<p>its ridiculous
freshman + sophomore years no one has ever heard of ap
junior year = everyone is taking every ap class available and taking 4 sat prep courses and all of a sudden becoming the captain of their sports teams
its a little crazy how competitive its becoming</p>
<p>^Sounds like our school haha. As soon as AP classes became available, pretty much everyone made a scramble to sign up.</p>
<p>I just stayed up till like 3 AM every night, and still managed to go out with friends on the weekends, but yes, I did sacrifice a little bit. It’s hard, and it’s so competitive! ):</p>
<p>god what if we could just send everyone better than us to another island with another school for them
that way us normal people who try really hard to be smart and dont deserve to be on cc
can finally get into the ivy league!
…and they said i was a genius, hmph.</p>
<p>I managed to have a social life, don’t get me wrong. Junior year was tough, but I still had fun. Actually, the only reason why I survived was because I went out and released some steam every few days. My friends were in the same situation as I was; stressed, on the verge of a breakdown, and just overwhelmed.</p>
<p>Junior year won’t kill you. It’s just tough. The first semester is a lot more difficult than the second. By the second semester you’ve already gotten used to everything and you have a routine. It’s July and I’m still trying to get my body out of my school routine. :(</p>
<p>But don’t have too much fun. It’s important to stay focused. I didn’t give up TV or my social life, but I did cut out trips to the mall, etc, unless I had an open weekend. :D</p>
<p>I’m kinda worried about my upcoming senior year. I’ve heard it’s even more work/stress than Junior year. I just can’t comprehend that.</p>
<p>Um, yes. Amid three AP classes and two honors courses, studying for SAT’s/ACT’s, I also had musical every day until 5 o’clock, and dance everyday until 9 o’clock. I wouldn’t get home until 9:30, still have to eat, take a shower, etc. By the point I started my homework, it would be 10:30. Needless to say, I didn’t have friends all year, and I didn’t sleep basically all year!</p>
<p>Yeah I would say I sacrificed it all junior year. This was by far the toughest year of school I’ve ever had. 4 AP classes, 3 IB classes, leadership positions in clubs, etc… It got rough towards the end cause our teachers were so bad. I had to self study AP bio and AP Euro along with AP Psych and attend a few debate tournaments. We also had IB math SL exams to take, but our teacher really prepared us for those. Then it was time for SAT/ACT preparation and then the last week of school was 7 final exams along with 2 1,000 word papers due for IB and a 15 minute presentation for english. It wasn’t much but it was all piled up into May and first week of June so it was reaaallly stressful lol. </p>
<p>I would say it was a success since I did well on the SAT, did well on IB math, and passed 3 of the AP exams. I got a 2 on English Lit, but whatever lol.</p>
<p>And trying to maintain all A’s throughout the year kinda took its toll also. About 5 hours of sleep per night. Hopefully it was worth it =o</p>
<p>Maybe it was just my school… I had THE chillest APUS and BC Calc teachers ever. Rarely gave out hw, just study for the tests and you’ll be fine. I was able to do that like the day before tests and all so I was pretty free during the weekends. I never volunteered or did huge EC’s… so maybe thats why I had so much free time…</p>
<p>As for SAT’s… I just did a couple of practice tests, and was praising the lord when I got a particularly easy test in June, but I also got pretty lucky…</p>
<p>Everyone in my school tells me that you lose all sense of your sanity in Junior Year…
I’m not looking forward to that at all. I’m taking APUSH and AP Lang, which are my strongest subjects, but I’m freaking out about the SAT and ACT. </p>
<p>One question: Which test would be easier to take first?</p>
<p>Junior year is the hardest year at my school. In freshman year, most people have 0 APs, and in sophomore year, most people don’t have more than 2 APs. In junior year, a lot of people have 5-7 APs. While most of the common APs in junior year are “blow off” classes at my school, such as Calculus AB/BC, Statistics, Compsci, and English III (AP Lang), there are a few AP classes that require ridiculous amounts of outside-of-class work, such as APUSH and physics. For me, if I did not have APUSH and physics, junior year would have been a lot less stressful. I had school from 8am-4pm, then came home and often did homework until I went to sleep at 10pm. On weekends, I did work for maybe 5 hours a day, so that means I totaled at about 80 hours of work a week. I personally did not stress over the SAT/ACT during the school year, because I took them both last month, and did all the studying in the week before each test. However, some juniors at my school took the SAT/ACT many times during the year, which I imagine would have been stressful.</p>
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<p>Sorry for the late reply, haha. Anyway, I would go through week-long phases of feeling like I was a failure 'cause I had Bs in 3 classes halfway through second semester and I was doing poorly on Varsity swim. (I know, sounds devastating. /sarcasm) But I studied my butt off in those three classes and I ended up getting solid As (not A-'s) in them and just didn’t worry about swim (because that was harder for me to improve on).</p>
<p>I also tried to enjoy simpler things in life - my family, friends, music. You get through it :)</p>
<p>I don’t think I made any drastic changes to my social life, but I certainly and subconsciously made a lot of improvements my junior year. I usually slacked when it came to homework, but I did a pretty good job last year taking care of all of it in a punctual manner.</p>
<p>this is a solid thread, keep it going!
@wrongbelief, how did you self study ap bio?</p>
<p>@Tigerb: Hopefully I catch onto that kind of work ethic… Sophomore year was nothing short of terrible just because I always procrastinated…</p>
<p>I literally haven’t hung out with a friend since November…lol.</p>
<p>Junior year was a breeze for me and I still managed to get all 4’s and 5’s on my AP tests and get a alright SAT score without studying (2060). I took 6 classes: 2 AP, 2 at the community college and 2 regular. I took 4 AP tests, 2 self-study. Yet I had mountains of free time, put very little time into any of my classes and still got a 4.0 each semester. </p>
<p>I sacrificed two weeks before AP tests to ensure I did well and I did. I spent all of my weekend studying and it paid off but besides that, my Junior year was too easy. Maybe if I challenged myself, I could be one of those overachieving prodigies that everyone hates but secretly envies.</p>
<p>@samonuh, damn man that sucks but you do what you gotta do.
was it worth it though?</p>
<p>The moral of my story is that it’s possible to do drugs, be lazy, get 10 hours of sleep each night (true story) and still succeed academically. I still don’t have a great social life or a great optimistic view on life but I now believe it’s possible to find a nice balance between academics and relaxation/fun.</p>
<p>@bluedevils31</p>
<p>For the most part I’m satisfied with my decision this year. I spent my freshman and sophomore year screwing around and not caring about my grades, so I had to work a ridiculous amount this year to “save myself” I suppose. My class rank went from Top 17% to Top 8% from just my junior year alone, which I’m happy with. I guess what I’m saying is that since I saw clear results from my work, I don’t regret it.</p>
<p>Next year will be even more hectic: 5 AP classes, a job, leading a club, marching band etc. Not to mention college applications. :P</p>
<p>@Radioheadbro</p>
<p>Are you implying doing drugs is part of a healthy active social life?</p>
<p>@Bluedevils31</p>
<p>I used the Barron’s book about a month before the exam like around April. I annotated 10 pages a day out of that book and typed up my notes, like the most important things. Then about 2 weeks before the exam I started memorizing my notes and reviewing everything. I didn’t use the Campbell book that much cause our teacher stopped at around chapter 30 something. The last thing she went over was plants so she didn’t go over human anatomy (body systems, embryos) and she didn’t go over ecology. So I just did that and I got a 4. I’m sure if you start earlier than I did you can get a 5, cause Barron’s has a lot of information.</p>