Good Idea

<p>I'm still new to the whole concept of AP being that I never took an AP class my whole HS career..</p>

<p>But is taking 6 AP classes in one year overwhelming?</p>

<p>This is what I'm planning to take my junior year:</p>

<p>AP Calc AB
AP Biology
AP Lit
AP U.S. History
AP Physics (Or Chemistry.. Not sure yet)</p>

<p>And I'm self studying AP World History</p>

<p>Manageable?</p>

<p>I've been taking all advanced classes which means PreAP or Honors or Enriched. But I think AP is WAYYY harder. So I am pretty confused</p>

<p>It depends on your school and how hard their classes are in general. I’ve found that at my school oftentimes the AP classes are actually easier than the regular classes. I’m taking seven this year and can manage. You can always try and if it’s too overwhelming you can drop a few weeks into the semester.</p>

<p>its possible you just have to work hard at it.</p>

<p>My school is pretty easy. </p>

<p>Also, so I want to take like 7 AP next year, what topics are god to take?</p>

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</p>

<p>Again, how hard an AP class is comes down to your teacher. Sure, all AP classes are harder than their regular counterparts, but a great teacher can mitigate the pain of an AP class. </p>

<p>My recommendations:</p>

<p>1) Ask upper-classmen about their junior years, how many APs they are taking, how many they think they can handle, how their AP teachers are, etc.</p>

<p>2) Go to [RateMyTeachers</a> - Teacher Ratings and Reviews by Public and Private School Students Parents and Faculty.](<a href=“http://www.ratemyteachers.com/]RateMyTeachers”>http://www.ratemyteachers.com/) and check out all the AP Calc teachers, all the AP Bio teachers, etc. at your school. If you get a really bad AP teacher, you are pretty much screwed unless you have some Herculean amount of motivation. Plus, you don’t want a hard teacher who is going to mess up your GPA, or some teacher that yells everday. Go to ratemyteacher.com - the best site ever - and research your teachers. </p>

<p>3) Here are my impressions of the APs: </p>

<p>Calc AB: Manageable with a good teacher. Requires a solid understanding of Algebra. I mean it!
Bio: Manageable with a good teacher. A ton of stuff to memorize.
Lit: It’s like SAT CR, only way harder. I’m in Lang, which is just Lit without the poems, and the amount of reading comprehension required is very high.
APUSH: Manageable with a good teacher. A ton of stuff to memorize.
AP Physics: It’s like Calc. If you haven’t taken some basic physics course before, then don’t try AP Physics - it requires a solid foundation of basic physics concepts.
AP World: if you are going to take APUSH, don’t bother with World. You don’t need to put that much burden on yourself. World is just more memorization.</p>

<p>Manageable? I guess - I could probably handle it - but first off, I’d check to make sure that I will get good teachers. One wacko teacher who assigns work like there is no tomorrow in one class can overwhelm you. With that many APs, you’ll spend many hours laboring over textbooks and soaking in information.</p>

<p>I checked, all the teachers are good. Though the only reason why I’m asking here is because no one in my school is doing what I plan to do. Everything think 2 AP is enouogh, but I kind of want to exceed standards and take them all. </p>

<p>AP physics is THAT hard? I was really planning on swinging it >.< . </p>

<p>Is there an AP class that is a bit easier with the courseload I plan to take?</p>

<p>Take only three or four, spending time on extra-curriculars, volunteer work, hobbies, leisure reading, and such. Well-rounded is much better than over-APed.</p>

<p>It all just depends. It’s not always a matter of intellect but a matter of time and the work load. For example, I am at the top of my class and I’ve aced most of the AP exams I’ve taken but while I handled 4 AP classes and 3 honors my junior year, I tried to take 6 AP classes my senior year and the homework they all handed out just got to be too much. I ended up with an A in all of my classes but I dropped one at semester because I was tired of being so stressed. Having only 5, btw, is immensely easier. But like everyone else has said, it depends on the teacher. </p>

<p>As for physics, it depends which AP physics youre taking. B or C?</p>

<p>I don’t know. I think B.</p>

<p>But yeah, I might drop AP Physics. </p>

<p>So 5 AP’s a good number?</p>

<p>AP Physics isn’t necessarily hard, but it does require a clear mind and clear thinking. Prerequisite knowledge of physics is definitely a plus for AP Physics. I pretty much failed at regular Physics so that’s why I’m not taking AP Physics.</p>

<p>IceQube, what do you recommend for me? I took PreAP Biology and Chemistry. But I also want to take another AP science class because I want to major in a science field (Biomedical). I don’t want to take a year of Physics because my schedule is pretty much full.</p>

<p>If it’s B I don’t think you’ll have to much of a problem. A friend of mine self-studied for B and got a 5. He was in my physics C class last semester and he said that B was a joke in comparison to it.</p>

<p>Dorkyelmo: I think you should take:</p>

<p>1) APUSH
2) AP Calc AB
3) One Science: Bio or Phys.
4) AP Lit
5) Eschew AP World - not worth it.</p>

<p>My experience and those of my peers.</p>

<p>AP Calc AB - It won’t be hard if you have done well throughout high school in honors math classes
AP Biology - Easy, straight up memorization without all the reading and essay writing associated with Lit and History.
AP Lit - A workload, lots of reading, huge time involvement
AP U.S. History - A grind, so much memorization and time involved
Science - Chem is of above average difficulty and is manageable, but AP Physics C is going to be tough. Phys. B on a lesser scale I assume</p>

<p>PS: I would drop Lit or UPUSH and take both Chem and Phys. instead since APUSH and Lit are just time consuming and boring classes. (History is never fun at the AP level)</p>

<p>Okay okay. So I want to take an AP History class because {not being mean} the normal history class students are so obnoxious. They are just plain-out RUDE, irresponsible, and the creepy… o<em>O So that’s why I think I’ll take APUSH, despite how boring history is in general -</em>_-’’ . </p>

<p>I probably will not take Physics or self-study world history next year (unless I have time). But my school is handing out registration forms tomorrow and I need to choose by next week.</p>

<p>Reading from all of your posts, I decided to just take these classes (of course, knowing my school, they probably wouldn’t even afford one of the science AP classes :c) :</p>

<p>-AP Lit
-AP Bio
-AP Chem (Probably won’t even offer this class, but I’ll sign up anyway)
-APUSH
-AP Calc AB</p>

<p>@drac313, LOL at the “History is never fun at the AP level”</p>

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</p>

<p>History was fun for me … and especially fun if you use The American Pageant :p. </p>

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<p>That seems like a reasonable courseload for a junior. Hopefully, you’ll be able to put your SAT CR skills to use in AP Lit :D!</p>

<p>Haha, I was thinking more of improving my CR skills in AP Lit. </p>

<p>But anyway, thank you both drac313 & IceQube!</p>