<p>I am a sophomore in high school and am taking 2 ap classes: ap world and ap art history. Last year I took all honors classes in the main subjects and did really well (high as, like 3 100s every quarter). The problem is the first week of school just ended and I am dying... The classes are much more time consuming than I expected and now I am thinking about dropping one. It takes me 2 hours to do the hw for each ap class and then I don't have time for other classes' hw or even studying. I am afraid that this will cause my grades to drop. I really want to take the classes but I just don't understand how I will have time for them. I am also on the varsity tennis team which takes up a significant amount of time. So my question is, to those of you who take a crazy amount of aps and still juggle extra curriculars, how do you survive? How do you succeed in these classes and on the ap exams? Is there a certain routine you follow or special way you do hw that helps u? Some kids I asked say that they just don't do all the hw bc of lack of time (the teachers dint check hw) and then just try their best in class.</p>
<p>AP classes are very different from Honors classes. The workload is a lot more at first. However, you get used to it. You learn how to stufy efficiently, you learn to read faster/skim, etc. last year, I spent over two hours working on AP Psychology but as the year went on I got that down. By October I was only spending 45 min at most per night. You really get faster and don’t need to study as long once you get used to the workload, know what kind of questions your teacher asks on tests, etc. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t advise dropping either class. It seems overwhelming now, but the workload becomes more manageable. Your two classes are reading-heavy, so learn some good reading strategies. Don’t read every word, don’t take notes as you read (take some notes after every main heading instead - you write down less because you can discern between important and not important better when you read a whole section as opposed to a sentence). You can read ahead on werkends or breaks so that you have more time for other classes during the week. </p>
<p>Another way to have more time is to make use of short spans of time. Get a flashcard app on your phone - use it when you’re in line at the store waiting to check out. Use the 5 minutes of downtime at the end of every class to do homework, not to sit there and do nothing. Read while you eat lunch. Making use of these small chunks of time really helps.</p>
<p>baileyj57 thank you for all ur great tips. I really hope that you are right about the course load becoming easier as time passes and the work becoming more manageable. Also tennis season ends in October so I will have more time once its over and probably won’t drop the class. You mentioned how I should skim the reading instead of reading every single word (what I do), but won’t that leave out information that may be important? Also, if you have tips on outlining please share as I am having some trouble figuring out the most effective way to outline…</p>
<p>Part of managing a workload of AP’s and EC’s is learning to do the minimum amount of work to get your desired grade or result. This isn’t being lazy, its being efficient. If you want to get A+'s in your AP classes, fine. But just understand that it will take up a significantly larger portion of your time than getting a low A or A- in the class.</p>
<p>I would also refrain from dropping a class just one or two weeks into the new year because you have likely just not gotten used to what is expected from you and what you need to do to succeed. The experience you have had so far may not represent what the rest of the year’s workload will be like; this has happened in several of my AP’s, where the first month or so is horrible but after that the workload decreases significantly. Keep working hard and I’m sure everything will be fine.</p>
<p>Mikee2014… Thank u for ur answer… i know this is a silly question but How do I know what the minimum amount of work is in order to succeed? Do I just eventually figure it out? And I’m sorry for not knowing, but what are EC’s?</p>
<p>If the load is too much to handle, be honest with yourself and only take one, but continue in the next years to build on the honors course you picked, for example, if your one honors class is English, try to become an after school English tutor, or write a weekly column for your school paper. The more you give yourself an identity and show colleges you have specific interests instead of piling on honors classes because you’re “supposed to” then you’ll be able to have your cake and eat it too!</p>
<p>No, skimming doesn’t run the risk of missing important information. In high school classes, most teachers tend to focus on memorizing minute details and facts. In college level classes, it’s all about the general concepts and critical thinking. As long as you understand the gist of the text, you’ll be fine. That’s why skimming is such a useful tool in college - you don’t need to memorize everything. Also, don’t forget that you have the textbook to reference! You don’t need to write down everything that MAY be important. If you understand the general concept, it’s not difficult to find the section in your textbook to find that small detail.</p>
<p>I’ve never been much of a note-taker so I don’t have many tips for outlining. But some good rules I’ve heard from teachers is to focus on the “why” and “how” not the “what”. My friend likes to take the headings in books, turn them into questions, and answer them in the notes. For example, if the heading is “Religion in Ancient Egypt” my friend would write down “What is the role of Religion in Ancient Egypt?”. Then she’d read the section, and answer the question afterward. It ensured she wrote down the essential information, not extraneous stuff she didn’t know. That’s something you might want to try. </p>
<p>Mikee2014 basically is saying what I said in another way. You don’t know what the minimum amount of work is YET, but you should have a good idea as time goes on - it should be pretty obvious after your first test or two. The workload goes down as you realize what the teacher expects. And EC is short for extracurriculars - varsity tennis, in your case.</p>
<p>baileyj57 what I am outlining is the textbook, so I don’t have to refer back to it. </p>
<p>I’ve heard the tip that ur friend uses, but doesn’t that mean that ur reading the text twice, hunting for what to write down the second time? Maybe I should just make a mark in the text next to what might be important while I’m reading so it’s easier to find when I go back to outline…? </p>
<p>Also since my teacher doesn’t check the outlines, can I just highlights the essays he gives us instead of outlining them? Would that make it harder to retain the info, tho? Is outlining a better tool for studying than highlighting?</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking, what is the value of an ap art history course tho anyways? I don’t plan on majoring in the arts and any colleges I go to probably won’t have an introductory art course that I could get credit for bc I plan on majoring in science. So instead of taking the art course, I was thinking about taking chem honors so that I can get ahead and take an ap science course both next year and senior year… Otherwise the only science ap i could take would be senior year. What do u think? Is it better to have an ap tho instead of chem honors? Or would chem honors be better for me, regarding what I want I do?</p>