<p>Hi! I'm going to be a sophomore in high school this year and I'm so nervous about the work load. I've always made straight As and have been in GT classes since I can remember, but I'm going to be taking 3 AP classes this year and I have no clue what to expect. This is my schedule:</p>
<p>AP Chemistry
AP World History
AP Psychology
GT English 10
GT Pre-calculus
Spanish 3 Honors</p>
<p>My brother says that as long as I stay dedicated and study, I'll be able to keep making straight As and won't be overwhelmed. But all my friends say there's no way I'll be able to make straight As and I'm taking too many APs. I've never taken an AP class before so I'm not really sure if I'll be overwhelmed with this course load or not. Can someone please give me some insight into the workload/difficulty of these classes? How many hours of homework should I expect a night? Is it possible to get straight As? Also, any suggestions to do well in these classes would be greatly appreciated (review books, studying skills, etc). Thanks!</p>
<p>P.S. My brother was a chemistry major in college and is currently in pharmacy school so I'll be able to get a lot of help from him with AP Chem</p>
<p>They allowed a few of us to go straight to AP Chem before taking GT Chem if we were in the top 5% of our biology class. But we’re required to take a high school chemistry class during the summer (which I’m doing now) so we at least have some basic knowledge of it.</p>
<p>Eh, three APs is fine. AP Psychology is considered pretty easy at most schools, and I personally found AP World to be very easy. The summer Chem course I imagine will come in very handy for AP Chem, so that’s good. I think you’re solid.</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore taking 3 APs aswell. While I have also never taken an AP class I took an extremely rigorous pre-IB class last year. What should matter is how hard you have had to work in the past, if this is the first time you are going to have HW problems then you might want to reconsider.</p>
<p>Well for my GT classes in 9th grade, I had about 3-4 hours of homework a night and I did well. I think I’m just nervous because my friends are making my schedule out to be some unbearably hard thing to accomplish.</p>
<p>I had zero AP classes freshmen year and sophomore year (school policy - only honors classes for underclassmen. I had 2 freshmen year and 1 sophomore year), and jumped to three for my junior year. It was a little rough the first couple weeks of the year, and the first couple weeks of May when I took the AP exams, but the vast majority of the year the workload was no problem. </p>
<p>You have two very content-heavy AP classes, World History and Psychology, so expect quite a bit of reading. In my AP psychology class we read about 15 pages per class (we had the class every other day though, so 7-8 pages per night). We read the entire textbook, so I’d expect close to the same amount of reading for AP World. I’d estimate 30-45 min per night for each of those two, depending on how fast you read and how thorough you are with notes (I finished in just under 30 for psychology). AP World will probably have some writing on top of the reading, but it shouldn’t be too bad. Thankfully, neither of these classes are overly difficult - just time consuming. If you’re okay with the amount of time needed for these two classes, you should be fine! </p>
<p>AP Chemistry will probably be a bit more difficult. Science AP’s are more difficult than social studies AP classes. You probably won’t have as thorough of a background as most students, but at least it’ll be fresh in your mind since you’re taking it this summer. If you have a good teacher and work hard you should be able to maintain an A, though. </p>
<p>I think it’s a doable schedule. It’ll be hard at first and stressful at the end of the year, but it should be fine in between. Just make sure to manage your time well and work hard!</p>
<p>I’m glad that you’re challenging yourself and really going that extra mile. When you mentioned that you are going to be a sophomore, and taking AP chemistry, my mouth dropped. In my school, you have need three science credits to take AP chemistry or AP biology and that’s usually done by junior year. </p>
<p>Those three AP classes in my opinion will be a lot of work, especially AP chemistry. AP psychology and AP world history have a lot of reading and memorization, which isn’t a problem, it’ll just take up more of your time. Out of the three you’re taking, I only took AP chemistry and it was pretty difficult. This class you really have to work hard in, and study. Judging on what you wrote, you seem like a pretty committed student, so I think you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Yeah I’m another one at a school that doesn’t offer APs until junior year. So far as I’ve seen around this site, Psych isn’t too hard (but I have no personal experience since my school doesn’t offer it). I can only compare AP World to APUSH that I took last year. I have no idea whether it’s similar amount of work, but APUSH was probably the most reading night in and night out last year. I also took AP Chem last year and it was the hardest of the three APs I took (Chem, USH, and Lang) but I hear that they’re changing the curriculum quite a bit, and at least from what I’ve seen them take out, it shouldn’t be as much work as it was last year. Definitely not unreasonable, and I think Chem won’t be as bad as it might seem because of the new curriculum.</p>
<p>Yeah, Psych is easy and World isn’t too bad. AP Chemistry is killer though, and I doubt he/she will waste time going over basic chemistry stuff, so it may be hard for you.</p>