I was planning on taking these 3 AP’s next year:
- AP French
-AP Biology
-AP English Lang
is this going to be a fairly huge workload? I’m not sure if I should take AP Biology since i’m also going to be in honors chem at the same time.
10th grade current schedule:
-Honors French 3
-Biology
-English 2
If I study really hard and buy ap practice books will It be attainable? I have mostly a’s and b’s, I have a strong work ethic and I love everything science, and I have a 3.5 gpa right now. If anyone took any of these classes, please tell me how hard they were for you on a scale of 1-10 and if you were flooded with homework as some ap students say it would be nice to also know the prerequisites for these classes!
-Thanks!
I took 5 AP’s junior year and 4 senior year; I honestly felt like AP classes are easier than Honors classes in some aspects because the teachers have a set curriculum for what to teach, since they need to prepare you for an international test. I think 3 AP’s is definitely doable. Have you taken a biology course before? If yes, then I think AP Bio should be fine. It also depends on what schools you are looking at; in general they would prefer to see course rigor with lower grades, rather than a great GPA with regular classes. Class difficulty also depends on the teachers, so if the teachers in those courses have a reputation for being really difficult that would change your experience a lot. I took AP English Lang and AP Spanish and in my experience AP Lang was a good amount of essays but they prepare you well for the exam. AP Spanish was kind of a joke at my school so I can’t really give advice on that but you do need to be able to comprehend the language pretty well for the class itself. The exam was really easy though. Those APs might also prepare you for possible SAT Subject Tests, so you might benefit in that aspect as well. I know that AP Lang definitely helped me on the writing/reading portion of the SAT.
AP Bio will be hard but you should be able to maintain or improve your 3.5 GPA with that schedule so long as you are good with English and French.
Many HS’s do not allow freshman and sophomores to take AP’s, so taking an AP as a junior for the first time is not a unique experience, How you will do is something only you (and maybe your parents.teachers can answer, but the schedule is not off-the-charts difficult.
While the curriculum is set by the CB, classroom management is not. So the amount of HW depends, in part, on the teacher. 45-60 minutes on average per night is not unreasonable. Note that Bio might have some peaks and valleys in that writing up lab reports may take substantially more time and might be offset by less HW on other nights.
In part, depends on the school, but in general
AP French - French 3 (in some schools, French 4)
AP Biology - Intro bio and intro chem
AP English Lang - English 2
Some schools also require a certain grade in the prereq class.
My son’s high school generally doesn’t offer AP classes until junior year. He’s a junior and, like many of his friends, is taking 3 AP’s. He’s working hard, but it’s absolutely manageable. So long as you’ve fulfilled whatever your school’s prerequisites are (check your course guide), have whatever recommendations (if any) you need from your teachers and are prepared to work hard, including doing work over next summer.
To sum up: 3 AP’s junior year with those as the first AP’s is a perfectly plausible plan. For the best advice on whether YOU can handle the work, I’d urge you to talk with your teachers in the relevant subjects and your GC.