<p>How is high school compared to college in academics? Are AP courses very similar to college courses? In colleges, are there just papers and exams, or are there minor activities (like presentations) as well?</p>
<p>At my school, every course is a lot harder than my hardest AP course in HS. It depends on the school though.</p>
<p>college courses > AP/IB courses </p>
<p>As for workload, it depends on what you're taking. A seminar will require a lot of reading, lots of discussion, and probably a presentation. A lecture class will be mostly exams and assigned reading. A humanities class will be reading (see a pattern? :)), papers, and a midterm/final.</p>
<p>mightymeals- wakefield, huh? i'm about 3 minutes from wakefield. small world isn't it?</p>
<p>depends on the class... I have three classes this semester (and some performing classes, i'm taking a light load b/c I have to travel a lot this semester on weekends), but here's the grade breakdown for each:</p>
<p>Music Theory:
2 tests = 24% (12+12)
2 projects = 25% (10+15)
1 final exam = 15%
homework = 30%
participation = 6%</p>
<p>Macro Econ:
Test 1 = 30%
Test 2 = 30%
Final (cumulative) = 40%
... there are also problem sets checked for completion, and you lose 1% for everyone you don't do</p>
<p>Latin American Politics:
participation = 20%
quizzes and midterm = 30%
final exam = 50%</p>
<p>main difference is that small AP classes in high school (my biggest was 11) are usually large intro classes in college. case in point, you may have 1000 petty assignments in high school worth a little bit of your grade, whereas in college all of those assignments are optional. </p>
<p>Your grade in intro classes is largely based on either midterm and final, or paper and final, or if you're lucky, midterm, paper, and final. You really can't mess up on 1 thing, because its hard to bring it back up with only 1 or 2 other grades.</p>
<p>They are not similar.</p>
<p>it depends what kind of high school you attend.</p>
<p>i went to a public high school and the workload is way heavier here (at vanderbilt) than it was there. my hardest class in high school in terms of workload is like a normal class now.</p>
<p>however, i have a friend who went to a pretty good prep school (loomis chaffee) and he says that the workload is lighter here than it was there.</p>
<p>It depends on where you went in high school, where you're going to college and what program you're in. But if college appears easier than high school, you went to the wrong college...</p>
<p>almost everyone graduated from my school said that colleges are a lot eaiser than my school</p>
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It depends on where you went in high school, where you're going to college and what program you're in. But if college appears easier than high school, you went to the wrong college...
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</p>
<p>I might disagree with this, depending on what you mean. I have less work in college, but the grading is much harder (my college gpa is lower)</p>
<p>yeah, Brown University must really be the wrong college for me since I have partied more, worked less, and got better grades than I did in high school (I got a 4.0 this semester, in high school 1/3 of my grades were Bs).... sorry, you are wrong, it's called going to an elite private school.</p>
<p>I've definitely had a lighter workload than I did in high school. Then again, I was in IB, and we were slaves to our workload. :( My grades are slightly lower (e.g. not a 4.0), mostly because orgo was hard for me. I've always heard that freshman year is easier than IB, and now I know it's true.</p>
<p>
[Quote]
in high school 1/3 of my grades were Bs
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<p>And you go to Brown University?</p>
<p>There must be hope for me now!!!</p>
<p>
[quote]
sorry, you are wrong, it's called going to an elite private school.
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Hehe. I remember the kids who went to fancy "elite" schools. Aside from the annoying attitude displayed by some of them, they fared no better than the other students from non-elite places accepted in the same program.</p>
<p>But you are right, I should have rephrased it. If college appears less challenging than high school, you haven't picked the right college or program or courses. Happier now?</p>
<p>Here at Yale, you could probably make your workload really easy by taking easier classes or less of them or you could make your life miserable by taking many difficult classes. I certainly wouldn't say it has been easier for me since I've taken much harder classes than in HS, but it has been different than HS - more interesting classes and not as much constant busywork and it's easy to party too much and slack off and not realize how much work you have until the midterm....I crammed a lot first semester frosh year and even though I did well, this semester, I'm doing my best to manage my time. I believe that if I dedicated a few hours of my time to homework every day, I could easily have 4.0 and still have time to participate in the community and party/go out.</p>
<p>College > high school in every conceivable way.</p>
<p>I do more work, but I have much better grades than I did in highschool. The work isn't harder for me really, it's just that there's more of it. The key is to figure out what you can skip and what you absolutely need to do. My anthropology class, for example, had about 80-120 pages of reading per class that was totally useless, so I never did it. I didn't have enough time, and it was horribly boring stuff. Our grade rested on 4 papers that needed to have evidence from 4 of the readings, so when a paper was coming up, I'd pick my sources and read just what I had to. Probably not the most studious way to do it, but it worked and saved me from sleep deprivation. </p>
<p>In my classes, we had smaller activities as well, but often they weren't graded, and it was just assumed that you'd do it. Grades were based entirely on papers, translations, and exams for me.</p>
<p>Don't worry- it's completely doable.</p>