Anonymous
Post 02/17/2023 09:58     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
Anonymous wrote:Here are some numbers that show the numbers of boys vs girls achieving a "5" on various AP exams. Generally, girls outperform boys in the humanities while boys outperform girls in the hard sciences. Given the law of supply and demand, the most elite colleges may take a closer look at girls who are high-achieving in the hardest math and science courses. (Similarily, they get excited about boys who are very strong in literature.) These data come from a delicious, large, excel spreadsheet with all sorts of demographic breakdowns from a few years ago, before the college board deleted it from their website.

Number of girls with 5s on various APs
AP Lit: 19,419
APUSH: 32,648
Bio: 11,241
Calc BC: 21,042
Physics 1: 3,512
Physics C EM: 1,776
Comp Sci A: 3,848

Number of boys with 5s on various APs
AP Lit: 10,731
APUSH: 27,779
Bio: 9,672
Calc BC: 29,706
Physics 1: 8,270
Physics C EM: 6,293
Comp Sci A: 12,548


These numbers would be a lot more meaningful with denominators. You can’t say girls are outperforming boys or vice versa without knowing what percentage of each get 5s on AP exams.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2023 09:45     Subject: Re:AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
Unless she really wants to take AP Bio, why not just drop that entirely? If she is heading down a Math/Physics/Engineering college pathway, colleges won't care if she skipped AP Bio.

My CS kid accepted at a Top 5 skipped both AP Chem and AP Bio entirely...but did take AP Physics C (both sections) as well as Multivariable (not sure that matters vs. linear algebra). Took AP Physics C year after taking AP Calc BC vs. concurrent...his teacher literally made kids transfer out of the class that had not already fully completed AP Calc, though all schools/teachers have different approaches.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2023 09:27     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
Here are some numbers that show the numbers of boys vs girls achieving a "5" on various AP exams. Generally, girls outperform boys in the humanities while boys outperform girls in the hard sciences. Given the law of supply and demand, the most elite colleges may take a closer look at girls who are high-achieving in the hardest math and science courses. (Similarily, they get excited about boys who are very strong in literature.) These data come from a delicious, large, excel spreadsheet with all sorts of demographic breakdowns from a few years ago, before the college board deleted it from their website.

Number of girls with 5s on various APs
AP Lit: 19,419
APUSH: 32,648
Bio: 11,241
Calc BC: 21,042
Physics 1: 3,512
Physics C EM: 1,776
Comp Sci A: 3,848

Number of boys with 5s on various APs
AP Lit: 10,731
APUSH: 27,779
Bio: 9,672
Calc BC: 29,706
Physics 1: 8,270
Physics C EM: 6,293
Comp Sci A: 12,548
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2023 02:50     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
If your daughter is at NCS talk to the advisor which will end this conversation pretty quickly. I also see no benefit of taking these three classes junior year and the risk of burn out or a lower GPA. If you have a top kid applying to top schools most, yes even engineering snowflake genius, needs 4 years of language. Top colleges want to see that. You aren’t the exception. They want to see you can handle the rigor of the five core academic classes. I would not take AP bio and the equivalent of AP us in the same year. She should take physics C, BC, language, English, US history.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2023 23:45     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If she’s at ncs, I don’t understand how she will take two sciences and a math and still take the required foreign language. She should be able to skip a foreign language senior year, but not junior year, no?

The thing about ncs is, there are t any easy English and history classes. So when you take three hard science and math classes, you are also taking hard history, English, government, etc.

Two ap sciences and one ap math only leaves room for two academic classes. English is required. That’s one class. Is t history required junior year? And foreign language? How is she going to do this?


the girls can take 6 academic classes (no free periods).

NCS won't let a student take 6 academic classes and these 3 APs. They can push US History to senior year.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2023 22:04     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If she’s at ncs, I don’t understand how she will take two sciences and a math and still take the required foreign language. She should be able to skip a foreign language senior year, but not junior year, no?

The thing about ncs is, there are t any easy English and history classes. So when you take three hard science and math classes, you are also taking hard history, English, government, etc.

