Has anyone's kid taken AP Chem without taking Regular or Honors Chem?

[Anonymous]

My kid is 11th grade, AP Chem without taking Hon Chem. Also in Calc BC, fwiw. Really, really hard but manages to hold a B. My impression is the 2 important questions to ask yourselves is:

1. Do you want your child to show that they've taken the most rigorous classes and managed to do ok when applying to college?
2. Is the teacher an excellent teacher of the subject matter?

Remember, they can always drop out of it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is 11th grade, AP Chem without taking Hon Chem. Also in Calc BC, fwiw. Really, really hard but manages to hold a B. My impression is the 2 important questions to ask yourselves is:

1. Do you want your child to show that they've taken the most rigorous classes and managed to do ok when applying to college?
2. Is the teacher an excellent teacher of the subject matter?

Remember, they can always drop out of it!

Question number 1 should be did student take the most rigorous or relevant classes for them and manage to do well. It makes no sense to take a AP class and get a C when you could have taken a honors class and gotten an A. Particularly if you’re skipping over the honors class to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone's kid taken AP Chem without taking Regular or Honors Chem first?

My sophomore enrolled in AP Physics this year and is doing well (unconventional, but allowed). He wants to take AP Chem next year but won't have taken regular or honors Chem first. We can't quite figure out if the AP Chem content builds on the first Chem class or if if MCPS just frowns upon kids taking AP Chem without an initial Chem class.

Yes, he'll talk to the counsellor. We are just trying to see if this is a county curriculum thing or a school thing.

"AP Physics" is not a class.

There are 4 different AP Physics classes.

AP Physics 1 and AP C Mechanics (full-year pace) do not have a Physics prereq.

AP Physics C (1-semester pace for each of Mechanics and E&M) has a prereq of Honora Physics or AP Physics 1.

AP Chem has Chem prereq.

Thank you for this information that I already knew? Obviously my kid is in AP Physics 1. And obviously we are asking about the enforcement of the AP Chem pre-req.

DP. This wasn't obvious from your post. I assumed the opposite because a) It is not at all unconventional for a sophomore to take AP Physics 1 (my sophomore is in it and almost the whole class is sophomores), and b) the fact that a kid is in this class doesn't tell us much about readiness for AP Chem (whereas any of the other AP physics classes would signal much more about strength in science).

In sum, PP was snarky, but this post from you is equally snarky.

FWIW, I've had two graduate from MCPS and both took AP Bio and multiple of the AP Physics classes but avoided AP Chem because it is thought to be the hardest of all of them. On the other hand, at our school, at least, Honors Chem is essentially a joke class. My sophomore is taking it concurrently with AP Physics 1 and has like a 98%. It's hard to imagine it does very much to prep students for AP Chem. Also, over the years, our school has varied in enforcement of the prereq. They used to allow students to skip honors bio and honors chem before taking the AP versions but they found that a lot of kids weren't doing well. Not clear if this was because the prereqs were important or if the waiving of prereqs encouraged too many not-very-STEMy kids to go for the AP version in the general AP arm's race that we have at our school. (I think probably more the latter than the former.).

Whether it is typical for students to take AP Physics I as a sophomore is very school dependent. The typical path in our W HS is Hon Bio, Hon Chem, Physics (Hon, 1 or C depending). STEMy kids will often double up on the Hon Bio/Hon Chem in 9th grade. Then you might see them in AP Physics I or AP Chem in Sophomore year. (Too much demand for AP Bio, sophomores can't get in). The AP Physics teacher is tough, so those who take AP Physics I sophomore year often shy away from encountering that teacher again in AP Physics C, and will pick up other AP/advanced science courses.