Courses:
AP Calc BC
AP Chem
AP Language and Composition
AP CSA
APUSH
Spanish 3
I am not sure if APUSH is worth it. Any suggestions on which classes are more worth it/Important and what I should remove to decrease my workload?
(I am planning to the Pre-Med route)
You should decrease your workload unless you absolutely can handle this.
Pre med is an advising, not a major - but you certainly donât need this level of rigor for pre-med.
How has your rigor been before? How have your grades been?
Any thoughts on the type of school you want to attend?
If you can handle, then great - but if itâs going to stress you, take a step back.
That is a lot of APs. Whether this is too much or not is likely to depend upon how strong a student you are and how good you are at time management.
I might add: Students vary in terms of how okay they are at being very, very busy. Some very smart people who are very strong students need to take some time to relax. Some other strong students are okay with being continuously busy. It depends upon the person.
Did you already take Calculus AB. How did you do in it? Did you do well in the prerequisites for calculus?
One daughter took AP European History and at the time said it was the most difficult A- that she ever had in her life (years later she said that premed Organic Chemistry in university was harder). I doubt that AP US History is going to be much easier compared to AP Euro.
If you are thinking of premed, then two things come to mind. One is that at some point in high school you will want to take a biology class. Is this already done or planned for your senior year? The other thing that comes to mind is that a bit of volunteering in a medical environment might be a good idea. This might give you a better feel for what the environment is like.
I agree with @tsbna44 that you should be cautious about taking on too much.
Also, there are a lot of universities with very good premed programs. As @tsbna44 said you can major in any one of a very wide range of majors and still complete the premed requirements.
Yeah, I definitely want to drop an Ap. Would APUSH be the best one to drop or would dropping another class be better?
I am currently in pre-calc honors and got a 96% last semester. Following my schoolâs pathway would mean calc bc is next in line.
I am planning to take AP BIO senior year, but I havenât finalized which one to take first. Would it be better to take ap chem or ap bio first?
Also if I want to drop an AP, which Ap would you recommend?
Some of it relates to your particular school: how heavy is the work load for Lang & US Hx in your school?
Some of it relates to you: are you a strong reader/writer? are humanities classes generally happy for you?
Some of it relates to your choices: what are the options if you donât take the AP level? is there an honors level? is the non-AP option less fun / mostly for less-motivated students?
And finally, why AP CSA?
Last night one of my collegekids- who went to famously rigorous undergrad and grad schools, and who is now in a very intense job- said that she thinks parents and students donât realize just how hard Grade 11 is for academically ambitious kids. Between challenging classes and all the ECs that are expected for admissions to selective US colleges and the need to be âperfectâ all year, she said itâs the toughest year sheâs every had work-wise, and only her friends who did med school / internships says they have had anything comparable since then.
Your schedule is fairly typical of top kids here with AP in the 5 cores plus an elective AP (or honors in a core subject) , though there is a required 2-yr Calc sequence so APCalcAB is the âtopâ 11th grade course , then BC is 12th. Even the rare kid who is âaheadâ and does BC in 11th does it after a year of AB so both calc years are spread out and slower paced than schools that have BC calc cover all of AB and BC together .
Thusâyou should find out what is typical of your HS top kids and honestly assess if you are one of them and can handle this personally.
If you want to drop one , drop AP CSP, as it is not a core subject. Or, switch to APBio and keep CSP, leaving APchem for 12th.
What is the alternative to the AP classes at your school? Is APCSA a rigorous course at your school? Is this typical of the high achieving kids at your school? This would be a typical 12th grade schedule at our school since kids take honors science before AP but many take all except the AP science in 11th grade and there are some who take this path.
In our school AP Bio and APUSH is the most rigorous combination of classes since the amount of memorization is intense for both classes and the hours involved is terrible even if the concepts are simple. Each school and student is different and AP Chem may actually be an easier class.
Talk to some of the students who have taken those classes at your school. In my daughterâs experience, some teachers made the classes difficult and stressful, while others were known for having manageable workloads.
What are your academic interests. Why comp sci for example ? You could take regular history or honors - sure. If you desired. Wont hurt you with your rigor. But maybe youâd do just fine.
Listen to the other posters.
