<p>I am a rising junior, and my schedule looks like this:</p>
<p>Honors precalc
Honors French 3
AP bio
AP physics b
AP USH
AP english language</p>
<p>I just met with my new high school counselor today. I have never taken an AP course before. She is concerned about me and is slightly intimidating me by telling me how stressful my year will be. the thing is, I really want to take all of the AP courses that I will be taking. I know that it's doable, but I just don't know if I can handle it. </p>
<p>how many hours per day do you think I would have to devote to homework? I don't really do any sports and I don't have a job so I think that's good. she told me that USH will need at least 2 hours every night..and I i'll take that.. but shes just intimidating me a lot..and I'm starting to second guess myself...</p>
<p>ive seen others on CC with more APs than me..but my counselor is fussing about 4..i dont know..maybe it's just my school? </p>
<p>she gave me a choice: to either keep my schedule or to drop AP physics b down to honors..</p>
<p>thanks for reading all of that..any advice?</p>
<p>If you really want to take those classes just take them.
Usually, people take honors before AP and from the sound of it, you didn't take honors physics and that might be a problem.
Physics B at my school is a doable class with limited mathematical concepts and AP bio can be a pretty easy class (mainly memorization)
The AP tests for the four class you chose are doable and none of them are considered hard.
I would just go for it. If you feel like you are having problems...can you just drop the course during the school year?</p>
<p>yes..i probably can..but that would make me look like an idiot since she already gave me a time slot to make my decision. :(</p>
<p>yeah...i know what you mean. I sometimes have the same feeling but i do hard courses and never drop (even when i really really want to) and it turns out well in the end.</p>
<p>if you didn't take either honors bio or honors physics, i'd borrow or buy review books so you understand basic concepts especially for physics. I really don't think AP bio is going to be much of a problem, but physics has some concepts you should be familiar with before you go into AP and I don't know how much your teacher will review before jumping into real course material.
does your school assign summer homework? because summer homework is usually review that the teacher doesn't really want to waste time on...</p>
<p>I'm going to tell you something that really helped me, as I was in your exact situation (just replace AP Bio with AP Psych, and French with German): Disregard what your conselor says. Chances are, it's your school, and my school was exactly the same. Not listening to my conselor was an excellent choice. The most amount of APs they recommended taking at my high school was one a year, two if you're "gifted", and that was the standard of excellence. On the sheet to sign up for the exam, they didn't even put more than three slots because they thought you were stupid for taking more than that.</p>
<p>If you don't like to read? Yeah, then it will be hard, as AP Bio, APUSH, and AP English Language are a lot of reading and actually understanding what you've read. And if you have crummy teachers? It'll be even harder to pass those exams, because you'll have to do a lot of the work on your own.</p>
<p>The only thing that'll suck majorly is that the AP Bio and Physics B tests are on the same day. Maybe that's motivation to step down to honors for this year. ;P There's nothing wrong with delaying physics a year, if you're a little intimidated by it. Doing honors would give you a good background, and you might have an easier time with it next year, and be more likely to get that four or five.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Have you taken predominantly honors courses till now and done well in them (mostly As)? Pathetique makes a great point: you really can't trust most counselors as they're used to dealing with the "average student," and more likely than not, you're not the average student. I remember when I was entering high school the counselor scared me completely out of AP Bio by flatout lying to me and saying 80+% of students fail the class. Looking back, I know I would've done very well in AP Bio (took AP Psych instead). My real counselor after that was a gifted counselor that pushed me to take all the APs that were offered, and that made school much more enjoyable. Since you've never taken AP classes, this will be more work than you've handled before, but if you're willing to put in the effort, it sounds doable, and since you'll be more intellectually stimulated, more enjoyable :)</p>
<p>4 APs is some work, but you can handle it. I had almost the same schedule as you last year. Except I took Chem AP instead of Bio AP and Latin 3 instead of French 3. You have to study, but it's totally worth it. </p>
<p>And I think it's only your school making a big deal out of taking 4 APs. It is totally normal for a Junior to take 4+ APs at my school. I go to a big public high school.</p>
<p>As the post before me said, don't listen to your counselor completely. Go with what you think is the best.</p>
<p>thanks everyone!! i think i will keep my current schedule. since my school isnt private or anything, she probably is used to the "average" student ...</p>
<p>There was a student last year that took a fully loaded AP schedule. (7 AP classes). She was able to pull that off along with being the class president (she was in charge of prom, homecoming, weekly pep rallies, the whole she-bang)</p>
<p>She received straight 5's on her AP's.</p>