<p>I'm not gonna lie and say I read this whole thread...I stopped after 3 pages.</p>
<p>Let me just say LOL to all of this. AP Chem was quite possibly the easiest honors class of my life. Last year I took it and never did an ounce of homework except labs (2-3 hours every 2-3weeks or so) and reading the chapter(s)/studying for 2 hours the night before each test. Easiest class ever. I pulled the best grade in my class with a 93 and scored an easy 5.</p>
<p>I know I'm gonna sound like an arrogant elitist ******* but...you seriously need to drop something. You spend way too much time on homework. I've taken all honors and 8 AP classes (all jun/sen year) except for english and the worst nights are maybe 4-5 hours of homework. Remember, tons of people that take many more APs than you or I do rediculous extracurriculars (look at some of the posts on this website for god's sake).</p>
<p>If you are naturally smart (which being in your classes USUALLY indicates) then you are just overthinking things. Try reading over things once, maybe twice and review all the problems in a class like calc/chem. I can't see how this could take more than 2 hours of actual studying...unless you twiddle your thumbs a lot. Five hours on a 2 page essay is absurd. Granted I never took AP english, but if your teacher grades extremely hard than just accept a B. If you can't whip out an "A" essay in less than 45 minutes per page than English obviously isn't your thing...so don't stress about it so much.</p>
<p>If you can't cut down your time doing homework by 3 or even 4 times then please drop something and keep your sanity. Not all people are meant to be able to learn quickly and get everything at the pace of the hardest courses. If you don't belong there, get out before it destroys you...as it seems it already is. Stop trying to fulfill some outlandish expectation about what college you NEED to go to...if you aren't smart enough to be there then you shouldn't strive to go there. You think it gets any easier in college? If you can't stand the heat, get out of the fire.</p>
<p>Well at least you know that you came off as an arrogant elitist *******. You can't compare the difficulty of your classes to someone else who goes to a different school. I would have thought that you would be smart enough to realize this...hmm, I guess I'm not that bright either.</p>
<p>you know, maybe i'm not that smart, but i do now how to spell ridiculous. Maybe you should spend some of this free time of yours to work on your spelling.</p>
<p>hahahahaha nice, megalomaniac lolol. yeah, mrj, i agree with some of the things you are saying but blythe is right, you cant compare different classes at different school... i mean to a certain degree, but the generalizations you make are a bit rIdiculous lol. some people like you on this site need to stop bragging about all their "amazingness". i mean really if you need to do that to that extreme in order to make yourself feel good, youve got some issues if you ask me. it's just never an attractive quality. some tact might prevent making a fool of yourself (and im not just saying that as an attack to you mrj i mean these people in general).</p>
<p>Um, get off CC if you have problems with your time. But I know how it is...I used to go to a REALLY competitive private school in CA (if I say the name y'all will probably go OOOH DEM $NOB$)...and people EXPECTED sophomores who wanted to go to a semi-selective college (Berkeley, Wash U all the way up to Harvard, MIT) to take 3-5 APs, including Chemistry, which was notoriously time-killing, Euro (oh the essayage), and a Language. Forget junior and senior year! These kids WORKED, man. All-nighters were DAMN common and even the so-called "naturally smart" people had to work. I had one friend who had almost never gone to sleep before 1 since the 8th grade. And this girl wasn't special. And the result? Just about everyone 5'ed the Chem/Comp Sci exams, for example, and College Board gave us the "Best AP Chem program" and "Best AP Comp Sci" designation for basically having the best 5'ing rates out of any school anywhere. It isn't easy and I totally don't blame anyone who has to work inordinately to pass. Schools can be tough. If you don't go to a tough school, it's hard to understand this. I totally sympathize with the OP. I too take HOURS to write papers. I'm not "incoherent" I got a 700+ on the SAT Verbal at age 12...It's just hard! And to the OP: Colleges know if your school is tough. I talked to the adcom at CMU and told her I went to a competitive private school in NC (different from the one mentioned above, that one was CA) and she immediately named my school, which no one I know out of state has ever heard of. So chill. A word of advice. Get a tutor for AP Calc. I am good at math, but with so much other work, a tutor is GOD. They go over so much. Maybe you should do that with AP Physics. My math teacher can't teach at all, so I got a math tutor and she basically teaches me a week's worth of material in just an hour. It's priceless. I have an A and I barely stay awake in class.
