<p>Is it me, OR, is high school English and social studies really really really easy, relatively speaking, compared to math & science, at least in 11th and 12th grades? Particularly in 11th and 12th grades in my case. In 11th grade, we were doing chem, with real-life labs with badly worded directions and stuff, while reading Huck Finn in English class. I read that book in 4th grade. That class was totally meaningless and easy. P.E. was more valuable.</p>
<p>My theory is that they decided to make 11th and 12th grades really easy to make it easier for kids to get into college, so as to scratch the back of the institution. They emphasized easiness in social studies by making us take U.S. History that we learned in 3rd grade or by watching the history channel, and in English by reading Huck Finn, which we also read before we knew what sex was. And doing this helped get more kids, particularly girls, into college, since girls excel disproportionately at easier classes, since their higher average study time yields a better result more consistently in easy classes, aggregately.</p>
<p>This is in NY by the way. For all I know it's totally different in other states.</p>
<p>idk about your theory, but history and english are 1000x easier than science and math in my high school too. History and english are basically joke classes that are study time for the ridic. math and science courses.</p>
<p>The 11th and 12th grade classed build up on the knowledge from elementary school. So that is why sometimes we read stuff from 5th grade. We expand on what we did. Before Huck Finn was just a story about a guy and his adventure. But now it becomes a symbol for various things. </p>
<p>In general I do think History and English don’t teach as hard concepts as the math and sciences.</p>
<p>It depends on what your interests are really. Science and math have always been super easy for me and I’ve struggled with social studies and english. Now that I’m in a science and math class I don’t enjoy, they are a lot harder than my AP English and AP world classes.</p>
<p>SOCIAL STUDIES freshman year in honors is ridiculous! the teacher must think it is all we do in our spare time. I put 10x more time, effort, and dedication into that stupid class than anything else.</p>
<p>It seems to me that English in particular seems to be easy because there isn’t so much memorization or busy work involved. Reading doesn’t take much effort, and while writing papers takes more effort, it is more a mental exercise than “work.” For math and science and history, you have to learn concepts and memorize information and do practice problems to make sure you understand everything, but you don’t have to do that for English.</p>
<p>It really depends on the exact classes at my school. Humanities (Honors), for example, is a hard class, but American Media Studies isn’t. Zoology (Honors) is a relatively hard class, but Botany isn’t.</p>
<p>English is really hard here. We have 3-5 essays per week, on top of a 12-pager due in march. We read one book every two-three weeks. We just finished Wuthering Heights, and next is Heart of Darkness (I have a C). yay. I have two science classes, and physics is insanely easy (103%) while anatomy (B-)is super hard. Psych is so-so.</p>
<p>Our AP sciences are insanely difficult (AP Physics because of all the concepts, AP Bio because of all of the memorization/notes). </p>
<p>English, I’d say, is pretty easy here. I mean, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, but our English classes are so-so. 11th was, however, impossibly difficult. The writing was easy but the tests were nuts.</p>
<p>AP Gov is my worst class- even worse than AP physics and I’m typically less of a math/science type person. The writing is fine, but the tests are difficult. A lot of spitting out definitions and recalling weird details from readings.</p>
<p>yeah, same thing at my school in NY. I agree, science + math in NY are a lot harder than english and history (which seem to be more GPA boosters)</p>
<p>I go to school in NY too and agree that math/science is harder than eng/history.. and I take AP eng and AP gov but only math 12 and physics. I think it’s because the maths and sciences are more application than anything else, so if you’re not good with concepts then you’re screwed. I’m awful at math so that’s why both classes are hard for me. Not to say that eng and gov aren’t hard, they’re just not as hard for me as math and physics.</p>
<p>its actually the opposite for me. calc ab and physics b (both ap) aren’t too bad, US II honors is a joke (because my teacher), but english honors is pretty hard. i only (only because its my lowest grade this yr, but my highest eng grade the past 3 yrs) have a 90 in that class, while in calc i have a 99 and physics a 96. probably because my calc and physics teachers are really good and make this stuff easy to understand, while my eng teacher is one of the hardest in the school.</p>
<p>basically, it all comes down to who teaches the class. plus, it doesnt hurt that i’m naturally good at math/science and avg on english.</p>
<p>AP English is really hard at my school… we write a ton of essays and the teacher is ruthless at grading them. Also we read a LOT, a LOT LOT in short periods of time. I’d say it’s one of the more intensive classes I’ve taken.</p>
<p>Science classes (AP Bio, AP Chem) are also really hard at my school but only because the teachers are idiots who don’t know what they are teaching and can’t explain anything to the students. I’m not saying that as a jaded student, but for real - the AP Bio teacher was just previously the Mythology/Etmology teacher!! She even called in one of last year’s seniors to TEACH the class for her and make all of her powerpoint presentations… blah</p>
<p>brieb08 - We read Wuthering Heights too. I usually like classic lit but I hated that book</p>
<p>As a junior we just read Huck Finn in my lang class. That class is pretty much pie as long as I write 5 paragraph essays and follow the directions on the tests (I got a 0 on one because I wrote in sentence fragments when the directions said to use complete sentences.).</p>
<p>My APUSH teacher copies and pastes the internet quizzes. I’m not sure if he knows we know this…</p>
<p>at my school social science and english is the harder/ more time involved classes and the math and science (esp science) are easier (mostly because the teachers don’t really know what they’re talking about themselves lol)</p>
<p>english and history are by FAR the hardest subjects for every one at my school; it’s intentionally set up that way. average grades in these subjects are B-'s to B’s and teachers rarely give A’s. it’s referred to the “lead doughnut” at the end of our bats lol. however, that’s not to say that other subjects aren’t difficult… everything is difficult at my school because teachers are encouraged to deflate grades lol. only 15% of the kids in AP USH had any form of an A yet 60% of the students scored 5’s… :P</p>
<p>History/English classes at my school really push you to think and look at the big picture, not just the theme, whatever. At least the honors/AP ones.</p>
<p>Regular science classes are a joke. I got a 98% in Biology and I hate science. Half the class failed and thought I was a genius for getting an A on the final.</p>