Hello fellow CC members! I will be a Junior next year and I have to sign up for courses in a few weeks. I already know that I will be taking the following courses:
APUSH
Honors Precalculus
Spanish 4
The precalculus is going to be too easy for me, but I have to live with it because it is the most advanced course that my school offers to Juniors. APUSH is not very difficult at my school and I am doing pretty well in AP Euro right now. I am also fairly sure that I will take the following courses:
AP Statistics
AP Physics 2
AP Statistics matches my intended major of actuarial science and I know the teacher very well. Also, I am taking AP Physics 1 this year and love it!
The problem arises with my English. I am actually very bad at English and have a pretty low grade in their right now. Also, the English portion of my PSAT score this year was not excellent. I loathe reading and am not sure if I should take AP English Language or English 11 Honors.
FYI, at my school, English 11 Honors and regular are very similar, so most people take honors. Also, I have spoken with AP Lang students at my school and they have said that the major difference between honors and AP English is that AP has more tests and reads more books (exactly what I do not want).
In conclusion, my main question is: should I push myself and take AP Lang and also how does the rest of my schedule look. The schools that I am looking to get into are not very competitive by the way. I would be more than willing to help any other CC members with their schedules as well.
NO. I repeat do not take it. I’ve forced myself to take classes in subjects where I know I sucked at it, and loathed it. It did not end well. I think it is for the best if you take English 11 Honors. “pushing yourself” and “forcing yourself” are two different things. If it is your worst subject, and you loathe it, I think it is best if you just take Honors English 11. Mentally, emotionally it will be so much better. If you take AP, you will struggle, get a poor grade, it’s a domino effect because it will take time away from your other courses (causing lower grades). I think Honors in itself is you pushing yourself.
I would focus on studying to get a higher score on the reading for SAT…and that’s about it.
If you love everything else then your schedule is great! I question APUSH, why are you taking APUSH? Is it a Social Studies requirement? Is there other social studies classes you can take (like gov or econ?)
@CougarCatClan thank you! In New York State you have to take US History at some point in high school to graduate and most people take it in Junior year because they have to also take a year of global studies and a half year of government and economics.
I suggest you switch out APUSH with ap english language & composition. Just read 10-20 non-fiction books next summer. Just make sure you try to summarize each chapter in your head. Once your done with the book page by page. Try testing yourself to see if you retained what you actually read by using sparknotes or something related to that.
*excuse those grammatic errors lmao im stydying fir tge finals algebra 2 & physics
I would say to take honors English…you are taking many other advance classes and your major is STEM related.
HOWEVER…reading and writing are very important! I would ask your parents to help you find out why you hate reading…is it physically difficult? Can you be tested for a learning disability? or do you not like the material?
I would suggest trying to do more reading over the summer. Maybe pick an interesting but easier book (e.g., Harry Potter or whatever) and just try to read as much as you can.