My freshman year was pretty hard. 4 AP classes, chemistry, precalc, second year Chinese, and a literature class. The load was manageable, but I wasn’t used to the not-so-great online AP classes my school offered, and my extra curricular schedule was crazy and stressful.
^^ It sounds like your high school may have been ahead of most high schools. Students at my school don’t take AP classes freshman year, which I think looking back is a wise decision. Also most students were still in Algebra I or Geometry so they didn’t reach Calculus until senior year.
Take advantage of your freshman year to boost your GPA. My average was really high but then I messed up in my sophomore year (which I regret so much).
Freshmen year is a joke now.
My four years went a little like this:
Freshman: “What is high school? Why aren’t the answers bold and highlighted in the textbook? I’m going to die!!” I’d say that I studied a fair amount my freshman year, and it was hard, but I attribute it partially to the transition from middle school to high school.
Sophomore: Doodles on paper while teachers drone on incessantly. My sophomore year was incredibly easy and I was bored out of my mind. I never wasted so much time as I did that year.
Junior: “Why did I think I could do this?! Someone needs to slap some sense into me.” My junior year was hard, especially since I began working part-time that year.
Senior: “I thought it was supposed to get better…” My senior year was not easy, even though everyone told me it would be. I had very little homework - I will concede that, but the whole year it felt like I was just studying for exams.
Senior year for me is pretty tough