AP Chemistry or Physics??

[marciemi]

During our 2/C year, going into the EE (wires) final, 60% of the class was failing, as in getting an F. With the prospect of having to accommodate hundreds in summer school, they gave a very straightforward final, allowing most of the class to slip by with Cs and Ds.

When I was an exchange cadet to USNA, I took EE (cables though!). I had 6 other classes at Navy (counting PE) and spent at least twice as much time on EE as on the other classes combined. Spent an exorbitant amount of time studying for the final and managed to pull off an 80.0 in the class, which was a B. The only one in the section (no A's), along with I think 3 C's. I got A's in every other class without much effort. Incidentally I came back to WP the next semester and got an A+ in my second semester of EE without ever cracking a book.

Big difference was the curve (or lack thereof). I still remember the EE prof telling us after the first exam that the class average was a 44. Used to the curves at WP, I asked what that meant. Expecting a curve with a 44 as a C - so something like 40-50 is a C, 51-70 is a B, 70 and up is an A or similar. The prof's reply? "Means most of you failed!"

 

[navy2010]

^^^^ LOL!!!!
I would add to the above:

1- you do all of that in addition to learning your professional gouge
2- you carry other responsibilities, be that within your company, or on a sports team, or club activity, or volunteer work, and any combo of the above, and many times pulling you away on weekends to meet those committments
3- you have to scrub your floor, or prepare for an alpha, or iron your uniforms, or spit and polish something else...

the demands on your time are endless, and balancing them all becomes the true challenge. It may not be that the courses are necessarily more difficult [chemistry is, by most accounts, a finate science], it is just that you have to do chemistry along with all the other "stuff" that gets piled on your plate.