP American History
AP Bio
AP Calculus BC
Chinese 1 (a new class at my school)
English 11 Honors
Wind Ensemble
Psych (sem. course)

I could have taken 4 AP's (AP Spanish), but I switched to Chinese because it would be easier, more interesting, and better for my GPA.

The AP's I took were because:
Math- I've been in honors since 7th grade, I'm good at/like math, and it's got a really good teacher
Bio- I love Bio, I've heard the teacher is good, and I did great in honors freshman bio
History- This is my worst subject (at least this year), but that's with a hard teacher and it was my first AP class. I figure that, if I can pull a B in my first AP with a hard grader in not-my-best-subject, the next year shouldn't be too bad. Plus, I've heard that AP American is easier than AP Modern Euro. This was the only one I was on the fence on for a bit.

Basically, it depends on the teachers, how much work you can handle, what interests you, and what else is taking up your time.

Also, just because I'm curious, which classes would be your first to downgrade? (since you said you were wondering about taking as few as 3 AP's)

 

[Strivetosucceed]

Next year would not be my first year taking APs.
I have heard that in order to apply to most of the accelerated medicine programs, you need to have taken AP chem, AP bio, AP physics. and i have to take all those in 2 years, so one year i would have to double up on my sciences. i chose to take 2 sciences in junior yr cuz after all, colleges look at that yr the most. Also, i enjoy bio and chem-- NOT PHYSICS!! so thats why i am taking physics senior yr.

to answer pepipanda question, the thing is, i might/would have gone down from AP US to Honors US, but the State of CA passed a new law cancelling all honors classes. so i would have to go down to regular-- where usually the non- motivated students exist. btw, what state do u live in? do u get PE credit for marching band? i used to get it until the past year, but again, CA passed a law cancelling PE credit. so if our district doesnt win in the opposition, i might have to take PE as well.

 

[EyEnStein 07]

Next year would not be my first year taking APs.
I have heard that in order to apply to most of the accelerated medicine programs, you need to have taken AP chem, AP bio, AP physics. and i have to take all those in 2 years, so one year i would have to double up on my sciences. i chose to take 2 sciences in junior yr cuz after all, colleges look at that yr the most. Also, i enjoy bio and chem-- NOT PHYSICS!! so thats why i am taking physics senior yr.

Now i understand. Sorry about that. In this case, if you enjoy chem and bio, then taken them. Im sure you will do fine. Your schedule will work out great, make sure you take Physics B instead of C, because you might find it easier if you already have your calculus background (physics B doesnt use calculus, but im sure you can use some tricks that end up helping your overall score). Also you might want to just look over some basic review stuff for physics in the summer when the time comes, if you have trouble with it.

Also just to clarify, i dont think you "need" to take it but its recommended. After all there are many highschools schools in the US that do not offer Ap chem, bio, physics, calculus, and students from those schools have equal opportunity.

I'm in the same situation(sophomore registering for classes), but I've already turned my form in.

Here's what I'm taking:

AP American History
AP Bio
AP Calculus BC
Chinese 1 (a new class at my school)
English 11 Honors
Wind Ensemble
Psych (sem. course)

I could have taken 4 AP's (AP Spanish), but I switched to Chinese because it would be easier, more interesting, and better for my GPA.

The AP's I took were because:
Math- I've been in honors since 7th grade, I'm good at/like math, and it's got a really good teacher
Bio- I love Bio, I've heard the teacher is good, and I did great in honors freshman bio
History- This is my worst subject (at least this year), but that's with a hard teacher and it was my first AP class. I figure that, if I can pull a B in my first AP with a hard grader in not-my-best-subject, the next year shouldn't be too bad. Plus, I've heard that AP American is easier than AP Modern Euro. This was the only one I was on the fence on for a bit.

Basically, it depends on the teachers, how much work you can handle, what interests you, and what else is taking up your time.

Also, just because I'm curious, which classes would be your first to downgrade? (since you said you were wondering about taking as few as 3 AP's)

If chinese will help your GPA then its fine. Its not like you have to take AP spanish BUT beware that, if you cant pass a foreign language placement in college, some colleges (annoying) will ask you to take 2-4 semesters of a foreign language. in this scenario, AP spanish will help you if you pass that Ap test.

