Weighing Options: Should I Take AP Stats?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the decision to take AP Statistics alongside Honors Physics, AP Calculus AB, and AP Latin. The participant expresses concerns about workload and the relevance of AP Stats for an engineering path, noting that Calculus-based statistics may be more beneficial. Feedback from peers indicates that AP Stats is perceived as less challenging compared to AP Physics, and the participant's Calculus teacher will also teach AP Stats, which may enhance the learning experience. Ultimately, the participant is weighing the benefits of AP Stats against their passion for Latin and the overall academic load.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of AP course structure and expectations
  • Familiarity with Calculus concepts, particularly as they relate to statistics
  • Knowledge of workload management for multiple AP courses
  • Basic understanding of the differences between AP and Honors courses
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the curriculum and exam structure of AP Statistics
  • Explore the relationship between Calculus and Statistics in engineering contexts
  • Investigate effective time management strategies for AP coursework
  • Look into the benefits of learning Latin versus more widely spoken languages like Spanish
USEFUL FOR

High school students considering AP courses, particularly those interested in engineering, as well as educators advising students on course selections and workload management.

MechGodzilla
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Hi,

I'm deciding whether or not to take AP Stats. I will be taking Honors Physics and AP Calculus AB and AP Latin. I've read that only Calculus-based stats is useful for Engineering. I don't want to take all three courses because I don't want to kill myself.

Is AP Stats absolutely necessary? I love Latin but AP stats seems like the Engineer's route.
 
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Based on my friends, AP Stats was really easy, compared with Physics AP (but then again Since Physics AP deals with the application of Calculus to Physics and we were learning Calculus in the same year, we had some blind spots until the end of the year when we learned Calculus).

One of my friends told me that there is a point where Statistics and Calculus sort of mix, but I think that this is higher level, and I have a hunch that this "Calculus with Statistics" or whatever it is would be useful for engineering.

Personally, I think you should be able to handle all four classes if your teachers are good.
(We had the best Calculus teacher ever, but everyone complained about the physics teacher-which is not really her fault, since we were trying to learn Calculus while taking a course that required it and also since applied mathematics is usually harder than mathematics on it's own. You may feel the challenge of applied mathematics if you get to optimization in Calculus)
I have loved all the AP Courses I have taken. You usually learn more from them then you would in college and I would hate to not know all the extra stuff I know from my AP courses (which I heard are more rigorous than there corresponding college courses).


If not, I would dis the latin (I took honor not AP). Even though it helped me tremendously with grammar, I sort of envy my friends who have learned Spanish and can actually use it to connect with a whole new group of people.

Hope this helps FTW!
 
My Calculus teacher will be teaching AP stats and Honors physics so I'm guessing that will be good.

I'm not taking Latin for the sake of communicating with other people but rather I find it interesting and I love the language.

How much time are people expected to spend on AP homework? I'm creating a mock daily schedule and I put away 1 hr and 30 mins for AP calc, 1hr for H Physics and 1 hr 30 mins for AP Latin.
 
My friend took Ap Stat this year and he said the workload was not crazy at all and he said that in certain parts of analysis his Ap Stats knowledge became invaluable so yeah for your route it might be more important. Also, and I don't know if this is in general, but Ap Calc usually has much less of a workload than Ap Physics from what I've seen with the seniors at my HS.
 
I'm not taking AP Physics, I'm taking Honors Physics. My teacher told me that Honors Physics will be much easier than AP Calculus AB. However, I do not know how large the workload is. I looked at last year's syllabus and it looks like 4-5 problems per night from this book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0471484822/?tag=pfamazon01-20

If 4-5 problems is manageable and honors Physics is less than that, then I might go ahead and keep AP stats and AP Latin. I'm expected to do at least 2 hrs per night for Latin.
 
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Here is what my friend told me when he finished with it (this was 2 years ago)

"A breeze after calculus. The teacher is an idiot though, we spent half the class playing around and fooling around. The test were a a joke"
 

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