So next year I will be entering 11th grade. I attend a very competitive high school and I am currently ranked 8th in my class of 413 students.
I have enrolled in the following classes:
AP Biology
AP Psychology
AP US History
AP English Lit.
AP English Lang. (My school has an AP Lit/Lang block class)
AP Calculus AB
Biotechnology 3 Honors
So. I am very worried XD
Does anyone have any tips or specific advice for the AP classes I am taking? Study tips? Best review books? I am planning on getting Barron’s for all of them, +Cliffs for Bio and Lit, and 5 Steps for Calc. (I have Amsco for US as well)
I am most worried about Calc AB (having come from online precalculus. However, I am a strong math student), Biology, and US History.
Does anyone have any wisdom they would like to share? Which of these classes proved the greatest challenge for you?
AP US history can be a challenge - lots of content and work. Your load will be very heavy if you take all those classes - hope you manage without too much stress if you choose to keep them all.
What are your favorite classes? APUSH might be the most time consuming on your list. 6 APs in one year are doable if you pick them correctly. Both classes AND teachers. I hope you took few APs last year and are familiar with a workload for AP classes. If this is your first year taking APs and you signed up for 6, this might be a problem.
APUSH consists of tons of reading and analysis. Connection-making is vital, especially with time periods and themes. I don’t recommend reading the textbook, for it contains too many unrelated facts. Watch videos and scan the book for key terms. Allow yourself to make mental timelines and practice your structured writing. Overall, it’s an interesting course that requires a lot of memorization.
Hey guys. Thanks for the advice and input! I have taken AP Classes before. In my freshman year I took AP Human(5) and I am currently taking AP Environmental Science and AP Microeconomics. I have heard the APUSH teacher in my school is “ok.” I hope I can pull an A.
Look online for answer keys from past tests, especially for AP Bio. Though I haven’t taken the AP test for it yet I found that studying the questions from past exams really helped prepare me for the tests in class. Easynotecards has some really good review questions. My teacher sometimes gets lazy, so a few times I’ve even seen the same questions on the test! AP Bio isn’t that bad if you have a good teacher… Just make sure to familiarize yourself with the “language” of the questions. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten confused on wording and ended up getting the question wrong when in reality the answer is super simple.
Take REALLY GOOD notes for bio, psych, and US history because a lot of those courses are memorizing terms, theorists, and dates. Buy some colored pens to color code notes (underlining key facts or sorting out chapters) to make yourself excited about taking notes!
6 AP’s is un-necessary can is likely to be counterproductive. Going from 1 1/2 AP (one half-year content, one “lite”) to 6 full on AP’s including 4 that are notoriously hard is not going to end well. And, from an admission’s perspective, pointless. Colleges, even the top ones, do not expect you to take more than 6-8 Ap’s over the course of HS, and certainly not more than 4 per year.
AP Biology => pushed to senior year
AP Psychology => pushed to senior year
AP US History
AP English Lit.
AP English Lang. (My school has an AP Lit/Lang block class)
AP Calculus AB
Biotechnology 3 Honors
I was in the same position at you junior year–ranked 8th out of some 400 students, and about to take 6 aps. I made a pretty big jump, going from 2 last year, but I still did exceptionally well; in fact, my first semester grades were better than the first semesters of my freshman and sophomore years. Though I was able to end with high grades, I did make some mistakes early on, including:
Underestimating classes. This is what you ABSOLUTELY don’t want to do. I underestimated Art History, and I didn’t do well on the first exam…thankfully, I was able to bring it back. However, Calc BC was a different story; I didn’t think it needed too much studying at first, but then I did poorly on a few tests. I managed to end with a low A, but it was by far my lowest grade that semester and definitely held me back…it was also the class I put in the most work for.
Not using every resource to the best of my ability - I cannot stress this enough: use collegeboard and any other material your teacher gives you…who knows, a practice question or two may show up on the test.
Not paying attention to weighted averages. This sort of falls under underestimating classes, but before you start the year, you should pay attention to how much of your grade tests, quizzes, and homework is worth…if you have multiple tests on the same day, focus more on studying for the tests for the classes where tests are weighted 50+% of your grade.
Procrastination - I got better at limiting the amount of procrastination this year, but it was still fairly pervasive. Just try your best to stay focused for long hours.
Here’s some general things that helped me particularly, which should apply to any schedule:
Get enough sleep - “enough” is different for every person. Personally, I found that going to bed by 2AM or earlier was safe for me before a test, since I have a fairly high tolerance for sleep deprivation, but I wouldn’t risk that too many times.
Use every minute wisely–work before school, during lunch, etc. If you feel you don’t have enough time to finish your assignments, waking up early at 4AM to finish is much better than getting the work done and sleeping at 3AM.
