Please Help! Do you think 5 is too many APs?

<p>Hi! I am currently a sophomore, and will be a junior next year. This is what I plan to take:</p>

<p>AP statistics
AP English Language
AP US History
AP Chemistry
gym
AP Chinese 12
Honors Science Research
Honors French 11
Honors Precalculus.</p>

<p>But I want to do sports and extracurriculars too, and raise my GPA, which is about a 3.8, not as high as I want it to be. I really want to go to a good school, particularly Columbia, Princeton, or Chicago. So what do you think I should do? Do you think I should take all 5 APs? Or are any of these APs particularly hard that you recommend me drop?</p>

<p>Right now, I am only taking one AP, World History. I don't find it too hard, but it isn't particularly easy either.</p>

<p>Any ideas/suggestions?</p>

<p>We cannot know this. Every school is different,</p>

<p>At mine, five APs is no problem.</p>

<p>I’m pulling off 5 AP/IB HL classes and I’m fine. At most schools this is doable.</p>

<p>Oh ty! =] But what do you think of the AP classes I’m going to take? I heard AP US history is supposedly “killer”, and Statistics is “easy”. Oh, and what do you mean by “doable”? Does it mean more than 7 hours of sleep at night and a social life? XP</p>

<p>I actually think you have a pretty good AP courseload for a junior. I don’t know how class periods work at your school, but at my school it isn’t possible to take more than 6 classes as we have a required, part-time elective as well.</p>

<ul>
<li>AP Statistics is a pretty easy AP test</li>
<li>AP English Language is also one of the easier ones from what I’ve heard</li>
<li>AP Chemistry is a good amount of work</li>
<li>AP U.S. History is a good amount of work if you aren’t a history person. For history people then it is usually overblown in my opinion.</li>
<li>AP foreign languages, is usually entirely dependent on your competancy. Its very hard to push through if you don’t have an aptitude for it, but if you do then it is pretty easy.</li>
</ul>

<p>Like I said, there is a good balance of APs, but given that you are still taking other classes, I may put off Chemistry for senior year.</p>

<p>European History isn’t necessarily less work than AP U.S. History at my school, so take that as a benchmark.</p>

<p>By doable I mean you and your current social life will surive. I think AP chem is the most difficult on this list, but books is right, if you’re not a history person, be prepared to do a lot of studying lol.</p>

<p>Thanks guys =] Any other suggestions/comments?</p>

<p>Stats is easy enough, English is easy if you are good at it, chem is hard (from personal experience), history is moderately difficult, and language depends on your aptitude.</p>

<p>5 aps is certainly tough, but its not too much if you are bright enough and willing to work hard.</p>

<p>It really depends on your school and how well you personally can do. At my school no one is taking 5, I am taking 4 and 2 electives and its already killing me because of AP Bio. Take the most rigorous schedule your school provides. At my school its 4 APs and 5 if you seriously want to commit suicide and spend 6-7 hours a night doing homework.</p>

<p>Honestly, advice on this board is NOT going to help you with this, because every school is different. At my school, taking 5 APs is pretty ridiculous, not a “normal” load for a junior. Or anyone. Ask around if you’re friends with upperclassmen. Find out which APs are really hard. BooksRN4Me said AP English is easy for example; that’s not for sure true, it’s a REALLY hard class at my school. Find out what it’s like where you go. Ask the kids in the class how much sleep they get and how much homework they get for the class. And ASK ABOUT TEACHERS. If you know the teacher is horrible or evil…don’t take the class.</p>

<p>Take the most rigorous schedule you can but remember that “most rigorous” does not NECESSARILY = 5 APs, even if taking 5 is possible. Ask your guidance counselor what “most rigorous” means. Maybe even show they your proposed schedule and see if they think you are overdoing it.</p>

<p>Regardless of how the class is taught / work associated with it, my perception at places (not just at my school) is that AP Lang is an easy AP test.</p>

<p>Talk to current juniors in those classes and ask them about the teachers, level of difficulty and amount of homework.
Get your school’s AP test results from last year and see which classes have the best outcomes and which classes are not adequately preparing students for the exam.
Drop an AP class if a teacher is notoriously horrible or students bomb the AP test.</p>

<p>I think it’s doable. </p>

<p>Ask around in your school though.</p>

<p>Absolutely doable. I did pretty much the same thing except I spread it out between sophomore and junior year and i did ap micro/macro. I start working at 11pm lol, but then again I"m one of those lazy ones who regret starting work so late last night when I wake up in the morning.</p>