Choosing classes for Sophomore year, and questions

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Here is the schedule that I want to take for next year:
AP Calculus AB
AP Psychology
English II H
Chemistry H
World History II H
Spanish II (Honors isn’t offered)
Religion
Varsity Tennis

I have the following alternative options:
AP Statistics (replacing Calculus)
AP Environmental Sci. (replacing Chem)

Now for my questions:
-Is this schedule rigorous enough for top universities?
-What kind of curriculum does AP Calculus AB cover, and what are the most important pre-calculus topics that I should be focusing on in order to succeed next year, excluding trigonometry?
-Should I switch Honors Chemistry for AP Environmental Sci? Is it more important to get all of the pre-requisites done for other AP sciences (Chemistry, Biology) first, or to start taking an (easier) AP science earlier on?
-Can the AP Psychology coursework be as easy as the exam?

2

Your schedule is great, I wouldn’t change anything.

3
  1. Agreed with above
  2. Just derivatives and integrals basically, and understanding their meaning in context. Lots of theorems and formulas, like MVT, IVT, and volume stuff. To prepare, you should definitely brush up on your algebra skills and study different functions' behaviors and graphs. Vectors and polar graphs too I think? I don't really remember what all was covered in Pre-Calc, and I have trouble distinguishing it from Trig...
  3. I may be biased as a Chemistry major, but I would say take Chem. It's far more core (like you said, a pre-req), while APES is rather non-essential, in my opinion. I think you should only take APES over other options if you think you're genuinely interested in the subject.
  4. I never took it, but from what I hear, yes. That depends on your teacher, though.
4

Thank you for the responses!

5

Do not do this:

I have the following alternative options:
AP Statistics (replacing Calculus)
AP Environmental Sci. (replacing Chem)

no no no

6

No. Conventional wisdom is that one should take bio/chem/physics before taking any electives. And when you start to consider AP electives, if you are targeting top colleges, AP Bio and AP Chem will be considers as more rigorous than APES.

It can be. As with any course, the workload is dependent in large part on the teacher.