<p>Hi all! I started Junior year this week and my schedule leaves me with mixed feelings. I'm taking 4 AP classes- Calculus, Environmental Science, US Gov/Pol, and English Comp/Language. I'm also taking band and Latin III. I love math and I love my math teacher, I had him a few years ago for Geometry. I love all my teachers actually, they're all very nice and intelligent but with strict teaching styles. Gov and English are going to have a lot of work, lots of reading and research. I also do several activities, like photography club, teaching CCD, and I'm taking a night course at a local college for free.
I'm just wondering if anyone else has taken this many AP courses and would recommend it? Do you think someone could survive? hahaa
Also I took one AP last year but it was everyday and the second hardest at our school (chemistry).
thanks!</p>
<p>I took 4 my junior year, and it was both well worth it and not at all hard. Go for it. I doubt you’ll regret it.</p>
<p>I took 3 my junior year, and managed just fine. I could have handled a 4th AP (as long as it wasn’t a super intense AP like Chem or APUSH) just fine. I am taking 4 this year plus Elementary Spanish I & II (college now credits). So you should be able to handle it if you work hard!</p>
<p>You can certainly handle it… depending on the classes you take. Gov and calc are probably going to be less stressful than you think, but English is really difficult, especially if your school combines Language and Literature. I think that with these four, though, you are going to be okay.</p>
<p>At my school, Junior English is AP Language and Senior English is AP Lit. I do think I can do this, but at the same time I feel like the workload is going to keep me very busy…</p>
<p>You’ll be fine. AP Calc (at least in my opinion so far… I’m in the class but, I’m way ahead of the class and know 1/2 of the AB material after a 2 weeks or so) and AP Enviro (you could probably self study it in a week) are extremely easy. </p>
<p>If you’ve taken APUSH then AP gov will be a breeze for you. I’m in the class right now and our teacher told us that anyone he has had that passed the APUSH exam has passed the gov exam; furthermore, he also told us the material could easily be covered in a semester. You’ll be good in that class.</p>
<p>AP English Comp is going to be your hard class. I haven’t taken it but, the amount of essays and research papers my friends had last year made me somewhat glad I didn’t take it.</p>
<p>The OP didn’t explicitly say if she loves English/literature/writing. If she does, then she can probably ignore the last part of Patton370’s post (“AP English Comp is going to be your hard class. I haven’t taken it…”). Yes, I know that people here write about their experiences and opinions. To offer a different viewpoint, I have a cousin still in high school, a junior. She loves reading and writing, did very well on the relevant portions of the PSAT, and she is also taking AP Lang & Comp this year. I will be very surprised if she doesn’t get a 5. On the other hand, she won’t be touching AP Calc AB with a 10-foot pole – she’s only in regular Algebra II, after all. ;)</p>
<p>Very good point, Blaise. I have difficulty choosing which subjects I love because I do well in everything. But I enjoy mathematics probably the most, followed by reading and writing. My teacher said that to really enjoy AP Lang & Comp, you have to find something about each reading that you love… which I think I can do.
Now last year I spent a majority of my time in Honors US History complaining that history is just dates and dead people. Hahaa, that’s why I enrolled in AP Government, I feel I can actually take away from it. And science, I’m neutral. I took AP Chem last year and it was a roller-coaster but paid off in the end (I got a 4).</p>
<p>Depends on the school in my opinion. For me and my school, it wasn’t hard at all (Stats, Lang and Comp, APUSH, and Chem). I think you can manage, unless you work like 40 hours a week (which some kids in my school do and they sometimes struggle).</p>
<p>I don’t plan on getting a job until May, when all the AP exams are done hahaa 
Because after the exam, we do fun stuff and it’s very laidback and the only class we will still do work in is Latin III</p>
<p>This is absolutely doable, but only for a student who manages their time well. If you are a procrastinator, you may find yourself in trouble during periods of heavy reading or multiple papers to write. It is relatively common at our kids’ HS for students to take 4 or 5 APs junior year.</p>
<p>What is the grade distribution at your high school for these AP classes vs regular college-prep level? The love of learning is important but there may be an issue of maximizing or even protecting your gpa. You didn’t mention your current gpa, or your targeted colleges. If you are concerned, you may want to calculate a “what-if” scenario and it’s affect on your gpa. At our high school, AP teachers seem to take into consideration that a 3 on the AP test = a college “C”. They give out a lot of “C’s” in high school AP classes. Sometimes students’ gpas just can’t take the hit of so many “C’s” weighted or not. It depends on your high school. Know what your target colleges value most, and schedule accordingly. Or don’t ~ if you’d rather following the love-of-learning approach regardless of the grade, that approach is fine too.</p>
<p>My school only has Academic, Accelerated (also called Honors), and AP courses. Our GPA weighted scale weights AP’s heavier. Generally, a 100 in an academic level class is equal to a 95 in an accelerated and a 90 in an AP. I typically get 90-100 in accelerated courses, so B’s won’t effect my GPA much.</p>
<p>I took 4 my junior year as well. We weren’t allowed to take calculus as juniors, but I’m taking AP calculus now and I think it certainly isn’t the worst AP class I’ve taken (so far.) I think the most stressful out of all my APs that year (chemistry, English language + composition, US History, architecture) was architecture. I spent a lot more time preparing for my portfolio than studying for the others (except for chemistry during certain weeks.) </p>
<p>I believe it’s doable, but with your night class it could be very difficult, depending on how many hours it is. </p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>You guys all all lucky to have the options to choose how many AP to take. In my D’s school, the number AP classes that one may take is limited by schedule conflict and availability. You have to be very lucky to get more than 3 in a year if you have band or orchestra unless they are semester courses.</p>
<p>Oh trust me, scheduling is very difficult! I took 2 sciences freshmen year and they claimed I couldn’t take band then, because I “needed” a study hall. I got what I wanted after several visits with my guidance counselor. Since then, I think being #3 in my class helps a lot. The only issue was they had to move our calc class to a larger room because we have 30 students rather than the usual 26 limit.</p>
<p>4 AP’s is doable junior year. I did it last year, but they were US History, World History, Language/Composition, and Psychology. So I had a lot of writing and reading to do on top of French III, academic Biology, Band, and Trigonometry.</p>
<p>On the topic of scheduling, this year I was really lucky to get all 5 APs I scheduled for as well as Band and Gym: US GoPo, Music Theory, Calc AB, Lit/Comp, and Physics C: Mechanics. I’m lucky that I didn’t have as many schedule woes this year; my only problem came from getting my French IV independent study and them having to mess with my gym class…</p>
<p>Good for you. Some idiot put around 1/3 of the AP classes in the same hour at my D’s school, and most of the AP has only 1 class. Go figure.</p>
<p>I took 5 my junior year and still did pretty well on the exams. I did it with biology, chemistry, calc ab, lang, and us history. Yours definitely seems a tad more doable, but I think if you do your work you should succeed! The real challenge comes exam time, and if you have that many AP classes you need to ensure that you’ve been studying for a couple months in advance. I had a friend who took 6 AP classes and didn’t study until the weekend before chemistry (first exam). Needless to say, he only passed 2 of them…</p>
<p>Good luck, but remember to study early!</p>
<p>It really depends on the school you go to. I took 5 ap junior year ( env sci, lang, physics b. Us history, psychology) and did just fine. I mean it does require more time but definitely doable. I spent about 3 hours on an average day to get all my readings and other hw done</p>