I’m trying to decide on my schedule for junior year, here’s my current schedule:
English II Honors
AP Euro
Algebra 2 trig honors
Chemistry
Spanish II
My options for next year are:
English: English III, Acc English, AP Lang
History: Regular US, Acc US, AP US
Math: AP Calc AB
Science: AP Bio, ** AP Chemistry, honors physics **, anatomy and physiology (honors or regular), marine ecology, AP Enviro
FL: Spanish III
The bolded ones are the ones I think I’ll be taking. For AP Chem and honors physics I’m not planning on doing both but those are my two preferred sciences. I’m sort of concerned about AP Chem being too much work, though, since I’m already in three other AP classes. If I don’t take AP chem though, my options for senior year are IB physics HL, AP Chem, or a science that I’m not really interested in. I’ve heard IB Physics HL is just a review of honors physics, though.
What would you suggest I do so I can have a schedule that’s interesting but manageable?
You could do Honors Physics next year and AP Chem as a senior. It’s probably six of one, one half dozen of the other for which order is best to take. In terms of workload, teachers can make or break a particular course, so it’s a good idea to get a sense from students that are currently taking AP Lang, AP USH, and AP Calc how much work is involved.
One thing about AP Chem, in addition to the “normal” workload of an AP course, you’ll have the additional work of labs and reports.
For science, it depends on what you like. You REALLY have to like chemistry to do well in it and enjoy the class, even when it’s hard. I am one the few people where AP Chem is my favorite class, but I love chemistry, and so being in it is enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong; it’s still a hard class. There’s a reason why AP Chem has a notorious reputation across schools (most classes vary from school to school but AP Chem’s difficulty seems to stay the same). The amount of work depends on both you and your teacher. Your teacher could assign a lot of work. My teacher doesn’t, but I have to spend some time on the class to get the A.
Honors Physics would be significantly easier than AP Chem if you’re worried. (I have four AP classes now, including AP Chem, and it’s been manageable).