I am signed up to take AP Literature, AP U.S. History 2, and AP Environmental Science for my junior year next year. I’m worried that I am overloading myself. I have never taken an AP class before, but have been recommended by my teachers for these courses next year.
At my school students are eligible to take AP Lab (a half-credit course) when having 3 or more AP classes in their schedule. This was very appealing to me because AP Lab is just a free block students get to work on assignments every other day.
I’m comfortable with taking AP Lit and APUSH 2 next year, but I am concerned about AP Envi Sci. I’m not entirely interested in science and I am by no means above average in science courses. In honors Bio freshmen year I had about a B average and in CP Chemistry this year I have had an A average.
I talked to my guidance counselor and he encouraged me to take 3 AP classes because it would “strengthen” my schedule and look good to colleges, but I am afraid I’m going to do poorly. Naturally, I am a very anxious and indecisive person so this has been difficult for me to figure out. I’m worried that I’m just going to stress myself out by throwing AP Envi Sci into the mix, but I would also have that free block every other day to work. I’d love to get the opinions of others on this matter especially if you have had experience in any of these classes.
Apes is one of the easiest AP’s and by far the easiest AP science course. It’s also very interesting because it speaks about the world as it is right now, something few classes do.
Stay with it, take AP lab (a very good idea, kudos to your school), talk with the teacher about your insecurities as well as the homework, and there’s no reason you wouldn’t do well.
I would agree, but gauge how you’re doing regularly. If you’re feeling overloaded, it’s OK to drop something. Have you thought about going to a counselor? You sound a lot like my daughter, who just finished her freshman year in college. Going for therapy has helped her manage her anxiety and made a HUGE difference for her. So much so that she encourages her friends to go to her college’s counseling center. She believes that every high school student would benefit from some counseling in today’s crazy, stressful world and I agree.
Thank you for the reassurance!
Thank you! Maybe that will be something I will look into. I think I could benefit from that.
AP Environmental is considered one of the easier APs. Also, by the looks of it, you should be fine, especially if you’re diligent. Also, at my high school, I heard you would typically take AP Lang junior year and then take AP Lit senior year, were you recommended to take lit?
Thank you! At my school there was a scheduling issue where there were too many sophomores signed up to take AP Lang junior year, so they opened up AP Lit to juniors to reduce the sizes of the AP Lang classes.
Haha, that’s very odd! Lit is usually viewed as a harder class in comparison to Lang, so I was just curious.
That’s interesting because they told us that AP Lit would be more similar to our current Honors English classes now because it is more reading than writing based.
Make sure you take Bio, Chem and Physics at some point during your HS career…don’t take AP ES just because iti s an AP…the other sciences are more important.
I have taken Bio and Chem already and if I do end up taking APES this upcoming school year (which is something I am unfortunately still debating) I would take physics next year.
Also you’re right about not taking an AP just to take an AP which is what I’m afraid I’m doing just for the incentive of having AP Lab (the course I mentioned earlier where I’d have a free block to work on assignments).