Just to give my opinon, AP Euro is supposed to be easier than AP USH (us history)...I believe they both have equivalent content in terms of multiple choice, however the dbq's i think the Ap USH exam is more demanding in what you write.

To say something about psychology...perhaps if you like the subject, and you find it easy, get a AP Psychology review book. It is said to be one of the "easier" AP's and if thats the case, you can take your honors, just go to the department in your highschool that handles AP's and request to sign up for AP Psych. If you can again pass it, it will only help you when you go to college.

 

[Pepipanda]

If chinese will help your GPA then its fine. Its not like you have to take AP spanish BUT beware that, if you cant pass a foreign language placement in college, some colleges (annoying) will ask you to take 2-4 semesters of a foreign language. in this scenario, AP spanish will help you if you pass that Ap test.

Just to give my opinon, AP Euro is supposed to be easier than AP USH (us history)...I believe they both have equivalent content in terms of multiple choice, however the dbq's i think the Ap USH exam is more demanding in what you write.

To say something about psychology...perhaps if you like the subject, and you find it easy, get a AP Psychology review book. It is said to be one of the "easier" AP's and if thats the case, you can take your honors, just go to the department in your highschool that handles AP's and request to sign up for AP Psych. If you can again pass it, it will only help you when you go to college.

I figured that Chinese will be an easy "A" course (I've been learning it at home for a year and a half) and, if I have to take a language in college, I think I'd rather study that one.

As for history, I've already turned in my course registration form, so I'm (likely) in the class. I have also heard that both the AP Euro teacher and the AP US history teacher get you very ready for the AP exam. In fact, there are even rumors that the AP Euro teacher has failed kids who got 5's on the AP (I don't believe that, but if it were C's and 4's...)

Anyway, main point: My school only offers one, 1/2 credit semester course in Psychology, and it's not honors or AP. I just picked it because it sounded interesting.

 

[fabricated]

Don't take all of them in one year! Unless you think you really could handle it. I think you should split the AP Chem and AP Bio between next year and Senior year and take the AP Calc and AP Lit, or choose between those. I think they would sound better on a transcript than AP US History, although it is still an AP but math, english and science APs will probably look better. I say one science (probably should do Bio first) and the math and the english... only the history if you really think you can handle the tough schedule. You never want to overdue it, plus, you can always take other APs as a Senior.

 

[bigwill11205]

Are you crazy? Why would you take 5 AP classes in one year? I don't recommend that you do this at all. First off, both AP Bio and AP US require a TON of reading. If you want to have a life junior year, don't take both; take one or the other. I recommend that you take only 2 AP classes at the most each year.

By the way, Calculus and Physics go hand & hand. <-- Just informing you.

AP Chem is very difficult. <-- More info.

 

[ar2388]

Are you crazy? Why would you take 5 AP classes in one year? I don't recommend that you do this at all. First off, both AP Bio and AP US require a TON of reading. If you want to have a life junior year, don't take both; take one or the other. I recommend that you take only 2 AP classes at the most each year.

By the way, Calculus and Physics go hand & hand. <-- Just informing you.

AP Chem is very difficult. <-- More info.

AP chem is not that bad!! lol
also i have known many many MANY people who took 5 AP's in one year. it is doable however it depends a lot on the person too. are you willing to work hard for all those classes? I happened to come from a high school where we took many electives during our last 2 years so we never had shortened schedules like many senior highschoolers do.

 

[Crazyday]

AP chem is not that bad!! lol
also i have known many many MANY people who took 5 AP's in one year. it is doable however it depends a lot on the person too. are you willing to work hard for all those classes? I happened to come from a high school where we took many electives during our last 2 years so we never had shortened schedules like many senior highschoolers do.

I'm taking AP Biology, AP US History, Advanced Chem, and AP Physics B all at the same time (4 block schedule) right now.

I think it has little to do with natural aptitude. A pretty big part of it is your work ethic, but I think the biggest part of it is your attitude. If you hate a class for whatever reason, you won't retain the information from it as well, you won't try as hard (or you may end up trying even harder just to keep up), and you'll do worse.

If you like all the subjects and can really immerse yourself in it, then not only is studying it interesting and stimulating, it's also a lot more productive. It sticks a lot better and you can take it from many different angles rather than just a straight memorization.

