AP Classes in Freshman year

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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Again, going back to the overall goal! You want to challenge yourself- which is great!- but to what end.

Also, your HS graduation requirements are one thing / expectations from colleges might be another- depending on the colleges. IF you are looking at the super-selectives, the expectations are 4 years each of English / Social Sciences / Math / Physical sciences (w/ lab, obvs) / Foreign language (each at the most rigorous level available to you), plus some meaningful depth in your ECs.

So- what are you aiming for?

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42

I forgot about this!
At all of our district high schools, written approval was required for all AP classes.

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It really depends on what type of student you are, and what the school will allow. In my district, really bright, way ahead of the curve students get virtually no opportunity to take classes that are geared to their level until high school. Once they get into high school, they can maneuver themselves into almost all AP classes and get a very good education while in high school. Essentially, they get an education equivalent to the first two years of college, while staying in a high school environment. They take AP sciences without ever having taken high school sciences. They accelerate their math, take BC Calc in 11th and multivariable calc in senior year. They take multiple AP histories. They take AP levels in anything they can, assuming that the teacher is good, to get a broad college level education in high school.

So, if you are the kind of very bright, highly motivated student who has been frustrated by the slow pace of middle school, I suggest that you plan for all AP classes. I assume that your school requires that you take honors English 9 and 10, then allows you to take AP Lang, followed by AP Lit. You take whichever math you’re up to, at the honors level, and after precalc you take Calc BC. If you are allowed to do it, you take any of the following sciences in 9th grade: AP Environmental, AP Chem, AP Bio. If you can do it, I would recommend AP Chem first, because the chem will come in handy for AP Bio, but AP Bio doesn’t help you with AP Chem (except in that you have to learn a little bit of Chem for AP Bio). I would wait on taking physics at all until after you have Calc BC, or at least simultaneously with Calc BC, so I’d recommend doing AP Chem in 9th, AP Bio in 10th, and Physics C (both semesters) in 11th. If you are the sort of student who will have Calc by senior year, you take only Physics C - you don’t take Physics 1 and 2, followed by Physics C 2 semesters. Then, if you want to take AP Environ in 12th, great. If you don’t want to take it, and are interested in medicine or dentistry, audit Organic Chem at the local college (you don’t want to make a college transcript, but if you’re really that amazing, go ahead and take it for credit in 12th grade, and make the college transcript record of it).

Combine these with as many AP levels as you like of everything else, as long as they have a good teacher, to obtain the broadest, best education that you can while in high school.

This recommendation is only for a very bright, very precocious, highly motivated student, and only for the sake of wringing every opportune drop out of your high school education. Mere mortal students should take three years of honors level sciences and then take an AP science. They should take a mix of classes at their level, which is commonly, for a good student, honors, with maybe one or two AP classes a year. They also do sports, music, theater, all sorts of other things, for a normal, well-rounded high school experience.

That’s why I say it depends on what type of student you are. Discuss it with your parents, and your high school advisor. Understand that you can always drop down from AP level to honors level, but usually you cannot jump up mid-semester to join an AP class - they move too fast.

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44

One thing to consider is whether or not you will max out what your school has to offer by accelerating this early. If you will, what will your plan be once you have done so? Regardless of the starting point for the student, highly selective colleges prefer to see at least one of each core class (math, science, foreign language, english, and social studies) each of the 4 years of high school.

If taking a lot of APs early will leave you without classes at the end of high school, how will you fill those core classes that colleges like to see EACH year? Also, they want As and 5s and won’t say “oh, he took it as a freshman, so he can do worse.” It sounds like that isn’t a problem for you, but think about what you will do if you run out of classes. There are options, but make sure both you and potential colleges will like them.

If you need more challenge, are there projects, research, or other work you might like to do to remain intellectually stimulated?

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45

It looks like your school system is a “Physics first” system, so in these systems the typical progression for a strong science student would be Physics, Chemistry (honors), AP Bio, then other science at the honors or AP level.

If you took Physics as a HS course in MS, then your 9th grade choice would be Honors Chem, then 10th AP Bio, 11th and 12th AP Physics C, AP Chem in any order (both are 2nd level AP courses with pre reqs).

As a 9th grader, you could take AP Human geography for social science and AP CS Principles as an elective (which will allow you to take AP CS A in 10th or 11th grade).

Then Precalculus Honors if you finished Algebra2 with an A, Algebra2H otherwise (these foundations are… fundamental, do not skip on the sequence), Spanish 3, English 9H, and probably some sort of performing or visual art class or some sort of health class.

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Talk with your middle school GC to find out how they do things at your HS. They are all different. At our HS, AP classes (other than CS principles, which can be taken as a sophomore) are not available until junior year. Occasionally, a kid will come along and take a math AP earlier if they are taking outside math enrichment. Many AP classes have pre-requisites and you need to be recommended by your HS teacher to take them.

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Yeah, I guess the AP history classes are a little difficult, so maybe you could try taking AP human geo if it’s something freshmen do at your hs. Mine didn’t offer it at all and instead required regular or honors world history freshman year.

AP CSA doesn’t require any prior knowledge of Java. It’s actually pretty fun/easy (as long as the concepts click well) and I’m definitely not going into computer science in college. So I think you might enjoy it. I knew people who took it as early as freshman year. My hs didn’t offer AP CSP either though.

