<p>My son is a freshman in high school. Next year he will be able to take AP Bio or AP Physics, Pre-Calc Honors and AP European History. Some of the Sophomores have already told him that AP Euro is extremely hard and my son only wants to do CP World History. He has already made up his mind. His reasoning is that he won't be able to get an A, so there is no point in taking it. He thinks that he can easily get an A in CP World History and it is better than getting a B in AP Euro. Please share your suggestions/experiences. Thanks.</p>
<p>At our HS, AP Euro is A LOT of work - reading intensive and writing. The teacher is a tough grader, however my D loved it. My S chose not to take it. Since it was not something that interested him, I was fine with him not taking it. He took the AP classes that interested him, but he was not striving to go to a “top” college.</p>
<p>My own child complained a lot about AP European History. There is a lot of material to cover and the writing assignments were extensive. Although she studied throughout the year for the exam she found the amount of information expected to be retained overwhelming. She also did not find the course material all that interesting. She ended up doing quite well in the class but not quite as well on the actual AP exam.</p>
<p>It just depends on your kid and teacher. My son did not have a lot of trouble with it, but he loves history and started with a lot of prior knowledge. He also writes well without needing a lot of editing. He made an A in the class and a 5 on the exam. However he did not take precalc until his junior year and currently has a low C in that. So it just depends on your kid and their talents. And also somewhat the teacher as well.</p>
<p>Most AP’s are a lot of work, and Euro is no exception. But then Bio is a lot of work, too.</p>
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<p>I would hope so.</p>
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<p>Not to colleges.</p>
<p>Kids tend to confuse “a lot of work” with “hard”. You also should keep in mind that most students don’t encounter AP classes until sophomore year, so this could well be the first AP class they take, and many of them don’t have the study habits required, or aren’t expecting such a heavy workload. Our school offers AP World instead of AP Euro, and I’m not sure how they compare in terms of difficulty. My daughter took AP World, and it was a lot of work (though not as bad as APUSH), but she never said it was hard. These survey history courses just have a lot of material to read and learn. </p>
<p>I think worrying about how colleges might look upon a B in one class vs. an A in another is a poor way to pick classes. Your son should think about whether he’ll have the time for a high workload class, and whether he’s interested enough in the subject to want to take this on.</p>
<p>My daughter loved AP Euro, probably because she loves history. She never complained that it was any more work than the other APs she was taking (Bio, Calc, English Lit). For kids who aren’t interested in the subject, any AP class would be torture, so it’s better to decide based on interests than on what will look good on a transcript.</p>
<p>At my son’s HS AP classes carried extra weight so a B was worth an A. He took AP Euro and loved it (and his teacher) but it was a lot of reading and writing. And worth college credit after passing the exam.</p>
<p>I think this kind of decision can be a pointer to what kind of student a kid is. While I’m all for kids keeping their options open, at a certain point worrying about how something will look to colleges is not the point.</p>
<p>There are kids who absolutely want to take every subject at the highest available level because they relish more challenging classes that move faster. Although they would prefer to get an A, they are willing to take the chance of getting a B because sitting in the CP class would be torture for them. There are kids who are happy to take the most challenging classes only in certain subjects. There are kids who are more motivated by grades than by learning for its own sake in general, or in areas that really don’t interest them. There are kids who are interested in everything, and kids whose interests are more specific.</p>
<p>If your son has been in honors classes, he may not be happy with the pace and content of a CP class. Or he might just be happy to get a comparatively easy A and not care.</p>
<p>Will this affect his college choices? Possibly, especially if he continues to choose lower level courses in history, English, etc. But only in that he will have shown the colleges who he is as a student. Some tech schools will be more interested in what he does in STEM. Others will note that he isn’t the kind of student they are looking for.</p>
