As someone who received a 5 on the AP Chinese exam, I would not suggest taking Chinese 1 just for fun it’s a bit complicated. I encourage you to do things you enjoy and would love for you to take it, but if you’re trying to keep a high GPA I would take an elective AP (ex: APES). Chem honors in Senior year is really too late, you need the foundation and I would not recommend pushing it off until 12th grade. Is there a reason you want to take precalculus as a senior? I think taking Precal Junior year and then Calculus senior year would be better on college applications.
Here’s my two cents:
First off, you shouldn’t need to double up on math. You should probably stick to your Algebra II class and then determine if you want to do PreCalc or AP Stats for senior year.
Second, don’t take APES for junior year. Typically, that’s a senior year AP course. If I were you, take AP Bio or AP Chem this year and then if you want to do APES senior year, go for it.
Third, you are ridiculously exceeding expectations for everything. Both UCs would accept you if you took only three APs during junior year. If there are any APs you’re only doing so your resume looks better, don’t take them. Take the APs that you’re either passionate about or relate to your major. Considering you want to major in political science, if you haven’t already taken an AP Gov course, I’d recommend you do so.
That’s just my input. Hope that all of this was helpful!
Thanks! One thing I would like to point out is that my school only allows seniors to take AP US/Comp Gov and/or AP Econ. So should I take both in my senior year? First semester: AP US Gov and AP Micro Econ; Second semester: AP Comparative Gov and AP Macro Econ? Your input?
Do you have to decide now?
My recommendation would be to take only one not two, unless you plan to major in social sciences /business in which case it’d be a strong signal of your academic interedtd and skills.
Personally, I find Macro more interesting than Micro, US gov is easy if you took APUSH but comp gov reaches you more new notions and interesting situations, and micro is sort of like applied math ;).
Replace Chinese 1 with Honors English.
There is a reason for Precalculus in senior. I (and the whole SF public school students) were screwed because of common core. (Assuming one doesn’t double up in geometry and algebra,) a typical student’s math pathway is algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, and then pre Calculus. And also, what are your thoughts on me taking regular chemistry in senior year?
No, I don’t have to decide now. My school’s policy is that if you take AP micro or macro, you would have to take its compliment (macro/micro) . Same for government: if you take US Gov, you have to take comparative gov and vice versa. As for English, here is the link to my school’s page and you tell me which English you recommend for senior year: https://lhs-sfusd-ca.schoolloop.com/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1300090434568
Your thoughts? Thanks.
I forget, what do you want to major in? Because if you’re not going into STEM but rather Business, Social Science, or Humanities, taking BOTH AP Econ and AP Gov would be good. It’d be a lot of exams in May of course but doable since each reinforces the other.
How did you do on AP HuG?
Advanced Composition would be a good class for the Fall, as I assume you’d get to work on some college essays at least part of the time. For the Spring, Literature&Philosophy would probably not attract tooooo many students and it sounds rigorous even if it’s not an AP nor an Honors (it could be a CP class that sounds serious but it remains a CP class :p). Plus, the “philosophy” part will help you stand out and it’ll be a good complement to History and Gov classes.
Current Literature would also be an interesting option since you’d read very contemporary books.
Another possibility: Take Advanced Composition AND Literature&Philosophy as a junior, then AP English Language&Composition for Seniors senior year.
FALL SCHEDULE
- Latin 3
- Precalculus ( Honors if you want STEM, Economics or Business major, Regular otherwise)
- AP US GOV and Politics
- AP MIcroeconomics
- Chemistry Regular (unless you want STEM, in which case, take Chem Honors)
- Advanced Composition OR AP Eng Language for Seniors
- AP CS Principles
SPRING SCHEDULE:
- Latin 3
- Precalculus (regular or honors)
- AP COMPARATIVE GOV and Politics
- AP MACroeconomics
- Chemistry
- Literature&Philosophy or AP Eng Language for Seniors
- AP CS Principles
I was highly disappointed with my AP Hug score. I scored a 4. I am planning on majoring along the lines of public policy/political science.
OK then, you can take regular precalculus although Honors would be better but do take both Econ and Gov and the current literature classes, honors if they’re offered.
Also, you’ll have to take a modern foreign language in college. I’d recommend French or Italian as those would be closest to Latin.
This is a way to stagger the AP difficulty and keeping it balanced with 3 jr year, 4 sr year. You had misjudged the difficulty of AP HuG and it was just one AP, so going from 1 to 3 seems the most prudent thing to do.
- APUSH => this will require a lot of work but you can only take it in 11th grade, so, it'll be your really hard 11th gr class
- AP English Lang => replace with Advanced Composition (Honors?) and Literature&Philosophy (Honors?) or if you've already been given AP Lang offer this combination as an alternative to AP English Lang, and take AP English Lang as a senior
- APES
- AP Stats
- Algebra 2
- Latin 2
- TA (Teachers assistance) (probably my former APHuman Geo teacher)
FALL SCHEDULE
- Latin 3
- Precalculus ( Honors if you did well in Algebra 2 and in AP Stats)
- AP US GOV and Politics
- AP MIcroeconomics
- Chemistry Regular
- AP Eng Language for Seniors (or Advanced CompositionH)
- AP CS Principles
SPRING SCHEDULE:
- Latin 3
- Precalculus (regular or honors)
- AP COMPARATIVE GOV and Politics
- AP MACroeconomics
- Chemistry
- AP Eng Language for Seniors (or Literature&Philosophy H)
- AP CS Principles
Do you know anything about the difference bt AP CS principles and AP Computer Science A? I’ve already taken regular computer programming(first semester of sophomore,) so I’ve fulfilled the prerequisites for AP computer Science A. Here is the school page for programming courses: https://lhs-sfusd-ca.schoolloop.com/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1275747746574
Also, what about the prospect of taking AP English Language as a junior then taking AP English Literature as a senior? I’ve heard rumors about AP Eng Lit being super hard, though I don’t know much about it. What do you think?
You tell me which I should take in junior. Ps. My junior year courses are set, so I can’t switch. Thanks!
CSA is Java, and CSP is mostly Scratch and CS topics, but not a strong introduction to any commonly-used languages, as far as I’ve heard.
Here, take a look at my school’s description of both classes (at the bottom of the page) : https://lhs-sfusd-ca.schoolloop.com/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1275747746574
Cs principles is an overview of all th ways you can use CS, multimedia, app design, and IST.
I think it’d be more relevant to what you want to major in.
If you can take advanced composition and literature& Philosophy senior year then that’s ok. Too bad you didn’tnt switch chem regular and apes while you still could, though.
Is it not a good idea to take chemistry in senior year and APES in junior? And also, the teacher that I took for English 2A in sophomore, also teaches literature and philosophy. I have a strong student to teacher bond with her, and I know I’ll learn a lot from that class. And also, what SAT subject tests do you recommend I take? I was planning on taking English lit, Math level 1, and some other subject test, as Georgetown heavily recommends 3 . What do you know about Georgetown and how are my chances? Thanks.