How difficult is 5 AP classes in a year?

@Lindagaf I’m definitely taking into account the information you provide me, not just waiting for you to tell me that my idea is good. I’m considering taking Spanish II in place of AP Physics 1 if I don’t get it during the summer, which should significantly decrease the difficulty of my sophomore year courses (AP Physics 1 is very difficult at my school). This will probably help me do better in the AMC 10 and USABO by leaving more time for studying for those (and AP Bio will help for USABO). Do you think doing this would help me perform better in my classes next year?

@scubadive I’m looking at taking more challenging classes in my junior year through an online program by a prestigious residential school in my state (as I’ve mentioned before), and this may increase my junior year rigor. Also, I now understand that self-studying for APs is unnecessary and I’ll likely think twice before doing it in the future (I most likely won’t do any more. If I do, it would be one of the easier AP exams and I would space it out over a large period of time to prevent cramming for it).

Thanks for posting your full plan.
You need to change it a bit though.

10TH GRADE

  • AP English Language and Composition (year-long; English III GR covered with this)
  • AP U.S. History (year-long; American History I and American History II GRs covered with this)
  • AP Biology (year-long)
  • PLTW Introduction to Engineering 1 (1st semester)
  • AP Calculus AB (2nd semester)
  • Spanish III Honors (summer course) => try to take during the year?
  • DO NOT “self study” APES
  • Take a “fun” class - Current events, Culinary Arts, Home Ec, Theater Tech, whatever is a bit different and has no hw

11TH GRADE

  • AP English Literature and Composition (year-long; English IV GR covered with this)
  • Art, Digital Media, or other elective, 1st semester
  • PLTW Principles of Engineering 2 (2nd semester)
  • Calculus III (Community College)/ Algebra-based Physics 1 (CC)
  • Spanish IV Honors
  • Intro to Sociology (CC) or Sociology Honors (HS)/ European History or Western Civ after 1500 (CC)
  • AP Statistics (2nd semester) => no need, will look like padding - cross out

12TH GRADE (need 3 more semester-long classes to fill up my schedule for this year)

  • AP Spanish Language (year-long)
  • AP Chemistry (year-long)
  • Pick two from: AP Microeconomics (1st sem)/ AP Macroeconomics (2nd sem)/AP U.S. Government and Politics
  • Linear Algebra/ discrete Math (community college)
  • Literature (English, Comparative, or In Translation), Composition, or Philosophy class (1 each semester, community college)

The rigor grows as does the focus. There’s no unbalance as in your previous schedule, which was super heavy in the 10th grade then petered out.

Go with your intuition. If you feel like you can really handle the course load and have proved to done similar work in the past, then go for it. Otherwise, it’s not worth the stress.

I like @MYOS1634 suggestions. Note that it has you taking no classes during the summer. Summer is a great time to focus on other aspects of you besides just routine classwork. Maybe that’s the time to take a deep dive into one particular area of interest. Or to give back to the community in some meaningful way. Or to work on your ECs. If you’re thinking about things just in the context of college admissions, then think about how you’ll present yourself to colleges on your application. Who do you want them to see? What will your story be? You really don’t want it to be that this kid just studies all the time and is accumulating a string of APs in different classes. More important than college admissions, though, is that summers are a great time to improve yourself and also to share your strengths with others.

Honestly, from a current 10th grader’s perspective, I would say that this schedule is rigorous but do-able. I think you accidentally put AB instead of BC for 10th-grade calc. Currently, I am in AP Psych, AP Calc AB, AP Chem, AP CSP, and 3 other AICE (AP-equivalent) classes with AP AH online and 3 DE classes (getting all As and a B+ >.<). APUSH, AP Lang, AP Bio, AP Physics 1 seems like 11th-grade classes, but if you can manage your time well, it is possible to excel. I do agree with taking AP Spanish or any foreign language within your upcoming years, maybe junior year. Just remember at the end of the day, to make sure you do what you can handle, DO NOT take all of it and slack off in any of it, make sure to do good in all of them.

@MYOS1634 Thank you so much for your input! I will consider the schedule you have posted.

@melvin123 Thank you for your thoughts. I agree with your opinion about summers and I am planning on using my summer this year (the Spanish II summer course has little to no rigor so I can still do it without spending more than an hour a day on it) to volunteer, get a tutoring job, prepare for contests like the USABO, and study for the SAT/ACT. Is there anything else you would recommend doing with that time?

@KennyStudies Thank you so much for your thoughts and for pointing out the mistake with my schedule–I meant to say AP Calculus BC. I appreciate your valuable input as a sophomore taking a similar course load as to what I have planned. I was wondering if you could tell me how much time every day you spend doing homework and studying for tests for these classes.

