High School Senior Year Science Courses?

[Laurenn9]

I am an aspiring physician and will be premed in college. Currently, I am a junior in high school and have taken Geoscience, Biology, and Chemistry. I have to sign up for the classes I wish to take during my senior year. I have a few options: Physics, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, or Anatomy & Physiology. I don't care which "looks better" for colleges, but rather which of these classes would prepare me the best for future science courses? I am leaning towards AP Chem because I have heard that Chemistry courses are generally the most challenging science classes for premeds (or so I've heard) and my previous chemistry teacher didn't teach very well. Taking AP Chem would give me an edge over other students, as well as a solid foundation before grades and gpa for med school start to count. But in this scenario, I would be going into my college Physics class blindly, never having taken a high school physics class before. But some people have said that it doesn't matter too much. So I guess I'm wondering which course would help me the most in the long run?
I'm sorry. This post is ridiculously & unnecessarily long...

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[that redhead]

Take what interests you. Any coursework taken before college has the potential to be helpful, but many other students across the country have access to these same courses, so you won't necessarily have an edge over others. And remember, most intro level courses like physics and chemistry will essentially start from scratch anyway. It may benefit you to have seen the material once already, but you can still succeed without having taken the courses in high school.

 

[feli_owl]

I think AP Chemistry helped me the most in my first year of college. It was a lot easier going through my college chemistry classes already knowing my polyatomic ions, solubility rules, equations, etc. In my college, all of the chemistry 1 concepts and some of the chemistry 2 concepts were previously taught to me in AP Chemistry, so I felt ahead and confident in class

 

[PapaGuava]

I think AP Chemistry helped me the most in my first year of college. It was a lot easier going through my college chemistry classes already knowing my polyatomic ions, solubility rules, equations, etc. In my college, all of the chemistry 1 concepts and some of the chemistry 2 concepts were previously taught to me in AP Chemistry, so I felt ahead and confident in class

I wish i would have done AP Chem haha

 

[STLbamf]

AP Chemistry for sure! And I took College Physics and am very happy I did, AP Bio was okay too but you don't need too much prior exposure to the subject to do well in college. Anatomy and Physiology can wait. Chem and Physics are really conceptually/quantitative so getting ahead in those would rock

 

[Arayh]

It also can depend on what you want to get credit for and place out of in your first 2 years of college, and on top of that, if you do place out of it, what medical schools want in terms of pre-requisites concerning AP credit vs. college credit. I posted a long post on this on another thread in this forum, here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/which-ap-classes-to-take-for-junior-senior-year.1050257/

Taking AP courses ALONG WITH getting a 4/5 in the AP exam will show colleges that you are a stronger applicant. If you're applying to high tier undergrads or Ivies, then most of the applicants you are competing with will have several APs under their belt.

If you can handle the AP courses + AP exam, then take the courses (or if you want to be competitive for higher tiered undergrads). Not only will the course give you some good background for undergrad, especially if you're planning on taking Gen Bio/Chem/Physics...etc.

*Note that some high schools won't teach the same material/won't teach it as well as others. For example, one high school may be rigorous so kids getting a B in AP bio end up with 5's in the AP exam, while another school may not teach it well, and students who get an A in the course, end up with 3's on the Exam. So do NOT use your grade in the AP course to judge your knowledge base. You MUST take the exam if you want to see how well you actually know the material. Make sure you use review books along with your class notes to supplement your knowledge to what the AP EXAM wants you to know, not what your high school teacher wants you to know.

Furthermore, without the AP exam, there's no point really to take the course besides maybe an introduction to the course material. Of course colleges will then look at your transcript and see the course but no AP Exam grade and wonder what happened to you.

But for Med School purposes, AP courses may not satisfy the course requirements as pre-requisites for applying. Like I said earlier in the thread, make sure you look at the med school's website to see what they say about AP courses as pre-requisites. I know that for many schools, if you place out of Gen Bio pre-requisite with AP bio, they will want to see harder 300-400 biology courses to supplement your Bio pre-requisite.

Finally, Med Schools don't really care about what undergrad you go to, so you can go to any undergrad whether it's an Ivy or a lower tier. As long as you have a good GPA and a good MCAT score supplemented by your ECs.

