I’m a freshman at a well known private high school that weights AP and Honors classes the same, 5.0 out of a 4.0 system. 3 honors classes are the most people are taking, and only if you are a year ahead in a language. I am, but I am not taking biology honors, which is considered the hardest class for freshmen because I didn’t place into it (I messed up an easy question on the placement test that cost me a lot of points). I’m worried as to how much this will affect my GPA later, as I want to attend top colleges (mainly aiming for HYPS) and they will see I didn’t take the most difficult load this year. I likely will have more honors classes than most people later because I am taking two languages, but will taking the regular class now affect me substantially?