Limitations on how much AP course should be taken

Applying to College
1

<p>I was wondering If taking 10 AP classes is too much for a student to handle.</p>

<p>I'm going to post the possible classes for my junior year:</p>

<p>School:</p>

<p>AP United States History
AP European History
AP Calculus AB
AP English Lang
AP (Chemisty or Physics C) (maybe both)
French 3 Honors
AP American Government/AP Macro Economics
Maybe AP Spanish Literature (If my school offers it)</p>

<p>Online (FLVS):</p>

<p>AP Biology
AP Psychology
AP Spanish Lang.</p>

<p>Tell what you think is it too much for me or do you think it is a good plan.</p>

<p>Thank you for your responses.</p>

2

<p>Just take what your school offers and add in some ECs rather than FLVS. Unless you already speak Spanish exceedingly well (first language) I’d be careful about that course. Because you selected two history classes, that will eat up your time a lot. Chem and physics are fine, I recommend sticking with one. I obviously don’t know which subjects you favor, but do consider what is realistic! See how this year goes and chose the ones you are most interested in.</p>

3

<p>Unless you’re passionate about the subject matter, don’t take its AP course. It’s going to make your life a lot harder than it needs to be. </p>

<p>Agree with above poster about Spanish. If Spanish Lit is half as bad as Lang was (and I’ve heard it’s ten times WORSE), then be very careful. I got a 4 on the exam for Lang but dropped Spanish once I realized that Lit was the only other course in Spanish my school offered. I could not go through that again.</p>

<p>Euro was a tough class for me. Lots of memorization so be prepared. I’d suggest not taking bio online, I took it the same year I took Euro and I’d be up for hours on end memorizing things for each of those classes. I’m in Chem now and it requires a lot less memorization. If you understand the concepts, there’s no need to memorize.</p>

<p>Is 10 a lot? Yes. I will only have 5 AP exams by the end of high school. Is it doable? Apparently. If you think you can handle it, go for it, but be prepared to make sacrifices in other areas of your life (notably: sleep).</p>

4

<p>Thank Shabang and princessroi. From your opinions I will change my schudule to fit my personal time and school life so I don’t stress about it.</p>

<p>P.S: May I ask both of you what classes are you taking right now and from previous years, and explain how hard is it.</p>

5

<p>I’ll go ahead and list what I’ve taken and in what quantities each year. Realize that I have been completing IB courses during my junior and senior years, I’ll state where those apply.</p>

<p>Ninth grade:
AP World history - a bit of memorization and practice but very manageable. The only shortcoming I experienced was my lack of writing experience.</p>

<p>Tenth grade:
AP European History- a huge time commitment. I might have just been my fantastic teacher, but I invested a lot into the course and couldn’t see myself taking a second history class with euro.
AP Environmental Science- Not bad at all :slight_smile: So different than any other science course. If you want two sciences and haven’t taken environmental yet, that pair is manageable.
AP English Language- the class itself wasn’t super writing intensive and was easy to manage with everything else. The multiple choice section in the exam required a bit of practice, the one low point is that the essays are different. One is a DBQ, which requires logic and rhetoric, one is a normal analysis, and the other is a persuasive essay. If you aren’t familiar with those styles, it’s more daunting than AP literature (I’ll explain that next).</p>

<p>Junior year
IB courses (SL = standard level, HL = higher level): Psychology SL, Math SL, Physics SL, English HL, History HL
AP Psychology: The exam = super easy if you memorize. It’s definitely not as memorization intensive as AP bio (never took, but my close friends did). This is the easier of the two, the exam is only 2 hours (AP Calc AB is 3.25 in comparison)and the first part is all memorization. Out of the three you listed for FLVS, this is the only one I would really want to prepare for online.
AP Calculus AB… I don’t know what the what happened when I took that exam. Nerves? The class wasn’t bad. If you know math and actually memorize a couple of theorems (haha that was the catch for me lol) then it’s easy for a math oriented person.
AP Physics B: Didn’t retain the material for physics 2 (aka the entire test). Um but yeah if you’re a sciencey person, figure out what they’ll ask and if it’s your second year of physics and you ENJOY it, take the course.
AP English Literature: all analysis, heavy writing course. It’s manageable but I had a ton of work.
AP US history: This wasn’t as MUCH memorization as AP European. More familiar material, figured out the DBQ ( this DBQ asks for outside information but it will be about a common topic, the European DBQ is random ie sports in England but requires no outside info) and had a good time. I put in a lot of time studying at the end of the year though. It paid off. </p>

<p>Senior Year
IB: Oh lord… HL Chemistry, HL English, SL Spanish, HL history plus TOK
APs…
AP Chemistry: we haven’t really done AP things as much as IB things, but it isn’t memory intensive though you need to know a few choice things. Better than physics, at least for me.
AP Spanish Language: Ahora es facil porque hemos estudiado las unidades para IB. Se que sera mas dificil cuando empezamos con AP. Realmente, es mas facil si has practicado mucho antes de empiezas la clase. Habla mucho!!
(It’s easy now because we’re just going over IB units. It’ll be tougher as AP gets closer. Really it’s easier when you have practices before starting this class. Talking a lot is the key.)
AP Calc BC: If you take it as a separate year, great. If not, put it in a semester. Because it goes with Calc AB, there isn’t much material left :)</p>

<p>Good luck! Take it easy!</p>

6

<p>I’d be happy to.</p>

<p>I didn’t take any APs my freshman and sophomore years, only junior and senior. Euro is offered for sophomores at my school, but since I had an idea of how work-intensive it would be, I waited until junior year to do it so I could fulfill my US history requirement sophomore year and then only have to take one history class. I took honors courses in math, sciences, Spanish, and history, none of which were very challenging.</p>

<p>Junior Year
AP Bio: Class was hard, but I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I had a poor teacher, so I was forced to teach myself. Requires A LOT of memorization, more than Chem, which I was not prepared for so it took me by surprise. Got a 5 on the exam but I started studying for it in late February. Before this class, I liked biology, but afterward I realized chemistry was more where my interests lie.
AP Euro: I had an awesome teacher for this class. He also taught my world history class freshman year. It was a good thing it was my only history class, or else junior year would have been worse than it already was. Lots of memorization, so be prepared.
AP Spanish Lang: I would not wish this class upon anyone. I hated my teacher, she was really a terrible person who would consistently tell us how badly we’d fail the AP exam, but I got a 4 on it so that probably shut her up for at least a minute. Really tough if you aren’t a native speaker. Before this class, I was not accustomed to listening to audios all the time, so those were always what I struggled with most on the tests. If you are good at reading comprehension in English, you probably will do well at it in Spanish. The guided conversation part of the exam was the worst, but formal speaking is pretty easy.</p>

<p>Senior Year
AP Chemistry: LOVE this class. It has a reputation for being the hardest in school other than AP Physics C, which has ten students in my school of 1800. My class has fifteen, so it’s kind of nice. I was terrible at physics but chem is more my niche. My teacher rocks, I had her for honors Chem sophomore year. Not nearly as memorization intensive. If you get the concepts, you will be fine.
AP Calc BC: This is a tough class and my lowest grade right now. But I’m managing. If you have a strong foundation in Algebra II and Precalc, you’ll do fine.</p>

<p>I never took Psych, but a bunch of my friends did and they always said it required a lot of memorization. Just be smart. Challenge yourself, but don’t burn yourself out.</p>

7

<p>oh wow! i wish you the best of luck! go for it :)</p>