Wondering if I should take this

I'm not sure how hard biology is having taken it in freshman year and not again, but I do know that the teacher can make all the difference. I took honors chem with a teacher that when he lectured, I knew less at the end than I did at the beginning and somehow managed a B both semesters- barely a B second semester (my friends helped....ALOT). But then I took AP chem which was harder and more indepth and I ended up with an A in the class and a 3 on the exam I believe. And now I'm a chem major lol, who would've guessed. I had to take the class at college, but I think it was easier since I took the AP. It took alot of work though since I didn't know much, and any AP class takes work.

Oh, and [URL=http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/biology/topic.html?biolog... is the topic list with what topics are covered and how much of each topic is probably going to be on the exam.

I'm taking the class right now, and I can tell you that the most imoprtant thing in the class is the teacher. If you know the teacher and like his/her teaching style (which you said you did), and can learn from the teacher, by all means, take it. There is quite a bit of chem in the course, so you should probably be comfortable with that at the least! I love the class, since you get to learn all about the minute interactions that cause life to react in specific ways...I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think you should take the class.

Heh, I'm glad I could help ya out. And, as a side note, this site now has outlines and such on Bio, which'll probably help you as well. I don't know how good they are since I haven't used them yet, but knowing the quality of stuff that Chris already has up on the site, I wouldn't be suprised if they were really detailed.

Taking regular bio would definatly be helpful. A lot of the ideas in the AP class are first introduced in regular bio, and like anything, good knowlage of the basics is really the only way to understand the more complicated things. While a person COULD skip regular and just take the AP, I think it would be a really bad idea- there would have to be a whole bunch of extra stuff that the person would have to learn on their own...

I disagree. If you do work hard for the class, you should be able to do pretty well. Just don't remain in the shadow and think the class is easy. And yes, if the teacher is good, definitely take it (though it won't necessarily guarantee you a passing grade). I happened to be unlucky and got a crappy teacher who decided that focusing more on the topics worth less on the exam was better than actually covering the half of the material which would dominate the actual test. Always remember, there are people out there who self study topics and pass with 4's and 5's (just don't be overconfident). Also, no matter how good your teacher is, I advise that you check out the material and percentage of the material yourself before hand. Then, about every month, check if the teacher is spending too much or too little time on any topic. According to that, you'll have to adjust the studying you do on your own. And yes, the textbook does help. Read it, learn the material, and be sure you can teach it to someone else. When the test comes, read the review book over again in totality. Then, study the topics you have a problem with on the last few days. Relax, know that you tried hard, and take the test. Never trust your teacher in totality. I did-and ended up in deep crap.

Oh, I forgot to mention: I didn't know about 90% of the material covered in the class before hand (I didn't pay much attention in my Honors Bio class and I took that class in freshman year and I took my AP one this year [senior year]-a three year gap doesn't really help even if you learn the material before.) (unless you have a photographic memory or something).

The class in my opinion is worth it. You need hard work motivation and a great teacher. With that you are all set. The class is not too hard either, you need to memorize and understand concepts.