@skompella9892 I usually only have like 2-3 hours of homework and I only usually study for tests the day before. I know these are very bad habits and I’m trying to change it, but rn I only spend at most 3 hours a day for homework but I also have a study hall where I usually work for the whole hour and a half.

At our local public HS, 5 AP’s sophomore year would be near-impossible. Maybe the most advanced student in math, humanities and foreign language might be approved by their counselor. Maybe a couple students of 600 might be approved, but counseled against it.

My ‘21 (junior next year) is taking 3 AP’s next year, plays a varsity sport and volunteers year round and I’m worried 3 AP’s may be too much. How are your EC’s?

@sushiritto I’ll likely be in the same amount of clubs as I am this year (8) and I’ll be doing winter and spring track as well. I’m involved in all of my clubs and sports (I’m hoping to hold leadership positions in them next year) and I’d say I have done a pretty good job balancing my ECs, academics, and social life so far. I’ll likely also be volunteering year-round on weekends and maybe weekdays.

@KennyStudies Dang only 2-3 hours? That doesn’t seem too far off the amount of homework I have every day right now.

@skompella9892 My teachers do not give out very excessive hw. They mostly want us to understand the concepts in class, so anything for hw is just review. I’m definitely lacking in ECs. This year I had 5 clubs, with 1 where I am webmaster. I was thinking of joining track and cross country next year. Last year, I also only held one officier position, but I’m hoping that this year, I’ll be able to get two treasurer positions.

@KennyStudies I don’t consider 5 clubs to be lacking in ECs, as long as you are able to have depth in each of them.

Yea, but I’ve been on and off for most of these clubs. The only thing I have had that is appealing is Science Olympiad, which we went to states, but then did average. Other than that, my other important and key clubs would be Key Club and Mu Alpha Theta.

More and more colleges are looking for English and math to be taken senior year regardless of how many credits you have and don’t care if you took them in 8th grade instead.

Also ec’s do not need to just be school and leadership isn’t just something with a title. However there is zero need to have tons of ec’s just to have ec’s. Just like there is zero need to collect APs.

What do you ultimately see yourself doing?
You’ll have plenty of APs and rigorous classes for any college. It’s not a race. Slow down and self reflect.
My advice is to save some time for you alone without school involved and ease your schedule for more self exploration. Not everything is learned in school. My D learned computer programming and how to create web sites etc on her own time. She developed her art on her own. Call it independent study.
It takes time to decide where you want to go and determine how to get there. Spend some time thinking about what you want to learn and why. Then go for it. Take some classes outside of school or self study the topics that appeal to you Don’t fill every hour with school work. You don’t need a grade for everything. It’s better if you don’t.

You emphasize taking Calculus BC sophomore year.

I am going to say that 3 people at my school got accepted into Cornell, Harvard, and Stanford, respectively, and are taking BC in their SENIOR year (gasps sarcastically).

When I was a freshman, I wanted to take BC sophomore year. Now I am thankful for not going with that decision. Considering AB was a breeze for me, I was able to maintain A+'s in the class, and due to the terrific preparation of my calculus teacher, was able to ace the first semester of BC as a junior.

I, personally, enjoy calculus. I don’t learn calculus because I have to; I learn calculus because I want to.

Colleges don’t care about how ahead you are in your classes, or how early you take them. They want to see CONSISTENCY in classes and TOP-NOTCH grades, as well as a TRUE passion for learning, not just hoarding APs for the sake of it.

Plus, it’s high school. You need to have more fun besides studying APs during the school year and self-studying random classes over the summer.

@KennyStudies Oh ok, that makes a lot more sense.

@momtogirls2 I’m planning on taking an English and a math in my senior year at either my local community college or through the online program by this school in my state called NCSSM. Many students at my school run out of English classes to take by senior year and end up either taking a CC English or an English elective like Speech and Debate, so that’s not very uncommon.

@gouf78 Thank you so much for the reply. I definitely am starting to see taking these crazy amounts of APs as something that is somewhat unnecessary and I’m looking at taking foreign languages in place of some of my AP classes so I can have time to do things outside of school. I really appreciate your thoughts.

@ichen21 Thank you for the reply. I feel like a huge reason why I’m self-studying Calculus AB is that I won’t have to take the year-long class for it, in which I’d really just be re-learning things I already learned (as I learned a lot of calculus in middle school through Khan Academy). I really like calculus (just like you), so I feel like my time is well-spent learning it by myself and taking the AP exam so that I am able to take BC next year. I really don’t feel like I’m doing this for college admissions purposes, although it might seem that I’m trying to hoard APs so that I can impress colleges.