It's not really that difficult if you like it and approach it from the angle that it isn't hard, that it isn't better than you, that you can beat it.

Back on topic, colleges like to see that you challenge yourself as best as you can, that you are academically motivated. Taking a lot of APs, specifically the more difficult ones (as opposed to AP psych. for example), will look good on applications, particularly if you can do excellent in all of them.

Personally I'm taking all AP History courses (AP US, AP World, AP Euro) and AP English Lit. to get those reqs out of the way, and most colleges don't accept more than so many credit hours, so that's about all the AP I can really use for college credit. The rest is just to challenge myself and play into my learning interests.

 

[pressmom]

One word about Chinese in college if you aren't Asian and didn't grow up hearing it in your home. Many of the people who take the Asian languages in college are first generation Americans and have some working knowledge of speaking the language at home and just take the class to learn reading comprehension. When I took Arabic in college, many of the people in my class were Muslim and had grown up speaking the language in prayers at least (some were 1st generation Americans or even grew up in the Middle East) and their speaking ability was FAR beyond my own, but they lacked depth of reading and writing comprehension. This made it hard for me to keep up even though I started in the lowest level class. Just some food for thought!

 

[Pepipanda]

That's actually the contrasting stories of my parents right there. They both took Chinese in college, before they met.

My dad took it because it sounded hard and had no previous experience with it. He really struggled with that class, which, apparently was when he found out he was pretty tone deaf and had a lot of trouble hearing the difference between the 4 tones in Chinese. Although, he does cite it as a very valuable experience in his life and ended up doing a minor in East Asian Studies, specializing in China.

My mom, on the other hand, had parents who immigrated from China, so she learned Chinese first (although she didn't, as far as I know, retain all that much of it), and just took the course as a way to get foreign language requirements out of the way and become somewhat literate in Chinese.

She was like your first example, and my dad was like you.

I'm hoping that my experience from being in Chinese lessons from ages 3-5, hearing my grandparents speak it to each other all my life (although with no comprehension) and now being taught weekly by my grandmother for the last year and a half (which I will be continuing) will help. Also, I will (assuming everything works out) have been taking the language in high school for two years by the time I get to college.

 

[huskerdye]

You'll be fine with that schedule, as long as your a pretty good student..

 

[NonTradMed]

If you think you can handle it, take as many honors/AP classes as you can get your hands on. This will prepare you for college and for medical school in many ways. The more science classes you take in high school, the bigger advantage you have in college when they curve everything and you have to fight with others for the A you need to get into med school. You will also develop good work habits that will be especially helpful in medicine, but also in life. Good luck.

 

[Silverman780]

Here is my opinion:

I only did four my jr year and I was fairly sure I was going to lose it during the AP Test weeks.

With that number of classes I don't see how you could possibly keep up with the studying especially at at finals and your review weeks.

I would really really really really, recommend looking at this years test schedule online and seeing how close they are to each other.That schedule didn't change to much from last year, and this will give you an idea for how you would have to study in May.

PLUS if you do all this and manage to succeed, you will be starting college at the sophomore chem and bio. Between your senior year and college freshman year chances are you won't retain that much. ( I hardly remember any of the Calc that I did last year) But I would really recommend doing the math and science classes senior year.

 

[Danbo1957]

My daughter took four AP course each of her Jr. and Sr. years - figure she had two hours of homework for each AP course. She graduated in the top 5% of her class at an exellent high school.

Here's where it paid off: she received 15 college placement credits before her freshman year, that's a semester right there. She received academic scholarships for each semester throughout college. She had her choice of the best professors (she got the class schedule that she wanted), and she graduated cum laude in 3 and a half years.

Taking all those HS AP's really made a difference in preparing her for college, well worth the extra time and work.

 

[Hazel Eyed Kate]

AP classes are great preparation for college courses. However, I wouldn't overload your schedule either. Perhaps you can take some AP courses during your junior year, and save the rest for senior year. As a general 'rule' for students aiming for a scientific major during college, it is best to take as many science and math courses as possible. Likewise, be sure to make some room in your schedule for 'fun' courses and activity involvement; colleges seek out students who are well-rounded. Hope this helps! Best of luck with the years to follow! 🙂

- Kate