<p>I know this should probably go in the high school life forums, but I always get much better advice here.</p>
<p>I'm in all honors classes and am doing very well at school currently. The only problem I'm having is with history. I barely got by with a B this semester (my teacher rounded up my C). The history teachers at my high school are horrible and many people fail them. It gets even worse when it comes to AP. Put a student who is very bad at history with that, and you get a horrible experience and grades! My question is that is it worth taking AP with horrible teachers, constantly struggling to keep my grade up when it is near impossible with our teachers, or is it okay if I just take psychology and sociology at school, or do psychology and ancient civilizations online? I'm really leaning on the not AP side, but I'm not sure what colleges would think of that. </p>
<p>Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Colleges don’t expect all APs. I think you should save your AP energy for subjects you are interested in or at least somewhat good at. I vote skip the AP history and take psychology and sociology.</p>
<p>You really don’t have to take every AP out there. Both my kids elected not to do AP English and did fine. (Unlike for you the APUSH teachers are great, though my older one whined about having to take the harder course.) Generally you should be getting at least a B comfortably in an AP class to make it worth it, and it’s always better to get an A. My kids’ experience seemed to indicate that getting a high A in a non-AP class was better than getting a B in an honors or AP class.</p>
<p>You should take some AP classes in HS. Colleges will expect you to take some AP classes if your HS offers them, especially if you will be applying to competitive schools. As you mention, not all AP teachers are good. Check how the students do in the subjects that you enjoy and vice versa. Your HS School Report should be on their website. It should have a breakdown of the AP classes (number of students taking and passing the exams). If the information is not there it will definitely be on your state’s Dept of Ed website. You may see that although a particular teacher may suck, their students do well on the AP exams.</p>
<p>if possible talk to a few students who have taken AP history at your HS and get a sense from them. Generally speaking, if you don’t like a subject and you aren’t doing well in a non-honor course, you shouldn’t take college level AP. As others have said, it is better to get a A in a regular class than a C in AP.</p>
<p>Our daughter opted for honors World History vs AP World because she doesn’t like history. It was a good move on her part, allowed her to focus more on the classes she liked and that were harder (AP Chem specifically). It won’t hurt your chances for college admissions at all. Take the regular (normal) history class.</p>
<p>I’m taking honors history right now with the APUSH teacher and am desperately struggling, along with the whole class and we’re some of the smartest kids in the school. The other two AP history classes offered are AP European History which is supposed to be even worse then APUSH at our school, and AP microeconomics which is supposed to be really easy. If I can fit that into my schedule I’ll try to take AP microeconomics. I will be taking at least 3 or 4 more AP classes, so not taking enough shouldn’t be the problem. Thanks for all of the advice!</p>
<p>Remember, the APUSH test has been revised. </p>
<p>If you don’t have faith that the instructor is good, I would advise to not take it. Especially if the teacher is not staying current with the changes to the test.</p>
<p>An A in a regular class would be much better than a C in an AP course.</p>