My high school track was actually very similar to what parentologist described, although I didn’t do all the AP science classes because some were notoriously hard and I wasn’t as into science. Some non-AP prerequisite classes were required and that was totally fine in terms of rigor. So I’d recommend that you think hard about what classes interest you and also make sure you’ve fulfilled any prerequisite classes. Your school might also require permission to allow you to take some of the AP courses if your course plan is nonstandard. I had to ask permission to double up on English senior year and take both AP Lit and a fun elective.

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At our school, every freshman takes AP Human Geography. It’s not super hard, it’s interesting, and you don’t really need any pre-requisites for it. And the best part is that it’s relevant, so if you find yourself struggling to connect your academics to the world around you, here’s a great way to do that.

Most students do AP Language sophomore year.

Others tend to be based on interest and successful completion of foundation classes.

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Perfect!
I am learning python, and really enjoying it so it might be fun to learn another language in 9th

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This can’t possibly be at a public high school. I can’t imagine throwing the special needs kids into an AP freshman year. And even among the kids who aren’t special needs there are a fair number that are barely literate.

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Save AP CS A for sophomore or junior year. Ap CS Principles exposes you to the differenr dimensions of CS (beside l1nguage and programming). Broad knowledge is very important in HS and will let you see what other CS electives tou may be interested in taking later on.

I doubt you’d get approval for CSA as a freshman anyway: juniors and seniors would likely have priority for this course, then sophomores may take the remaining spaces.

Most importantly, you want to pace yourself out and map out a coherent progression that increases in rigor each year.

As a result, taking CSA as a freshman would be a very bad strategy (where do you go from there?)

The following schedule is already pushing yourself and exceeds what most freshmen, even those aiming for Harvard/Williams/MIT, would take - qns there’s no certainty your HS would even allow you to take such a rigorous courseload:

Ap CSP, AP Human Geo, Precalculus or Algebra2H, Honors English 9, Honors Chem, Spanish 3.

Here’s what a challenging HS schedule would look like if you took that freshman schedule:

-Sophomore Year would likely include AP World or AP Euro History, Calculus AB or Precalculus H, Honors English 10 (or AP English Lang if your HS is one of the few that offers it to sophomores - it’s typically an advanced junior course), Spanish 4, AP Bio, and one elective (possibly CS related).

  • Then Jr Year, APUSH, calc BC, AP English Language, Spanish 5 or Ap CsA, AP Chem and art class if you haven’ttaken it before (many colleges like to see that - can be digital media or be computer related).

  • Then Sr Year, history or social science of your choice (AP Euro or Econ or Gov or Honors version), senior English seminar, Discrete math/Linear Algebra and/or MVC, AP physics C, 2 classes of your choice including possibly AP CSA.

But… does your HS offer all these classes? Or does it offer dual enrollment/running start/PSEO?

Start looking at your HS’ catalog, offerings in each of the 5 core subjects and in electives, pre-reqs for upper level and AP classes. Then use the guidelines above and map out what you’d like to take. When you meet with your GC, make sure to have a transcript (they should have one but come prepared) and your 4-year “course map”. Them come back here with any questions or if you have issues.

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@me29034 , it’s not a public. But kids are coming from different backgrounds. - public, private, good, not good, etc. and . Many other classes are based on testing - this one is not.

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Alright I will take your advice, you seem to understand the subject better than I do…

And I think I will be taking AP physics 1 instead of honors chem but who knows, I still have a long time to think about it

Do you know how I can do algebra 2 over the summer and still get the credit?

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I am confused. You are taking precalc in a middle school? But earlier you stated something about teaching yourself Algebra II over the summer.

Do you plan on graduating early? How many high school credits do you already have?

Are you homeschooled or in a foreign country? Are you staying in the same school for middle school and high school?

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I also am confused about your post. Precalc without Algebra II? Maybe what you meant is that you’re taking (or have taken) Algebra I in middle school, plan to take Algebra II over the summer (bad idea), and precalc in 9th grade?

You said you like to be challenged. Find the best teachers (who are usually, but not always, the toughest teachers) in high school and take their classes. My daughter’s toughest class in high school was honors preCalc (her math sequence ended with Multivariable Calculus in 12th grade). AP classes were hard but sometimes had A LOT of busy work. PreCalc was challenging in an intellectual way. If you like to be challenged look for a challenge. Not an AP class. Good luck!

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I will have 5 credits by the time of graduating middle school
I am in geometry, in 8th grade (pretty standard)

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Yes I am going to do algebra II over the summer (And on my own free time of course)

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And no I don’t plan on graduating early
I am not homeschooled
I live in the US
HS and MS are different schools

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I do not recommend this. Most taking it will be taking it for the second time to improve their grade.

Take Algebra II honors in 9th and precalc in 10th ( not sure why you indicated you were taking it now). Then you can take your higher level maths in 11th and 12th.

For sciences, talk to your school counselor for next year. There may be scheduling issues that you are unaware of. Doubling up in sciences is okay, but only on AP science at a time is recommended.

There are plenty of kids getting into top schools with a normal amount of APs and DEs 2 to 3 a year for 10th to 12th. You can have 7 to 9 and be very competitive if you use your time to built on your other experiences and ECs. Pace yourself so you do not burn out. There are plenty of kids with 15 APs, questionable ECs, and lots of deferrals and rejections.

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Take Algebra 2 HONORS in 9thgrade

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