<p>Hey everybody!
I am currently a sophomore and I have to choose classes for my junior year.
Everybody around me, including all of my close friends, are planning to take 5
AP classes next year.
Hearing about my friends signing up for so many AP classes makes me a bit
nervous, given that I am only taking 3. I took 2 AP classes this year (Bio and Euro)
and I have an A in one and a B in the other.
I don't think I have amazing grades, but I think they are tolerable.
I'm taking journalism instead as a substitution for another AP class because I like writing.
I don't know if this is the best choice, esp. for college, however, because I know they look
for individuals who are willing to take the most rigorous course load available to them.
Help or advice?
Thank you.</p>
<p>Could you show what your prospective schedule is? Then we could probably help you.</p>
<p>Honors Chem
AP Spanish
AP English
AP US History
Honors PreCalc
Journalism</p>
<p>AP US History is a lot of work… I know it seems easy, especially if you excelled in Honors US History. In 9th grade, I took US Honors, and I had around a 99-100 every quarter, so I thought APUSH would be a breeze my Sophomore year - but I was wrong. A lot of the material is really, really detailed and at times really bland. (I don’t know about you, but memorizing every piece of legislature of FDR’s New Deal was certainly not a blast) The notes were tedious, the material was boring, and even though I had a wonderful teacher, I found myself bored and overwhelmed at the same time.</p>
<p>I pulled off a 90.0% for the year, and a 4 on the exam (by God’s grace, only. I didn’t even bother studying, I told myself that I wasn’t going to get anything higher than a 1) </p>
<p>As for Spanish, I have no idea.</p>
<p>I love AP English. 'Nuff said.</p>
<p>I think you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>My junior year schedule was pretty comparable to yours (Honors Chem, AP English Lang, APUSH, AP Calc AB, community college Italian III, and two electives). I made it through the year, even though I wasted a LOT of time on Reddit. What you’ve got looks like the right balance of rigorous and doable.</p>
<p>Of course, in the end, it will depend on your teachers and the way <em>you</em> learn. For example, my APUSH teacher gave us almost no homework aside from the weekly reading (one or two chapters of the textbook plus an essay or two), which I could easily accomplish over the weekend. On the other hand, AP Lang was a lot of work - essays and books to read, projects to coordinate, papers to write, all-nighters to pull… (It only happened twice - but it happened!) </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I was totally dreading APUSH, and it turned out to be one of my favorite classes. I’ll admit it got tedious at times, but I was surprised at how attached I got to the cast of characters. I loved AP Lang just as much, and I really, really recommend both. </p>
<p>This has been a long-winded explanation to say that I agree with preamble1776 - I think you’ll be fine, regardless of what your friends are doing. And I’m glad you’re taking journalism - you should always take classes that interest you! You can always take it further than what you’re doing in the classroom… submit editorials to your local paper, write a blog, whatever. Just do what you like and you’ll be golden.</p>