Ask your teachers for help–make sure you know what you want to ask them, and make your questions specific so they give you exactly what you want to know.
Overall, 6 aps isn’t really that bad as long as you know your classes inside and out and know how to manage your time effectively.
As someone currently taking 6 college-level courses (IB Psych SL, Micro/Macro, Calc BC, IB Chem SL, Lang., Human), I can tell you that it is NOT impossible and, with the right mindset, you WILL adjust. I would consider everything the previous poster stated. Additionally, although this depends on the person, you cannot assume a class will be a certain way. Calculus, in particular, is one class that is touted as “easy” and a light workload - however, the concepts can be extremely hard to grasp, and it is definitely a class that requires more work and time than it seems. Otherwise, I would encourage you to take the chance and see how you can handle the schedule. Even if you don’t last, at least you’ll have learned something, and in the end that’s what matters!
But WHY do you want to do that ? Do you realize that going to bed at midnight a, or 2, or waking up at 4 is UNHEALTHY and counterproductive in the long run, that it puts your physical and mental health at risk, and won’t help with getting into college? What warped idea of top colleges do you have ?
As teenagers, you need to plan for 9 hours of sleep a night. Taking six AP 's proves nothing (except perhaps 'something’s nebulous to other high school kids of the same mindset) and while I realize that, for adolescents, peer group is key in self definition, it shouldn’t run counter to common sense and healthy behavior.
Please understand that college’s will *not * reward you for this. They will * not * be impressed. They will think something on the spectrum of insane to hubris. Some readers will penalize you for it because it’s unhealthy and it puts you at higher risk while in college. Have you heard of Stanford 's " it’s not a game where who has the most APs wins "?
Don’t be one of those kids posting senior year ’ why did I sacrifice sleep and things I wanted to do, when I didn’t get into any of the colleges I wanted ? Whereas that other kid ranked 27 did ? "
See post #8. Beware trying to impress colleges to the detriment of your health (mental and physical). Six might backfire. Yes you want rigor…but you also want to pace yourself. For example, your post should have included your proposed senior year schedule, as well. Thanks for explaining the English block, that was helpful for understanding.
Psych can be taken senior year. Supposedly it is one of the “easier” APs so using it to impress for admissions is not a sure thing if that is what you are going for. Bio is supposedly “hard” so so this one might be detrimental to your transcript! Colleges will see that you are taking it senior year, if you choose to do so. But it might be to your advantage to have the actual AP test grade come in AFTER your college admissions .
Sorry if this sounds discouraging but I would be concerned that your strategy might be counterproductive.
Colleges want to see you make the most of the courses offered at your school.
If your high school offers no AP classes, take all honors. But if your school offers AP classes and the kids at the top of the class are taking multiple AP classes, why would you not take multiple APs? Class rank is very important to me and to colleges. If I did what you guys were saying and took only 3 or 4, I would end up probably ranked 30th in my class. This is how competitive my school is!
Compared to my classmates who are also applying to Ivies, I would not be as academically competitive. And yes, I know that academics are not everything. All I am doing is making the most of the courses offered at my school and showing colleges tat I am ready for college level courses. I am also trying to stay in the top 3% of my class
Does this mean you don’t take English your senior year or how does that work?
My daughter took all of those but spread over 3 years (plus a couple more) and of the ones you have listed, AP bio was the most work.
Actually, that’s not how it works.
They use reasonable context.
If your hs offers 4 aps, colleges want you to take all 4. If your hs offers 20, they don’t expect you to take 15. They expect you to take 6-8, perhaps 10. After 8 the law of diminishing returns applies and above 10 they don’t count anymore for admission purpose. (they may count for credit, just top colleges consider the basic AP s normal background for freshman courses so they often restrict how many AP credits you can count. No such restrictions at mid level flagships though.)
At a competitive school, what matters is being in the top decile. Your class rank within that decile would only matter if you were attending a lower performing school. Since you attend a highly competitive school, your exact rank doesn’t matter. However what WILL matter is how you use non class time (which is another reason why tons of AP 's and related hw is counter productive).
@MYOS1634 I love your reference to the law of diminishing returns lol. Love economics.
I appreciate your advice, but in the end, I will do what I and my counselor believe is the best course of action.
@washugrad After I take the AP Lit/Lang block, I will be taking Dual Enrollment English Composition during my senior year.
AP Biology
AP Psychology
AP US History
AP English Lit.
AP English Lang. (My school has an AP Lit/Lang block class)
AP Calculus AB
Biotechnology 3 Honors
Lol I’m taking AP Calc, bio, psych, and apush this year. all so easy. Don’t even worry lmao
