Although concepts from biology and foundational chemistry are applied in AP Biology, taking a MVHS chemistry course is not required. According to senior Stephanie Chen, students are assigned textbook readings before they come to class. In class, they take notes on lectures where the same concepts are reviewed. Chen says the class is structured as a week of lectures and a week of lab work.
While Chen kept up with reading assignments, which took two to three hours, in the beginning of the year, Chen gradually stopped doing them after she was able to understand the type of questions being tested and spend less time taking notes.
“I thought the lectures were good enough to get the information and I only went back to the reading if I thought I needed more information on certain concepts,” Chen said.
Chen is proud of her lab notebook, which she used in her favorite part of the class: the labs.
“I enjoyed the labs, even though they're kind of complicated,” Chen said. “It was really nice to be able to work hands-on with certain things. I remember there was a lab where we tested if we had a certain gene, and it was really cool seeing the different results in the different classes.”
Chen considers AP Biology to be one of the most difficult classes she has taken at MVHS. She spent most of her time taking notes and dedicating an entire week to studying for a unit exam.
“I would recommend taking the class because the labs, especially in this STEM class, [are] integrated really well into the curriculum,” Chen said.
In addition, Chen recommends that students take advantage of the presentation slides from lectures posted in the course locker on Schoolloop.
“When you're in class, [do] not copy down the slides,” Chen said. “Actually listen to what [the teacher is] saying, because you can look at the slides later and I think that's really helpful.”