Hi, listed below is my current schedule and my schedule for next year for my JUNIOR year. I would appreciate any advice if my schedule would be too much in terms of time.
My current schedule (10th grade):
Pre-AP English 2
Chemistry Honors
AP Psychology
Pre-Calculus Honors
Spanish 3
AP Seminar
Online: AP Art History
Potential schedule for next year (11th grade):
AP Language and Composition
AP Calculus BC
AP US History
AP Chemistry
AP Spanish Language and Culture
AP Research
How are you going from Pre-Calc to Calc BC? Calc BC is a piece of cake for kids who did well in Calc AB, not so sure from pre-calc. Too much time is subjective, and is also a function of the teachers teaching the classes.
In our collegekids schools pre-calc to BC is normal for strong math students.
Your core 5 are a ‘normal’ courseload for a junior in the schools I know best. The question / challenge for you OP is: can you do these classes at your school with those teachers and keep your grades up? Know that a lot of students sail through grades 9 & 10, and then the coursework and ECs jump up- a lot!- in both volume and degree of difficulty and suddenly the grades slip.
If you are just randomly packing in APs to impress colleges, don’t- it doesn’t work.
If packing in APs is typical in your school / part of the game of how to stay at the top of your class b/c of weighted GPA- I’m sorry. That is a terrible system.
If you are packing in APs b/c they are ‘free’ and you are stocking up on credits to cut down on the credits you need to graduate, be sure that you are taking into account the policies of the colleges that you are likely to attend- many selective schools limit the number of credits you can apply towards graduation.
Is that Spanish progression normal in your school? At my school and many others in the area, you can’t take AP Spanish until after Spanish 4(although this is usually taken by sophomores), and it’s usually only done by people who took Spanish Honors before and did well. I’ve heard that the AP languages are hard for non-native speakers, so it’s interesting that you’re allowed to take it in your 4th year.
Taking BC after Pre Calculus is done by students who did well in Pre Calculus in my school as well. Other than AP Research, which isn’t even offered at my school, your schedule looks pretty similar to my schedule, and the schedules of a lot of juniors I know, so I think you’ll be fine.
why bother with AP Geo? your schedule has enough rigor without it. I don’t think colleges are impressed by online classes- I know I wouldn’t be. It’s not the same to as navigating an actual classroom with participation and collaboration…
I think this question is highly dependent on how the teachers at your school teach it, and can’t be answered by outsiders. For example, at my D’s school AP US History was very little work, whereas at one of her friend’s schools they had so much reading associated with that class that it took about an hour a night.
I took 5 APs as a sophomore (Euro, Phys 1, Comp Sci A, Calc AB, Art Hist), and I was fine. I had extracurriculars after school every day, so I got home at 6 pm 3 days of the week and 8pm 2 days of the week. However, the teachers at my school were excellent and never overloaded us with a lot of work. So, I agree with melvin above that it is highly dependent on the teachers at your school.
Strong students in math go directly from precalculus to (one year) calculus BC in high schools where calculus BC is inclusive of the AB material. This is similar to non-advanced students completing precalculus in 12th grade and then taking calculus in college.
Based on the schedules, looks like much of it is natural progression, although higher level courses can be expected to be somewhat harder.
Pre-AP English 2 → AP Language and Composition
Chemistry Honors → AP Chemistry (but will you complete biology and physics (not necessarily AP) while in high school?)
Pre-Calculus Honors → AP Calculus BC
Spanish 3 → AP Spanish Language and Culture (assuming level 4 at your school is AP level)
AP Seminar → AP Research
Beyond that, it looks like you are trading:
AP Psychology → AP US History
Online: AP Art History → Online: AP Human Geography
While AP human geography is usually considered an easier AP course, AP US history may be one of the more difficult social studies courses, due to the volume of material.
If you are comfortable with the natural progression to more advanced courses (that are likely somewhat harder) in most of your subjects, and a probable increase in difficulty in social studies, then the schedule should be fine.
Is your school’s math sequence Precalculus-> Calc BC, or Precalculus->Calc AB-> Calc BC?
Is the foreign language sequence Spanish 3-> AP, don’t you have to take Spanish 4 1st?
Don’t take AP Human Geo online. No need to.