And to mjr: Since you have so much free time, now you can go get that surgery you've been needing for so long. Yeah, to remove the stick. (.............the one up your, um, nevermind.)</p>
<p>how can you tell if your school is "tough" or "competetive"? I think my school is like... in the middle? i guess? idk i guess it is above average. its a public school in CT. some people work really hard i guess- i generally do, but there are also quite a few slackers... im becoming one lol.</p>
<p>I guess the only way to really compare schools AP classes is by grades on the AP...at my school (public in MA) the large majority of students get a 5 on most AP tests. If not, they get a 4. Why would a Chem teacher put an extreme workload on students if it won't improve their AP score? No matter what you say I think its a safe bet that students that get 5s on APs are probably in equally challenging classes.</p>
<p>I played video games my entire high school career for about 6 hours a day, had varsity track/xc year round, didn't study until before test day, and took 12 AP/IB + 5 College classes in total, got about 7 hours of sleep minimum a night. Honestly, if you need to work that much, you don't belong in those classes. You would probably be overall a much stronger candidate to slightly less competitive schools if you had dropped your course standards a bit. Not to mention...good health, and crap like that.</p>
<p>I wish that AP classes were standardized in this country. Also, within our school, complete idiots take Honors History and get As but Honors Geometry and Honors Biology were insane for many people. It makes me mad, because it makes the label/weighting of "Honors" almost entirely void. And it's not even the subject matter, it's the workload, the feel, it's dumb. Also, the kids who take college prep classes are going to die in college. Our school has the worst school profile ever, naturally. But our APs are leaps away from honors and college prep classes. Anyway, a girl I know applied to yale with, I believe, 2200+ sat scores and a GPA close to mine (mine is 100ish weighted) with great extra currics and toughest workload, you know, she was pretty awesome all around. And she got rejected, not even deferred. It makes us ivy RDers really, really scared. </p>
<p>By the way I totally failed my calc test and I totally know it. Four problems, and I finished two. I totally knew how to do all of the problems, I just happened to approach them in ways that would have taken me a lot more time. All I can say is OH my god.</p>
<p>And my chem test was alright. I should have studied something besides Nets. Like, the material on the test. Hahaha.</p>
<p>I take 6 AP classes, and do around 1-3 hours of homework.</p>
<p>I dont get straight A's heck I got a frieking 3.0 average unweighted this year (low 4 weighted), but I LOVE MY LIFE!!!</p>
<p>HAPPINESS>YOur frieking education!!!!</p>
<p>Take the B's and do 70% less work. </p>
<p>2) And Seriously IVY IS NOT EVERYTHING! Looking at my major (business) undergrad. Only 3 or 4 ivys are in the top 12. Yet, I got into UIUC (#12) with a frieking low 3.something unweighted GPA. </p>
<p>Im not telling you to slack here... but chillax jeez. TAKE LIFE slowly and ENJOY IT! HIgh school rocks!</p>
<p>damitssam is totally right. high school is great, it's best to take the time to enjoy it!! life is way easier right now (unless you totally stress yourself out, ccers!) and i do stay up late a lot and i can be reallly stressed, but i never pass on something, like a party, because i have a lot of homework. homework doesn't make for good memories.</p>
<p>I agree. I see kids at my school not going to parties because they have to study for a test and I've always thought that was dumb. But then my mom started making me do the same thing and that bugged me a lot. I say enjoy life. People are always putting off having fun but they don't realize that there will always be work to do that gets in the way and if you let it take over your life then you might as well give it up.</p>
<p>i have a 20 hour a week job. i am on varsity tennis. i surf 5 hours a week. i spend over 2h a day on the internet doing nothing. i study MAYBE 1h a day. i have 3 APs. i am taking a class at a community college. i have a 4.2. i am president of a club. i play poker/drink every saturday from 7 pm to midnight. i sleep 9 hours a day. so its possible to survive senior year.</p>
<p>good for you. this thread doesn't even really apply to me anymore. I'm fine. I'm dandy. I got a 98 on my AP calc midterm. A 95 semester average for AP Chemistry. And a 100 on my physics midterm. So ya'll can stop comparing because I'm done complaining.</p>