<p>How many AP classes, even honors classes, per year, should i plan on taking in high school in order to be competitive in the ivy league, highly selective colleges, etc? And is it worth it to take 4 or 5 AP's as a senior; will colleges actually look at this?</p>
<p>Any input is appreciated</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Take as many AP classes that you believe you can handle, and take a number as close to the possible number your school allows. Colleges want to see that you are taking the most rigorous schedule that you can, and since not every school offers many APs/Honors courses, college admissions will take that into account. For instance, at my school we are allowed a maximum of seven APs and by the end of my senior year, if all goes well, I will have taken seven AP classes. At my friend’s school though, they only have around five or six AP classes offered to them, and she is taking five. Even though she’s taking five AP classes and I’m taking seven, it doesn’t mean colleges will weigh heavily in my favor. They look at each school’s profile (which is the part guidance counselors send off) in order to determine how far you went to challenge yourself and how well you succeeded.</p>
<p>That being said, I think it is worth it to take 4 or 5 APs, as long as you believe you will enjoy the subjects and you can earn a good grade in each class.</p>
<p>thanks sardonyx827</p>
<p>My school only has four AP classes, so if you’re in a situation like that I’d recommend taking all the AP classes your school has. But obviously if your school has 30 AP classes it won’t be possible to take all of them, so just take as many as you can within reason.</p>
<p>Is ten or eleven AP’s unreasonable or is it a good idea?</p>
<p>Overall ten or eleven is not a bad amount. A year is unreasonable and uneccesary.</p>
<p>If you can handle ten or eleven (total, like Niquii said), then go for it! My school only allows us to take seven maximum, but if you can take that many then why not? Just make sure you know your limits. You know your work ethic the best.</p>
<p>Ok what I was looking at was I can take a max of only 1 sophomore year, so I’m thinking of taking that. Then, 5 Junior and 5 Senior. Reasonable still?</p>
<p>If you believe you can handle it, then it’s reasonable. Get some opinions from upperclassmen about the APs you’re planning on taking. Figure out the amount of work and the rigor of each class and then from there decide if you can handle five classes together. For sophomore year, take that 1 AP class; that won’t be stressful at all. If you don’t need to make your course selections now (for junior/senior year), then I’d wait until mid-sophomore year to start asking about the other AP classes. </p>
<p>At my school, the most brutal classes are AP Chem, Bio, and Euro History. So if I had a choice, I would never take these three at the same time, or even two at one time. People still do it, but it’s just a lot of work. Each school is different, especially with the way teachers conduct their classes.</p>
<p>Thanks sardonyx827 I’ll definitely do that</p>
<p>As the mom of a kid who has taken 9 AP classes and studied separately for another AP test this year, I urge you to make sure you don’t end up with too heavy of a workload. If you play sports and/or participate in a lot of ECs, you need to factor that into the AP workload you’re willing to take on. In addition, if you have a job, you need to consider the time spent on the job because it will limit your study time.</p>
<p>Also, what colleges do you plan to attend? The college my D ended up choosing only allows 24 AP credits so she’s going to have to pick and choose which ones she uses. Many of her AP credits will go to waste but if she has to take re-take classes in college she should do very well in them. She also had some dual credits from the local community college and we haven’t found out if those will be accepted. She applied to the college at the last minute but fell in love with it when we visited so it was the right choice for her but had she known that was where she would have ended up, I suspect she wouldn’t have taken 5 AP classes this year and would not have spent several weekends, holidays and teacher in-service days studying for the 6th AP test (her teacher led the study sessions).</p>
<p>Colleges like UC’s, HYP, BU, NEU, Colubia, and Georgetown.</p>
<p>keep in mind that AP classes are taught differently in each school, so taking AP Lit in one school might be really easy, while in another school it might be really rigorous. make sure to ask around about that.</p>
<p>taking 5 APs junior year after taking only 1 sophomore year is a bad idea. you won’t have a good idea of how much you can really handle. try to take maybe 2 sophomore year if you want to take so many as an upperclassmen. it sounds all good and fine, but when you actually get the courseload you signed up for, you don’t want to be surprised by how difficult things suddenly are (speaking from experience).</p>
<p>there is no magic number of APs you should take- just take what you think you can, as much as you can. but make sure you can get good grades in them. a B in AP is better than an A in a regular class, but don’t let your schedule get so rigorous that you have trouble maintaing all B’s in your subjects (again, I speak from experience).</p>
<p>I can only take 1 AP sophomore year :/</p>
<p>
Jumping to 5 APs from 1 AP the previous year may be a bad idea, but who is to say it isn’t tolerable. </p>
<p>My junior year first semester I took four AP classes and junior to 6 AP classes second semester without ever taking AP classes. Was it doable? Yes? Would I do it again? No. There’s a larger learning curve but once you get into the swing of things, things really come together. Now, I did not take a great deal of math or science intensive courses that year. I had a nice mix of science, history, and English.</p>
<p>It’s ok, just see how the 1 AP goes, and like I said, ask upperclassmen about the five you plan to take junior year and go from there. Stressedoutt is right in that you don’t want to overwhelm yourself, but sometimes classes are easier than others and it varies by school so just be informed before you make any decisions.</p>
<p>AP can be challenging.
Like College board reccomends, take AP in the subjects you will enjoy.</p>
<p>Look at some of the colleges that are your top picks (if you have any at this point) A suprising amount (Including many state Universities) don’t consider AP at all! </p>
<p>Another major factor is who the teacher is. My school has a system for AP English Language and AP U.S. history (both for 11th graders), where the teacher taught Honors 10th grade of that class. </p>
<p>If you did well in there 10th grade class, you did well in AP.It would work well if your school had this. </p>
<p>Here is a link to help you decide what to take:
[2012</a> AP Exam Score Distributions](<a href=“2012 AP Exam Score Distributions”>2012 AP Exam Score Distributions)</p>
<p>Although, it’s a nice way to see how difficult the test is, I wouldn’t advise someone to look at the score distributions to help narrow down what classes they want to take. </p>
<p>All three of the classes that I’m taking have the lowest passing rates. Don’t let other’s performances affect how you perform.</p>
<p>Good link Adam ^</p>
<p>thank you.</p>