<p>I am currently in the process of registering for my next year, and have not taken an AP yet, but plan to take many next year.</p>
<p>Here is my 9th Grade schedule:
Healthful Living
Honors English I
Honors World History
Honors Spanish III
Honors Biology
Honors Chemistry
Honors Advanced Precalculus</p>
<p><em>note: I have straight A's in all of my classes</em></p>
<p>Here is my planned 10th Grade schedule:
Honors Spanish IV
Honors English II
AP Calculus BC
AP Chemistry
Honors Chemistry Lab
AP Environmental Science
AP Computer Science A (Online)
AP Psychology (Online)
Study Hall</p>
<p>*note: I am taking Civics and Economics in the summer going into my sophomore year. </p>
<p>It is certainly possible, but it is going to be extremely difficult. You will have a lot of work, and you probably will have little to no free time.</p>
<p>Probably. As long as you never take more than one content heavy AP per year (US history, Euro, etc.), the work probably shouldn’t be too much to handle. Environmental Science and Psychology are widely regarded as pretty easy and Calculus doesn’t have very much content.</p>
<p>I also wouldn’t worry about having no free time like other people are saying. I’m doing 4 APs right now, and if I didn’t play 2 sports I would have more free time than I know what to do with.</p>
<p>Also, how will my EC factor into this:
Tennis Team
Science Olympiad
Mock Trial
Moot Court
Work at a computational science foundation on Saturdays
Play cricket with a local team 1-2 times a week</p>
<p>You will be stretched extremely thin, but you can probably do it if you work super hard and are really smart. But don’t push yourself just to push yourself.</p>
<p>You might go to bed a couple hours later sometimes, but I don’t see how getting home an hour later one or two days a week makes much of a difference. (Which is usually how clubs work…I don’t know about tennis.)</p>
<p>You’re obviously smart if you received a 4.0 while taking two science course and precalc your freshman year. As someone who is in AP courses, they aren’t far more difficult because if you take them, it’s the level that you’re at. That said, they do require more work than regular courses, and typically you don’t take more than four at a time (five if you’re really determined, but it’s usually advised against). Think about it, in college, you will likely only be in four or five classes.
I wouldn’t load up on five APs your sophomore year. You still have two other years after that, and to go from zero to five is extreme. Most sophomores on advanced tracks take maybe two. Remember, colleges don’t only care about your GPA, ACT/SAT, and rigor in high school. They look for rounded individuals who are involved in activities, have a job, or volunteer. With five APs, you likely won’t have that much down time, considering you have other classes as well.
Also, you don’t want your schedule to be slack your senior year. If you take five APs your sophomore year, and I’m assuming your junior year you will take some as well, you don’t want to run out of classes you want to take and look like you slacked your senior year.</p>
<p>A lot of your classes (Spanish, English, etc.) will be around the same work as this year, only a little bit harder, and you’ll have a study hall which you didn’t have this year.
I’m in AP Calc BC and it’s been around the same work level as my previous math classes, it’s a different sort of AP in that regard - if you’ve been on the math track leading to AP Calc all along, it shouldn’t be much worse, unless calculus as a topic is something you struggle with.
I’m not sure why your school requires chemistry before AP chem AND another period for labs, but seeing as you already have knowledge of the subject, it shouldn’t be too bad. The labs are annoying and a lot of busywork but it’s doable.
AP Enviro isn’t too hard, I’m self studing AP Psych by reading Barrons (are you taking it online for credit reasons? If not, just read Barrons and save yourself the $$$?) and it isn’t challenging and is fairly interesting material making it an easy read.
I have no familiarity at all with AP comp sci A as a self study, but on top of everything else, it could be very challenging. I know people taking AP comp sci in school who say it’s their toughest course, and it’s not their only AP.
But seeing as it is an online course, maybe you could start it over the summer and get a chunk out of the way so it’s easier? If not, I’m not sure I’d recommend it.</p>
<p>I don’t think, considering how far ahead you seem to be in other classes, that it’ll be a huge deal. I just don’t have much experience with online courses-I would consider whether you can be self-directed enough and do well in those. It seems average CC kid does 6 APs junior year. If you have programming experience , A will be easier. Are you interested in these courses? What have you heard about the teachers?</p>
<p>In response to hamolton, I have some programming experience, I can program in html, python and javascript, but AP Compsci is all Java.</p>
<p>All of the course choices I made are purely based on interest.</p>
<p>From what I have heard about the teachers:</p>
<p>The AP Calc BC class is almost exactly the same level of challenge as the Advanced Precal Class
The APES class is odd, during the class you just complete activities, and for hw you read the passages and vocab required for the next day’s activities.
The AP Chem class is infamous for being very hard, mainly due to the teacher that teaches it, but I have this teacher for Honors Chem and I’m doing fine.</p>
<p>Yeah, 5 AP’s at once definitely isn’t a good idea. They aren’t just difficult, but just a lot of work and you might become super overwhelmed. But then again, it all depends on how AP’s are at your school, how hard of a worker you are and How much sleep you’re willing to lose :)</p>
<p>I’m going to have to disagree again with the majority opinion here. People here grossly exaggerate the level of effort that AP classes, and school in general, take. If anything, I’m under loaded with 4 APs. 4 AP Tests in 5 days won’t be any fun, but for now I’m doing next to nothing outside of school for all of the classes.</p>
<p>If you’re the kind of student who works extremely hard at everything he does, you’ll make your course load harder than it really is. But if you consider what’s actually necessary to do and what you can get away with not doing, you can coast by very effectively. High school is only as hard as you make it for yourself.</p>