Next year will be my junior year and I am planning on taking five AP classes. I am very hardworking but I am afraid of it becoming too much and I do not want my gpa to fall. I am asking students that have taken these courses how they are in terms of difficulty, hours of homework, amount of material covered, advice, etc. I am going to a new school so I do not know who my teachers will be so I just want a general idea. The classes I plan to take are:
AP Calc AB
AP Chemistry
AP US History
AP English Lang
AP Art History
I will also be taking German and Spanish. Thank you for your time. x
Before I answer, how many APs have you taken before and what were they?
AP Calc AB - shouldn’t be that hard if you’re good at math. If you got an A in precalculus, you should be fine.
AP Chemistry - known to be notoriously difficult; one of the hardest AP sciences other than AP Physics C. If you’re excellent at problem solving and chemistry in general, you should be fine, but if chemistry isn’t your forte, then good luck. There is just so much information that needs to be learned in a year.
AP US History - a standard AP class for juniors; should be fine. APUSH is detail-oriented (as opposed to AP World History), so it may be a new experience for you.
AP English Lang - again, another standard AP class. If you like expository writing and analyzing articles, then you should do well.
AP Art History - no experience in this subject; however, I have heard it involves a lot of memorization and isn’t terribly useful unless you love the humanities/art history in general.
If you can change your schedule:
AP English Language and Composition
AP US History
AP Calculus AB
AP Biology/AP Environmental Science/AP Physics 1 (any science other than AP Physics C or Chemistry)
AP anything (unless you are interested in Art History, which in that case, take the class!)
German
Spanish
Overall, if you keep your schedule, AP Chemistry will definitely be your hardest class; the others are standard AP classes for juniors.
All but calculus and English require a lot of memorization, so you need that skill. Hopefully, you are strong enough in math and science to learn the material without too much of a struggle. If you have trouble with any one of these, you could find yourself stretched so you can’t do well in the others for lack of time even if you have the ability. You would know better if you are on unsure footing.
I would perhaps drop AP Art history if you think this is too much.
Also, what do you think you want to major in?
If STEM…do you need AP USH?
Thank you to everyone for the helpful answers! I am very interested in art history and I plan on keeping that in my schedule. I am confident with the classes I wrote above but I may switch AP Chemistry to a different science class and take it during my senior year when I have more experience with AP classes. I have only taken one AP per year so far but I am confident that I will be able to handle this schedule. Once again, thank you so much for your help!!
If precalc was good, calc ab will be fine. Make sure you remember/review precalc topics like trig identities and such.
If you already took honors chemistry, and you did very well, then AP chemistry should be manageable. You need to be able to handle the math problem solving aspects and also be able to explain the concepts in chemistry. Lots of people have trouble in the class, even if they did well in honors Chem and are smart/academically-inclined in general. If you put in a little time to do practice problems and understand the concepts each day, you can manage it fine. Make sure you review all year because everything in that class all comes together at the end, and the exam will make you explain thermochemistry using knowledge on the structure of matter (for example). I was able to get a 100% in the second semester in that class while other very smart kids tapered off and just tried to barely pull an A. If you can push through the end of the year, you can do it.
APUSH and AP Lang will be more time-consuming than difficult. They will can take a while depending on your reading speed. Your grade will be mostly determined based on skills demonstrated on tests and essays, and your workload will be determined by your speed of working.
I can’t speak on Art History.
If you aren’t playing a crazy-time-consuming sport (or if you aren’t involved in 262862 ECs) like having football for 3 hours each day, then you should be able to handle the work if can work efficiently without extended interruptions. If you have a proven track record of getting stuff done and not procrastinating too often, you can do it. If you always wait until the last minute, you might want to drop one of the classes for an easier one. Don’t destroy yourself. Study for standardized tests, too. 2 extra points on the ACT will probably do more for you than 1 more AP class.
Evaluate your schedule and your ability to work effectively, and if it looks like too much, drop the class that interests you least. You’ll be more willing to put in the time if you enjoy something more.
You seem ambitious and like a great student. Best of luck!