<p>Hi everyone,
I will be a senior next year, and we're registering for next year's classes. This is the schedule I've thought of:
AP English Lit
AP American Gov
AP Statistics
AP Biology
French III Honors
Child Development
Academic Decathlon
Creative Writing</p>
<p>Here's the thing, and I'm pretty embarrassed to admit it. I haven't taken any honors classes. I don't know what I was thinking. I had the epiphany in the middle of this year that I should take more challenging classes. So that's the schedule I came up with. The only AP class I'm currently taking is AP Psychology. It's not very hard for me, and it takes about half an hour to an hour to complete homework. I have an A in there. </p>
<p>I wasn't really worried about 4 AP classes since my all regular teachers signed the permission slip for them. But at the college prep class I stay after school for, the teachers there learned that I'm taking 4 AP classes and I never took honors.(I didn't tell them about AP psych) They were worried that I might not be able to handle the work load. They recommended that I drop a few AP classes. I still want to take those classes though, but now I'm worried whether I can handle the stress. </p>
<p>I'm definitely taking English lit since I'm a good reader and writer. I heard that it's really easy. I'm not the best at math so I'm taking AP stats, and my algebra teacher recommended me for it. I don't know about that class. I'm good at science so I'm taking AP bio. I heard it's mainly memorization which doesn't worry me since I'm really good at memorization. The class I'm worried about is AP Gov. I heard that the class is "intense". My English teacher recommends that I don't take it because I'll enjoy Pol Sci more in college than in an AP class. I might replace it with APUSH. My world history teacher thinks I can handle either one of those classes. I might drop Academic Decathlon to make it easier on myself. </p>
<p>I'm not worried about whether I'll understand the material. I'm worried about the workload. I have a habit of procrastination which I know I have to get rid of as soon as possible. Otherwise, I'm willing to spend as much time as I can on homework. What do you think? How can I get rid of procrastination?</p>
<p>sorry for being so detailed. I hope it helps you understand better.</p>
<p>I would go for it. If the workload seems too bad in the first few weeks, then presumably you can change your schedule.</p>
<p>My understanding is that AP American Government is actually really easy, but your school might have a particularly hard class. APUSH does look like a lot of work though.</p>
<p>AP stats should be fine, as should AP English Literature.</p>
<p>Biology is the only one I would worry about, but if you’re good at it then why not.</p>
<p>Thanks to the one person who’s answered so far. Maybe I need to be more direct for those who haven’t. I’ve never taken honors besides AP psych at which I’m doing pretty well. My regular teachers have signed the permission slip that’ll let me go to these classes. Other teachers are worried that I may not handle the workload. They’re very surprised that I’m going to take 4 AP classes. Do you think I can handle this schedule? I’m willing to work a lot, and I would like advice on how to avoid procrastinating. Please, I need to know as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Realistically, I’m not too sure… APs are a large step up even from honors classes, no less regular classes. It’s not so much your ability that’s in question as how long it’s going to take you to become accustomed to such a large workload (lol, I didn’t finish reading the post before writing, but I see that you already know this). If you’re willing to try, go for it. I went from 4/5 honors, 3/4 regular sophomore year to 3 AP, 2 honors, and 1 regular. Q1 was rough (so much work!), and then in Q2 I mostly figured it out… but again… I’d taken a large-ish number of honors courses between frosh & soph year.</p>
<p>As for procrastination, if you just google “how to stop procrastinating” or “how to lesson procrastination” or something to that effect, you’ll find a lot of advice. Many colleges (Dartmouth comes to mind) also have special parts of their webpages dedicated to helping high school students adjust to a high school workload- maybe look at some of those?</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, I try to look forward to all this. I try to look forward to rigor because regular classes are so boringly easy. Oh sorry, two more questions! How many hours of homework should I expect with 4 AP classes? And how did you adjust to your schedule?</p>
<p>AP BIO and APUSH with both be memorization and don’t use an A in AP psy as a gage on how well the other classes will go. Depending on how good your AP Stat teacher is, I would stay away from that one if in doubt. I just completed AP Govt with an high ‘A’, it was a little intense but if you keep up with the reading and can retain the information, it is not that bad.</p>
<p>You have to take Govt to grad, might as well be AP. If it were I, I would take APUSH instead of AP Stat. Be advised that your stress level will go up and down during the year.</p>
<p>adjust to a college workload from a high school workload***</p>
<p>It varies school to school. Bio should be a few (3-4ish?) hours, gov. can go either way, in my school AP Lit is hours per night… probably 4 or so…, and stats I’m in no way familiar with.</p>
<p>Really, it depends on the school. My friend who takes AP Bio has ~5/6 hours per night, yet I know of someone else in a different school who only has about an hour.</p>
<p>I don’t know, honestly. Sucked it up? lol</p>
<p>I killed off my social life Q1, and that didn’t work (works for a lot of kids, but not me); all it did was lead to an increase in procrastination and boredom. </p>
<p>Q2, I revived my social life and figured out how to “hack” my classes (meaning, how to get the best grades in each one with the least amount of work) toward the very end of the quarter. What also helps is that the workload is no longer a shock; it’s very predictable and routine now.</p>
<p>Also, the three I’m taking are APUSH, Chem, and Language & Composition. </p>
<p>For APUSH, I’ve abandoned the textbook and instead use Wikinotes, Course Notes, REA’s 5 Steps to a 5, and AMSCO. This sounds like a lot, but I dislike the Pageant textbook to an extremely large degree, and haven’t been able to stomach the book for the last 200 pages or so. I don’t think most kids would do this, however; it doesn’t really make you seem like a good student =P.</p>
<p>OK, thanks for the advice everyone. I’ve decided that I’m going to take those AP classes. I will make sure to eliminate whatever bad habits I have before next year comes.</p>
<p>Sorry about that. I didn’t notice it because I was focusing on the lack of a question mark. Other than that, I think my grammar is better than most. I try to improve it whenever I can, and I’m totally open to criticism. It definitely helps.</p>