Senior Year Science Elective

hopefulUSNA25

hopefulUSNA25

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Dec 8, 2019
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I'm split between what class I should take for my science elective next year. The three I've narrowed it down to are AP Chem, AP Physics, and AP Bio. Can anyone with plebe year experience tell me which will be most helpful academically?
 
+1 to @NavyHoops. Chem 1 is called the “plebe killer” by many. If you do well in AP Chem, you may increase your chances of validating Chem 1.

Of course, that may just mean you go out of the frying pan and directly into the fire: Chem 2 or Modern Chem. (DD did well in AP Chem, validated Chem 1, suffered through a very challenging Modern Chem course. She has scars to show for it.)
 
You can check on the USNA website what classes can be validated with the AP classes

www.usna.edu

USNA Course Validation Policy

Course Validation Policy page for Academics at USNA.edu. Updated Tue Mar 18 15:05:42 EDT 2025.
www.usna.edu
 
Definitely chem or physics. Assuming you've not taken either chem or physics yet, I'd lean toward chem as you'll take that as a plebe and it's considered the hardest plebe course. However, you'll take physics as a youngster and having some background in that is helpful too. AP Bio won't help for USNA purposes.
 
Well, if you get to USNA, you'll have that full calculus-based experience. Something to look forward to !
 
What AP Physics is it? Physics C is calculus based so try to take that if your school offers it
 
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And keep repeating over and over ... differentiation (aka, rate), accumulation (aka, integral sum), differentiation, accumulation, differentiation, accumu....... and you will never forget how to apply all that you have learned in Calculus.

Everything ... objects, actions, paths, decisions, feed back control, likelihoods, and yes, Quantum field density probabilities ... are all the accumulation of Differences — accumulation of Differential Errors.

So everything is Calculus.
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