<p>I guess that ultimately I would tailor the college choices to the kid, not the other way round. But I will say that being afraid to get a B is IMHO a lousy reason to drop down out of a class that is otherwise intellectually satisfying to a less satisfying class.</p>
<p>My older son just took the two year sequence of World History that NY requires and didn’t get dinged for not taking an AP History as a sophomore - he’s a math guy and took a full slate of math and science APs and APUSH, AP Econ and AP Latin eventually. Younger son took AP World for the second year of World History - a pilot program that year. He did very well, but he likes to write, loves history and doesn’t panic when faced with unexpected exam questions. (His year the DBQ was all about the Olympics, something they had not studied at all.) Most kids in his class did not do that well on the AP, but he got a 5. Keep in mind that they’d had two years to cover the curriculum though freshman year did not necessarily align perfectly with the AP. </p>
<p>In our school AP Euro is taken by seniors who have already had two years of World and one year of US History and it’s still a lot of work. </p>
<p>Every selective college panel I’ve sat in on says you don’t need to get into the AP arms race. They want to see that you’ve taken a challenging curriculum, but that doesn’t mean that the science guy needs to take every AP English course or that the history person needs to take all the science APs.</p>
<p>Does an B in an AP look better than an A in CP? Well the Vassar rep when asked this question winced and said, “An A in the AP looks better” and all the other panelists laughed and didn’t say anything different. For what it’s worth both my kids took CP English electives senior year which they thought were more interesting and more fun than AP or honors English - they got easy A+'s and got into top colleges. The rest of their schedules were rigorous and they had 7 to 9 APs total each.</p>
<p>Thank you all.</p>
<p>Which AP Physics? AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 (Algebra base) - or AP Physics C: Mechanics and Electricity and Magnetism (calculus base - counted as 2 separate APs). This will make the difference.</p>
<p>If the student will be in precalculus, the AP physics course would have to be the non-calculus version (which is best thought of like a honors high school physics course).</p>
<p>I think your son made a wise choice. 2 APs for someone who has not taken any AP before is more reasonable than 3 APs. AP Bio requires hard work and requires some chemistry background. If he does not have some previous bio or chemistry knowledge he may have to work harder at the beginning of the semester. He also needs time to work on the English class. Strong kids in my local schools take honors humanities in 10th grade. This class is a lot harder than freshman English.</p>
<p>He can wait to take it but retain it as an option later. I don’t think these decisions should be based on grades. You can’t even predict if some hypothetical college will value the A in the lower level course over the B in AP.</p>
<p>The main question should be whether the subject interests him. One of my 3 loves history and loved that class and took more in college. The grade wasn’t the point.</p>
<p>While AP European History had more work than its non-AP equivalent, it was actually regarded as one of the more easier APs at my HS. Most complaints are more of the carping one hears about any humanities/social science course whether AP or non-AP .too many papers/lengthy reading assignments. </p>
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<p>At my HS back when I attended, AP Euro was regarded as a sophomore course alongside drafting .a sophomore year rite of passage for all students at my HS.</p>
<p>My D, who isn’t all that interested in history, took AP Euro as a sophomore. It was a very tough class with an outstanding teacher. There was a ton of reading, from the textbook and many other sources, and lots of writing. She did more work in that class than any other class she took in high school. She was happy to get out of it with a B, and even happier to get an excellent score on the AP test and get credit for the history Gen Eds at her college. A standard social studies class would have done more for her GPA, but in retrospect she’d say that the class was well worth it.</p>
<p>cobrat, so did your school do AP Euro along with the 2 year Global History requirement? You have to pass the Regents and it’s supposed to be a two-year curriculum covering a lot more than just Europe. (This only concerns NYer’s by the way, but it’s why Euro is not a sophomore year course in our system.)</p>
<p>AP Euro was a sophomore class at our HS when S took it. It was a lot of work, but with a great teacher. I am still amazed at the amount he learned in that class. I did not have the impression that the science or language APs were more difficult.</p>
<p>Appreciate all the responses. I don’t think he is interested in History, he wants to major in STEM field.</p>