However, I will say this, going to a higher tier undergrad myself, compared to some of my friends who went to other schools, I found myself working less when preparing for the MCAT to achieve a good score, because the higher tier undergrad really taught me the material in depth and helped me retain it. Especially for you guys taking the 2015 MCAT with Biochemistry.

 

[starkidbee]

I wish I had sucked it up in high school and taken AP Chem - I am terrible at chemistry, so I took AP Physics instead so I could 1) be with my friends 2) not have a bad grade on my HS transcript and 3) avoid the torture that is chem (to me, at least, and to a lot of my gen chem I class). Looking back - horrible decision. AP Physics didn't do anything in terms of preparing me, since I had two years between senior year and Physics I and II and by then I had to essentially relearn the concepts anyway. I struggled immensely in Gen Chem and Orgo, mainly because it took me so long to understand the first few weeks of class that I was playing catch-up the entire year, in which case that extra prep from AP Chem would've been a lifesaver (and freshman year sGPA saver...).

But regardless of what class you choose, don't focus so much on the AP exam itself, focus on learning the concepts. It's quite possible your college won't let you place out of your pre-med reqs, especially if you choose a science major, so even if you get a 4/5 on the exam you'll only be tacking on extra class credits that you don't really need. Those concepts, though, they can save your grade and your sanity those first few weeks/months as you adjust to college life.

 

[Mesinan]

I think AP Chemistry helped me the most in my first year of college. It was a lot easier going through my college chemistry classes already knowing my polyatomic ions, solubility rules, equations, etc. In my college, all of the chemistry 1 concepts and some of the chemistry 2 concepts were previously taught to me in AP Chemistry, so I felt ahead and confident in class

You didn't learn those already in general chemistry?

 

[feli_owl]

You didn't learn those already in general chemistry?

I'd say that high school chemistry covered a fourth of Gen Chem 1, while AP Chemistry covered all of Gen Chem 1 and 2 (so far from my experience). Although high school chemistry helped, AP makes a big difference.

 

[moisne]

I slept through almost every chem class in college. My saving grace was bc I took ap chem. this is actually true for physics as well hah

 

[ncamc]

i didn't take much time to read the previous posts, but if there is some intro to orgo/biochem class at your high school, take it. i did during my senior year of hs and it made organic and biochem SO much easier. just having that initial exposure to the concepts made a big difference.

 

[xroc]

Take all the AP classes you possibly can in high school - you'll thank yourself later. As to which are more important than others, that's highly debatable as some people are naturally better at some subjects than others.

 

[crimsonkid85]

The variation in American high school education is astounding. I remember I took AP biology and AP chemistry as a sophomore and AP physics as a junior. Since when are these senior science classes?

 

[SweetBurger]

Im in 10th grade I take honors chemistry and it is probably the coolest class ever. Definitely helps that my teacher was a researcher at Harvard and Columbia as he is very knowledgeable. Anyways I picked up a AP chemistry review book and I knew most of the info in it already and I couldn't find any questions that were that difficult.

 

[moisne]

The variation in American high school education is astounding. I remember I took AP biology and AP chemistry as a sophomore and AP physics as a junior. Since when are these senior science classes?

If I remember correctly, my 8th grade cousin just finished calculus

 

[jshlaferman]

Hi guys, I know this thread responds to an aspiring physician, but I plan on going into dentistry and am trying to decide which classes I should take next year which I'll be a senior. For a science I will either take AP Bio or AP Chem, probably AP Stats and AP Calc, English and maybe a fourth year of Spanish? Any help for me that could help influence my decision about me classes next year? What classes will help me in my prereqs for dentistry in college? Thank you so much guys for any help.

 

[moisne]

Hi guys, I know this thread responds to an aspiring physician, but I plan on going into dentistry and am trying to decide which classes I should take next year which I'll be a senior. For a science I will either take AP Bio or AP Chem, probably AP Stats and AP Calc, English and maybe a fourth year of Spanish? Any help for me that could help influence my decision about me classes next year? What classes will help me in my prereqs for dentistry in college? Thank you so much guys for any help.

Take them alllllll - haha

Prob chem&calc if you are good at math - otherwise biology/stats