Less classes every year, but more rigor?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>So I'm fairly pleased with how my schedule is shaping up, but I did notice that while the classes get much harder every year, the # of classes that most people take decreases. Likewise, a lot of people at my school take the split-semester AP's (ie. gov and macro econ, human geo and micro econ). In my own schedule, I go from 8 classes as a sophmore, to 6 as a junior (but with cal BC, chem, physics 2, ap eng lang, apush, spanish and varisty tennis), to 5 as a senior once I drop tennis.</p>

<p>Anyways, are you expected to take a bunch of classes regardless of rigor? I could take psych and enviro but honestly the classes would just be put away a's and I would never take the ap tests since none of my potential matches would take the credits. I think I would rather just have a really hard group of classes and not take the others. Is this frowned upon?</p>

2

<p>Why does taking harder AP classes mean having fewer classes? Do they take up more of the day?</p>

3

<p>You should always fill up your slots, otherwise you are not taking the most rigorous schedule available to you</p>

4

<p>If you are taking close to all AP’s a free period or two won’t hurt you senior year.</p>

<p>That said, 3 free periods is a bit much, that is certainly not the most rigorous. I would put a cap at two. I took 3 free periods over my high school career, two senior year and one sophomore year. Taking more as you increase rigor isn’t bad as long as you don’t go overboard. I think 5 in 2 years qualifies as too many.</p>