Two ap sciences and one ap math only leaves room for two academic classes. English is required. That’s one class. Is t history required junior year? And foreign language? How is she going to do this?


the girls can take 6 academic classes (no free periods).
. Aren’t Ap physics and Ap bio both lab classes. I don’t know how you fit in two lab classes but maybe it is possible. I think it would require approval, and I would definitely make sure you DD was the one driving this because it could be a very long year if not.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2023 22:00     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
Anonymous wrote:If she’s at ncs, I don’t understand how she will take two sciences and a math and still take the required foreign language. She should be able to skip a foreign language senior year, but not junior year, no?

The thing about ncs is, there are t any easy English and history classes. So when you take three hard science and math classes, you are also taking hard history, English, government, etc.

Two ap sciences and one ap math only leaves room for two academic classes. English is required. That’s one class. Is t history required junior year? And foreign language? How is she going to do this?


the girls can take 6 academic classes (no free periods).
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2023 21:40     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
Anonymous wrote:If she finds calculus and physics very intuitive, it’s not a problem to double up at all. My kid seems to just “get” them and can do well without spending a crazy amount of time on the classes.

Bio is a lot of work and memorization. I almost think it might be the most work of the 3 classes, if she finds math easy.



Totally agree with this. AP Bio and AP US History are the most amount of work, from my experience. AP Calc and Physics who just need to "get it," not to memorize for hours.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2023 21:38     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
Anonymous wrote:If she’s at ncs, I don’t understand how she will take two sciences and a math and still take the required foreign language. She should be able to skip a foreign language senior year, but not junior year, no?

The thing about ncs is, there are t any easy English and history classes. So when you take three hard science and math classes, you are also taking hard history, English, government, etc.

Two ap sciences and one ap math only leaves room for two academic classes. English is required. That’s one class. Is t history required junior year? And foreign language? How is she going to do this?


Typo

There aren’t any easy
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2023 21:38     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
If she’s at ncs, I don’t understand how she will take two sciences and a math and still take the required foreign language. She should be able to skip a foreign language senior year, but not junior year, no?

The thing about ncs is, there are t any easy English and history classes. So when you take three hard science and math classes, you are also taking hard history, English, government, etc.

Two ap sciences and one ap math only leaves room for two academic classes. English is required. That’s one class. Is t history required junior year? And foreign language? How is she going to do this?
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2023 20:59     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
DS in a NOVA private did AP Physics C, Multi and AP stats as a senior. He said Physics C is much easier after getting BC out of the way. He was a math and physics kid so he never got below a 95 on any tests. However, he was not a bio kid although he aced the honors bio. He didn’t want to take AP bio due to the memorization required.

For you student, is it possible for her to do AP bio, AP Chem and BC cal in junior year? I would suggest waiting to take Physic C as a senior with post AP math.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2023 20:47     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
I agree with waiting to take Physics C till senior year. Many colleges will require you to repeat calculus based physics if you are a physics major. VA tech does, for example. And also, do check to see if Physics C is both electricity & magnetism and mechanical. Some schools offer it only in a double block, ours is one block. My DS took AP BC Calc and AP Physics 1 as a junior, 5s on both. And this year is taking Physics C (both E/M and Mechanical). It was a lot of homework, especially in the beginning. If he would have had them all at the same time, he would have struggled to keep up with the workload. Good luck! 🍀
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2023 16:12     Subject: AP Bio, AP Physics C and AP Calc BC at the same time??? Please help with schedule
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Being advanced in math and physics is the most rare commodity as a girl. Lots of girls do well in AP Bio. Many fewer in the hardest math and chem/physics classes. I would prioritize doing well in those over Bio. If she can do all three, great.


I find this a bit odd. There are lits of girls in advanced math and physics.


I think she's speaking relatively. There are certainly far more girls taking AP Bio than AP Physics C.

OP, let's say she takes all three and does fine. What would her options for senior year be? Let's say she take honors bio instead. What would her senior year options be then?

If she wants to b a physics major, then it would be good to have some exposure to the Fnet=ma exam. If you're right about her performance, she could do well with some study, and it would be good not just for college admissions, but also her physics career. (She can of course take in 12th grade as well) https://knzhou.github.io/writing/Advice.pdf


If she were, I wouldn't have had a problem with it, but she said, " the most rare commodity," which is superlative, not relative. So, that triggered a "Mm. I don't know about that." from me. I