Hi, school starts in approx. a week for me and I’m stressing myself out. I am going to be a junior this year and I have decided to take 5 AP classes. So far, I have taken four AP classes:
Freshman Year: AP World
Sophomore Year: APES, AP Micro, AP Biology
This year I will be taking:
AP Lit
AP Calc AB
AP HUG
AP Spanish
AP Chem
Do you have any advice for managing stress, homework, and being able to do things like dance during the school year? Also freaking out about taking the SAT/ACT/PSAT while taking these courses
I took 6 AP classes my third year in high school and had no problem doing many other things I wanted to do. (including band, orchestra, several clubs, a music technology class, performed in school music festival, etc.) The key is to never ever get behind. Do all assignments when given and understand what you are doing and it should all be fine
Is there any reason you are taking Calc AB instead of BC?
I think you’ll do fine :). AP HUG is known to be a less difficult class because there is less content usually. If you were good at precalc, AP Calc AB should be manageable. AP Spanish can vary in difficulty based on the teacher, but if you have taken all the necessary classes beforehand, it should be fine. Your main challenges will be ap chem and ap lit. I think you’ll be fine.
I would suggest you drop AP Lit.
First, because typically AP Lang is the junior class, with AP Lit an optional senior class for social science/humanities majors. Replace with Honors English or AP Lang. If you take AP Lang, drop AP Chem and take regular or honors Physics (or AP Physics1, which will be less demanding than AP Chem).
Second, because you already have 4 AP classes, and colleges say they want 6-8 TOTAL for your entire HS career, taking 4 would make your schedule more manageable and still extremely competitive, especially if you take 3-4 senior year on top of this.
It’s not an arms race. Stanford puts it best: “it’s not a game of who has the most AP’s, wins.”
After 8 AP’s, the law of diminishing returns applies.
You need to “curate” your AP choices, especially senior year, to reflect your interests and strengths.
