Reply to AP Physics in Sophmore year

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm going to piggyback on this post, as my rising sophomore and I are having the same discussion.

Unlike OP's child, my child has no interest in a STEM major, but is a strong student aiming for highly rejective SLACs for Honors Colleges within public universities.

Taking Honors Algebra II this year and doing well, but I wouldn't say the concepts come without some work.

The counselor advised just taking Honors Chemistry next year, since that is the grade-level advice, but all of my child's friends seem to be signing up for AP Physics in 10th grade.

Since we know colleges look at how one does compared to peers, would you wise DCUM minds advise my child follow their friends into AP Physics?

tl;dr. Do my child's friends' parents know something I don't know?

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What area does your student want to study or have interest? Do the friends want to be STEM majors?  I would think the trajectory long term.  If your kid takes AP Physics sophomore year, they are going to be on the hook to take AP Chem junior year and at least one of the corresponding AP exams.  Otherwise it will seem strange that your student opted to take two high level science classes yet had no intention of taking the AP exam.  They will also need to demonstrate significant rigor in whatever other they have interest.

If your kid can handle the math and science and other needed classes without burnout, go for it.  But if not don’t.  Because while yes they will be judged against peers, they will first be judged on the grades they made.[/quote]

I don't know what all of my child's friends are planning, but based on overheard carpool discussions I think some of them do want to pursue STEM careers, specifically life sciences.

That's a good point about taking multiple high level science classes without taking the test. My child is interested in politics and humanities, so was planning to add AP Comparative Government and AP Human Geography in 11th and 12th grades. This year they have APUSH and next year will have AP NSL.

[/quote]

The thing about AP Physics I is that it is algebra based, and it forces kids to jump through all sorts of hoops to derive equations that are more easily dealt with with Calculus. A smart move would be to skip AP Physics 1, go to Honors Chemistry and then take AP Physics C (two parts Mechanics and E&M) when they are taking calculus.  [/quote]

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