Hi, I am deciding what classes to take junior year and need some advice. This is what I am debating,
1)AP Biology (At my school AP Bio is a two period class)
2)AP U.S. History
3)AP Statistics
4)AP English Language and Composition
5)AP Psychology
6)Precalc
I have always been in honors classes and have already taken AP Gov (4) and am currently in AP European History and AP Macroeconomics. Do you guys have any advice or have any of you managed these types of classes in one year and survived? Any advice on how many to AP to take or ratings from easiest to hardest would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks
Tennis-5-6 hours a week (sep-oct)
Mock Trial-about 4-5 hours a week (nov-feb, I am willing to drop this because I didn’t enjoy it that much)
Science Team-1 hour a week, all year
That’s not too bad. For my kids, the crunch always came during end of season sports competition (district, state) and if you get an unexpected honor or award requiring time and appearances…
I think what you should do is investigate what students say about time requirements for the particular AP courses on your schedule and make a very realistic comparison to what you managed in the past.
hmm I took like 5 APs + some post-AP classes junior year w/ a bunch of ECs (swimming = 20 in winter… my grades die during this period, piano around 7, science/math stuff varies from 4-20, and a bunch of other things). So I’d sat it’s definitely possible
AP difficult really depends on (1) you, who you are, what you like, so I can’t really say, and (2) the classes at school and the teachers who teach them. For instance, AP Stat and AP Bio (which was reduced to AP Stat + making up stuff) were relatively pain-free for me, while APUSH with a really hard teacher and in a more foreign (well actually domestic) subject was definitely not pain-free.
If you’re up for the challenge, I’d say go for it. Just be careful - taking a bunch of APs junior year either makes you or breaks you. If you can’t handle it and get 5 Bs, then I don’t think it’ll be worth the struggle, but if you can come through,
5 APs junior year has definitely been done (not by me personally) but it won’t be easy. Do you need to take AP Stats and AP Psych junior year, or can you bump one or both of those to senior year? Those are the ones that seem like “extra” to me and might not be necessary. AP Bio, APUSH, and AP Lang & Comp make sense for junior year. I’m figuring if you’re in precalc that means you might be looking to take AB or BC calc senior year? If so, I can understand wanting to do AP stats now instead of doing two AP math classes senior year, but maybe at least think about moving AP Psych if you can.
Going from 2 to 5 APs is going to be difficult. In addition, why Stats? It’s un-necessary since you’re taking precalculus. If you can’t/won’t take calculus, take Stats senior year. Otherwise, take calc senior year. You’ll take calc-based stats in college if need be (AP Stats is algebra-based and thus isn’t quite what you’d do in a “real” stats class - the Ap class is more like a “math class for people who don’t like math” :p)
Your schedule also doesn’t include one of the core classes for selective colleges (foreign language).
AP Psych is an “easier” AP so it should be okay.
This is what I’d do if I were you:
1)AP Biology
2)AP U.S. History
3)Foreign Language
4)AP English Language and Composition
5)AP Psychology (OR another, non AP elective)
6)Precalc (H or CP, depending on whether you intend to take Calc)