This is a good sign for someone intending to take calculus a bit early.
Personally I think that I would take chem first. You could ask a science teacher or your guidance counselor what they think. You will most likely also want to take a physics class at some point unless you already did this.
Mostly I would drop the one that you are the least interested in. For me it would be APUSH. However, math, science, and computers were the things that I personally liked the best and did best in.
The main issue here is to do what is right for you.
I take APUSH right now and overall itâs a pretty good class, I like it a lot more than AP world but iâm not sure i would say you should drop it either. It really all depends on the teachers at your school and how they teach the course because I feel like the right teacher either can make the course very boring or pretty interesting
and I plan on taking these for my senior year
ap studio art
ap macro or micro
forensics ( bc iâve heard mixed reviews on ap chem but it depends on the teachers at your school)
ap lit
ap calc ab
AP Seminar/Research
Iâm not sure how your schedule is set up but you should definitely make sure you will be able to handle 5 APâs at once,
I feel like i could so iâm taking 5 and if you feel like you can then go for all the classes you want!
One other note I LOVEEE AP Lang and I feel like although the structure of essays can be harder to grasp at first all the content in the class has been really interesting to me. You get to read a lot of important historical speeches, letters, etc and I def recommend the class
You should also look at schools that you are considering attending. I know it is early but it may be good to look to see which classes get credit. Take the one you are stronger in. S21 did better in APUSH, S23 did better in AP Lang. Both will get 6 credits at schools for 4âs. Thatâs a big deal for premed if you are going to a school that accepts
AP.
Our AP Lang teacher assigns the college essay as part of her course. That would be another plus to take that junior year.
Not sure if APCSA will really do anything for you if you are going for pre-med. I do not think that the credits will fill required college courses, making them electives, if the school you choose even accepts them. I could be wrong on that one since mine did not take the course and are not pre-med.
A last note, I agree with others that A/B usually comes next in our school. However, if your school only offers B/C next and they have good results, you should definitely keep that.
What other classes do you take junior year and how much work were you getting per week?
Sooo, right now I take
AP Lang- My lang teacher only really gives work in class like most of my teachers, but we do a lot of analysis of writing and have to answer 10-12 analysis questions sometimes in like 30 minutes. We also always write essays in class (1hr 20min) which can be hard but after practice it gets a lot easier.
APUSH- Truthfully I donât pay enough attention in this class but itâs pretty easy, but my teacher gives a lot of quizzes and LEQâs. If you arenât good at writing LEQâs can be really hard but it all comes down to knowing a few topics and how those few topics connect to other smaller effects and things.
Precalc- He mostly just gives delta math for homework which doesnât really take long but precalc concepts can be pretty hard to understand
Physics- ( I hate physics and i think other sciences are better but yk thatâs a personal opnion)
mythology- (online course, basically doing work within a 2 week period)
sociology
art
photography
I donât get a ton of work in class, i spend most of my time studying for quizzes and tests, finishing art/photography projects (which is rlly the only outside work I get), and working on big projects I might have and stuff for clubs( I do mock trial, media team, Newsletter)
Definitely ask around about the classes you want to take because the class will be different depending on your school and the teacher.
I have decided on these courses:
AP Calc BC
AP Bio
AP lang
AP CS
USH
Spanish 3
I am taking computer science because I would like to have some experience in cs and would be beneficial if I choose to do something more engineering related. The APUSH workload at my school is around 3-5 hours per week and combined with other classes, I think I am probably going to lose a lot of sleep and energy for extracurriculars. So, I made the decision to drop it. A senior with pretty much the same courses his junior year made it into UC Berkley, so I think I should be good without APUSH. Thank you all for your suggestions!
Yeah, I really enjoy both history and computer science but I think computer science would be more beneficial for my goals. So, I am probably going to pick normal us history. Thank you for your advice!
Itâs fine - APUSH is an âacademicâ core classâŠbut you have plenty of rigor there even without.
Best of luck.
A good schedule that makes sense for your interests.
Make sure you have another math to take senior year (If interested in CS, Discrete Math through DE would be the most appropriate), take AP Chem senior year, an AP social science/history, Honors English, Spanish 4, and another course related to your area of academic interest. 
And youâre good to go!