Tips, facts and everything in between.

[JustK]

Hey guys, so its that time of year to sign up for classes. I will be a junior.

-What do you think of this schedule? Will it be do-able? Do you have any class suggestions?

AP Bio
Physics
APUSH
Pre-calc
Stats
CPAL
Spanish 3
*plus 2 other smaller classes

-This is also the year for ACT; How would I go about studying for that? If you could, rate how hard the ACT is. Tips and suggestions would be nice.

-If I plan to take the med school route (which I am planning on), can someone explain how the "Pre-med" major works for college? I heard its not a major, but you still say your going into pre-med, so I am kinda confused on that.

Thanks for any information. If anyone has any good websites that they found helpful going through there highschool years, that'd be nice too.

I appreciate all the help.

Have a great day!

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[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Hey guys, so its that time of year to sign up for classes. I will be a junior.

-What do you think of this schedule? Will it be do-able? Do you have any class suggestions?

AP Bio
Physics
APUSH
Pre-calc
Stats
CPAL
Spanish 3
*plus 2 other smaller classes

-This is also the year for ACT; How would I go about studying for that? If you could, rate how hard the ACT is. Tips and suggestions would be nice.

-If I plan to take the med school route (which I am planning on), can someone explain how the "Pre-med" major works for college? I heard its not a major, but you still say your going into pre-med, so I am kinda confused on that.

Thanks for any information. If anyone has any good websites that they found helpful going through there highschool years, that'd be nice too.

I appreciate all the help.

Have a great day!

Well your schedule seems kinda hard.. dont overload yourself. The ACT isnt difficult, however its long, i recommend you practice for it before hand. Pre-med isnt a major its a status, you take on the roles of taking the classes : o-chem,physics,chem,bio,math(stat or calc),english(comp + litt will be best). These classes will prep you for the mcat and suffice the requirements for medical school requirements. Other then that you can major in whatever you want, i personally am a psych major with a concentration on psychobiology. I personally just left high school last year after doing 3 years and completed ap bio and ap world credits. The thing about AP science classes is they are hard and much harder then the college version, mostly because they have stupid regulations; such as writing your own lab books and spending like 5 hours preping for the lab and other *****ic things which are for the test and not helpful for overall life. Regardless your in high school, try to have fun and maintain a good gpa so you can get some scholarships from schools you apply too and worry about pre-med summer of senior year .

Also i applaud you on taking spanish 3 keep on taking it as it will be a very big help in your future career choices. Also 2 maths at the same-time in high school is going to be the kiss of death for you. I wouldn't recommend taking it even in college especially since stats and pre-calc are both heavy fields and both teach you many new topics such as trig and sigma tests which requires a lot of attention.

 

[MilkmanAl]

The thing about AP science classes is they are hard and much harder then the college version, mostly because they have stupid regulations; such as writing your own lab books and spending like 5 hours preping for the lab and other *****ic things which are for the test and not helpful for overall life.

I completely disagree with this assessment. AP courses are definitely the most difficult things you'll take in high school, but the course work in college comes twice as fast (a semester rather than a year), and the labs are more time-consuming. Just about all of it is "not helpful for overall life." Get used to that.

Anyway, that schedule looks pretty intense. How do you go about fitting 9 classes into a high school day?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I completely disagree with this assessment. AP courses are definitely the most difficult things you'll take in high school, but the course work in college comes twice as fast (a semester rather than a year), and the labs are more time-consuming. Just about all of it is "not helpful for overall life." Get used to that.

Anyway, that schedule looks pretty intense. How do you go about fitting 9 classes into a high school day?

Honestly AP bio kicked my ass harder then taking BIO + college at the sametime. The labs for AP bio are much more time consuming, having to write your lab book + being given problems which honestly were written hard as hell. In the end the class was prepping you firstly for the AP exam and secondly to be prepared for upper level biology. I more or less took AP bio to give me prep for college biology, it gave me a good prep and i was very ready. But i doubt it would have been very prepared for a higher level biology course which i would have taken in college.

Just my 2 cents

 

[MilkmanAl]

My AP labs were scheduled for 2 hours, while my college labs were usually at least 4. The lab reports for college needed to be longer and more detailed. The test questions were probably about equal, but again, you had to learn it all in a semester instead of a year. There was no comparison for me.

AP courses are not designed to prep you for upper level courses at all. They're only to get you an introduction to a topic. That'd put you at early intermediate (sophomore) level at best.

Oh, I forgot the pre-med major thing. Very few schools do actually offer a pre-med major, for some crazy reason, but usually the way it works is that you major in whatever you want and make sure you take all the pre-requisite courses for med school admission. Those include chem through Organic 2, Physics 1 and 2, some random bio classes, some math, and sometimes some other stuff.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

same my ap bio labs lasted 2 hours, about the same as my bio lab 2 h 30min, 30min prep time before doesnt count. Time spent prepping for lab in high school, 3 hours, i spent more nights up till 2 then i have during college.

 

[JustK]

So do you think I should give up any classes or just try to do them?

Anyway, that schedule looks pretty intense. How do you go about fitting 9 classes into a high school day?

-We have only half semester courses so I would be taking 8 classes. Though stats is only half a year course too so you get college credit for it if you get the grades. So I would really be taking 3 half year courses.

**Also, Has anyone paid for their AP classes rather than taking the test to grant them college credit, in case they dont make the 3,4,5 on the grand test?

Thanks for all the input!!

 

[nisarg2010]

As a high school senior, I believe you sould take AP Chem or AP physics B Instead of regular Physics and APUSH. Also I believe you sould take AP STAT instead of regular STAT. I know your probably thinking that your schedule will be too hard so I think you can push off either AP chemistry or AP physics B but don’t delay both until senior year. My other tip would be not to take APUSH at all, and the most important tip I can give you is take only the classes you feel comfortable taking. That’s just my opinion as a student who was accepted to BS/MD program as a junior (but decided not to go).

 

[Morsetlis]

My high school senior year schedule:

AP Lit
AP Calc BC
APUSH
AP Econ Mic/Mac
AP Phys B
AP Chem
Indep study AP Comparative Politics
Probably some random indep study AP class I forgot about.

I got 5's on most of them and 4's on the rest.

College was a walk in the park compared to that ****.

 

[packattack]

My high school senior year schedule:

AP Lit
AP Calc BC
APUSH
AP Econ Mic/Mac
AP Phys B
AP Chem
Indep study AP Comparative Politics
Probably some random indep study AP class I forgot about.

I got 5's on most of them and 4's on the rest.

College was a walk in the park compared to that ****.

This is similar to what I did my senior year. I had 7 AP classes and band. My junior year schedule was pretty intense too.

My advice is to take what you're taking. APs are good prep for college, and sometimes (depending on how good your teachers are) my high school teachers were better than my college profs. I got a 4 on AP bio and needed a 5 to get credit - so when I took intro bio I and II in college, it was a piece of cake.


As far as what to major in - just do the classes med school requires and pick a major that you can do something with if you don't get into medical school (or decide medicine isn't for you).

Best of luck!

 

[Morsetlis]

My advice is to take what you're taking. APs are good prep for college, and sometimes (depending on how good your teachers are) my high school teachers were better than my college profs.

Considering my AP Econ teacher was a retired investment banker (his name is Mr. Smart...) and my college econ assoc. prof looked like Fabio, high-fived me in the gym showers, and held a garage sale of his apt in class before the final...

Well, you get all kinds of teachers, and it's best to just roll with them

Studying becomes pretty independent in med school anyway.