INFO:
-Junior year
-Haven’t taken any AP courses yet but I have taken an AP German Exam and gotten a 5 on it during Sophomore year (meaning I know the exam format, I self-studied)
Intended major: something in the business field
My current schedule for my junior year looks something like this:
AP US History (Fall)
AP Language and Composition (Fall)
AP Microeconomics (Fall)
H. Algebra II (Fall)
AP Environment (Spring)
AP Statistics (Spring)
German (Spring) - this is basically a study-hall for me
Accelerated Pre-Calc (Spring)
If I were to edit it, my junior year schedule would look something like this:
AP US History (Fall)
AP Language and Composition (Fall)
AP Microeconomics (Fall)
H. Algebra II (Fall)
H. German (Fall) -study hall
AP Statistics (Spring)
German (Spring) -study hall
H. Anatomy (removing AP Environmental for this)
Now.
It’s the fourth day of school already, yet I am already feeling a bit overwhelmed with the number of AP classes I’m taking. We haven’t even gotten a lot of homework yet I am already stressing what the classwork will look like…
Right now in the first semester, I have:
AP US History
H. Algebra II
AP Microeconomics
AP Language and Composition
Even though we really haven’t gotten homework yet, the Lang. at my school is considered super-hard not to mention I’m already having trouble following with H. Algebra II. The AP microeconomics teacher seems like a chill teacher, but I still feel like juggling with AP US history and AP Language wouldn’t be a wise choice for me, on top of Algebra II once again.
While I love history, I feel as if I edit my schedule to make it like this:
-AP Language
-H. Algebra II
-AP Microeconomics
-German (that’s where I got a 5 on the AP test, the class is chill)
i’d feel better, and for next semester giving myself:
-AP US History
-AP Statistics
-German (another level)
-H. Anatomy
APUSH and AP stats are only semester courses at your school? If that’s the case that your APs don’t span the full year, I agree with you to split up AP Language and APUSH. Both are require a lot of work and your edited schedule looks more balanced to me. However, at my daughter’s school all of those classes were full year courses.
I do go to a competitive school and want to get into a college that is within the top 50 colleges on U.S. world and news report, and senior year I would be doing 5 APs (I’m more worried about junior year as that’s the last year to shine), and grades being scrutinized the most.
I have heard of half-year AP classes in subjects like the two economics courses and the political science courses, but never US History. AP English Language doesn’t really even need to be a class—reading and writing in your Englishy and social studies courses alone, with a little bit of prep with a test book, is more than enough. Most kids in my sons’ school just take the English Language AP test on their own at end of junior year and score 4 or 5 routinely. English Lit is a different animal, however.
Yes, with the exception of 2 AP bundle packs (AP Seminar 1day, AP Lang the other day for a full year & AP Comparative Gov 1day, AP Macroeconomics the other day for a full year), all APs stand alone in their own semester at my school
My impression is that top colleges are not expecting everybody to take 5 APs instead of 4. They are expecting people to (in most cases) take the more challenging courses available in core subjects. So while taking English 11 instead of AP Lang and Comp would be noticed, I really doubt having H Anatomy instead of AP Enviro is going to make any difference…