I’m going to make my class schedule for next year (sophomore) next week and was looking at the course selection once again. The course selection has grade levels for certain AP Classes even though I meet all the prerequisites. I am wanting to take APUSH which this year many sophomores are in but it now says 11-12 as well as AP Seminar and AP US Government & Politics + AP Comparative Government.
Is this common practice at all schools? I talked to my senior mentor and he said that if you talk to the guidance counselor they might make exceptions. How should I go about it when I meet with my gc to make my schedule? What exactly should I stay?
Just for reference here is my ideal schedule:
Honors Integrated Mathematics II (New Name for Geometry)
Honors Chemistry I
Honors Spanish II
Honors Personal Finace 1/2 + Honors Speech I 1/2
AP Seminar
AP U.S. History
AP US Government & Politics 1/2 + AP Comparative Government
It’s pretty common at schools with limited AP selection/space to put grade requirements because upperclassmen are less likely to drop and more likely to do well. My school makes every AP specific to upperclassmen exept Spanish. Just tell her that it’s important for you to take this class and that you would appreciate it if she could make this one exeption. Guidence councilers usually want to help.
At most schools, apush is taken junior year and gov senior year. Seminar is also pretty much exclusive to juniors. I don’t think you’ll be able to get into all of those classes, and three APs is a lot for a sophomore with minimal ap experience. Do you have to have world history to graduate? If so, ap world is a good beginner ap.
@LindsayHarvard I go to a Magnet school with 25 AP Class offerings. I think it has a lot to do with the space for those classes because nearly everyone takes at least 5 APs. Thanks for the tips. I will try.
@jennacwa Yeah I understand that. The weird thing about APUSH is that I have many 10th grade friends who are currently taken it and they just raised the grade level to junior and up.
At the very least I would like to try to take Politics and Gov. class next year just because I want to double up so I can take a certain non-ap class senior year.
Plus I feel like if I am excited and engaged in the classes they will be a lot easier when taking multiple AP classes.