Hello, I’m a rising senior and I don’t know if the course load that I am going to take will be too much to handle for me. If it helps, I took 3 APs and 1 honors class my junior year and I ended with straight As. I also concurrently took a 5 unit Spanish college course in the Fall and was able to manage the work load then. However, I am a bit worried about my heavy work load shown in my senior schedule. The classes I will be going or planning to take my senior year are:
AP English Literature and Composition
AP Calculus BC
AP Computer Science Principles
AP American Government and Politics
AP Chemistry
1 period of independent study (to do homework, assignments, etc/)
I will also be taking two community college courses in the fall, which are:
Spanish 1B (5 unit course; second class in Spanish sequence)
Sociology 1 (3 unit course, introduction class)
With college applications also being in the fall, I am quite nervous. However the community college classes that I am going to take will be able to fit in my schedule because they are both online classes. My main concern in this situation is the rigor and difficulty behind each AP class that I plan to take. It would be helpful if you guys can give me an overview of each AP class. Can you guys tell me how hard or easy each class is? What is the class like? What is the workload like? Is it a good idea to even take 4 AP classes? Any advice regarding my class schedule is also greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help in advance guys!
Here’s what i can say about each AP class from what i’ve heard and from my own experience.
AP Lit - I hear this class is a killer; lot of work,
many books to read and essays to write, and it’s difficult stuff because you have to analyze and apply your comprehnsion skills unlike you have in any other class.
AP Calculus BC - Kinda like Lit, there will be a lot of work. It’s an extremely fast paced class and some of the stuff is indeed hard. Although score distributions might say otherwise, this is one of, if not the hardest, AP class.
AP CS Principles - This is definitely one of the easier APs. Most of the concepts are simple and interesting, and the programming is very much dumbed down when compared with CSA. Maybe there’s a bit of work, but it should be easy.
AP US Gov - I’ve heard from many people that this class really isn’t bad. There’s some work and some essays, but it’s not hard and a lot of it calls back to US History.
AP Chemistry - All AP sciences are pretty hard, and Chem is no different. There should be a ton of work and it will be rather difficult; be sure to take notes.
Overall, it’s not the worst but it might be in your better interest to drop one of the harder classes.
Calculus BC covers material at the speed of a college course, unlike some other APs that take a year to cover what a college course covers in a semester. The score distribution of calculus BC skews high because of the selection effect – it is mostly the strongest students in math who take the course and test.
Whether you would consider it “hard” depends on how strong and interested in math you are.
@ucbalumnus Depending on the teacher it may actually move faster than a college course, because many teachers finish up the material of it (which is Calc 1 and Calc 2) earlier than the ap exam, like in March or April. And yes of course, difficulty is subjective, but I would say with the speed and workload, BC Calc is inherently difficult if the teacher is doing it right. I also haven’t taken it yet so it’s all just stuff i’ve heard.
The difficulty of AP classes can vary a lot among schools and within schools depending on the teaching style/policies of the instructors. So, you’d probably get better feedback by asking people in your school how rigorous those classes are and what the workload is like. Ask opinions from 2 or 3 people you know who’ve taken each class, because what’s hard for one person, might be easier for another.
If you need to drop one, drop AP CS principles. It’s only a fun elective for you but there may be another fun elective that’ll require less work, giving you more time to handle 4 very difficult APs (a combination of 3 among the hardest existing + a regular one) as well as college apps.
Thanks for all the feedback and quick responses guys. So I forgot to add that I am a very strong science and math person. AP Calculus BC won’t be much of a problem for me, as I already took the same teacher for AP Calc AB and I did extraordinarily well. AP Lit at my school is regarded as a chill class and isn’t really hard. In terms of AP Computer Science Principles, next year is the first year it is offered. However, the teacher teaching is known to be very lenient, easy and gives no homework. For AP Government, I’m not such a strong humanities student. However, I had the same teacher for regular US History and he was super chill and lenient. The class that I’m most worried about is AP Chemistry because the teacher is awesome, but very difficult. Taking Chemistry Honors with the teacher, I learned lots and I passed with a very high A, but the teacher is definitely not an easy one and hard work is needed to obtain a good grade. AP Chemistry is also being offered for the first time at my school next year, so unfortunately I cannot ask other students for advice.
I have heard that AP Lit is also a lot of poetry reading, which isn’t on my strong side either. So the classes I’m mainly concerned about is AP Lit and AP Chemistry. However, I am currently taking Chemistry 1A right now at my community college and we are learning the material of AP Chemistry. However I want to take AP Chemistry again because I have heard that AP Chemistry is actually equivalent to one full year of general college chemistry (as stated by College Board). So in actuality, for half of the school year, AP Chemistry will be review for me. For my community college classes, they are online so I won’t have to spend time attending lectures. I looked on RateMyProfessor and my sociology professor is really easy. For Spanish however, it is a little more tough.
I would like to push my community college classes to the spring but I will be doing badminton then and that would take up most of my time.
Thanks for all of the feedback once again guys! I will think twice about my schedule and see the best class to drop
Even if the CC classes are online, you’ll still have to do the readings, the problems, the homework, etc.Even if you’re not attending lectures physically, you’ll have to complete an equivalent.
The main issue is that separately, each class is doable.
But the accumulation of all the classes means you won’t have enough time to do a good job in all and, most importantly, enough time for your college application (it’s like having a writing-intensive class that requires A LOT of good writing, every day).
I see, do you think it would be best to drop AP Chemistry and replace it with a period of independent study? In this case, I would have two periods of independent study to work on college apps, hw, etc.
AP Lit has a ton of analysis and interpretation. My kid’s teacher was good but dry and a taskmaster and it’s not a good combination for my kid of difficult writing on material that he has little interest in.
AP Chem should be ok assuming that you previously had Honors Chem. My kid went straight to AP Chem and struggled mightily in the first 2 months but recovered in time to get As. (Same thing happened with AP Physics C but he couldn’t recover in time his first semester to get an A).
If you already took AP Calc AB and did well, BC should be a snooze fest for the first 5 months. I still can’t figure out why schools allow you to take both AB and BC.
AP Govt and AP CSP are easy.
Even with the 2 online classes, your schedule should be manageable. Make sure you have your college app essays squared away over the summer, which means you should already have a good idea where you intend to ED as well.
Another possibility:
Drop AP Chemistry and Dual enrollment Sociology. ( You’re already taking a social science course so no need to double up with sociology; AP chem is going to be difficult and very time consuming).
In the Spring, take a dual enrollment science class. Don’t forget to list it on your SRAR or list of courses.
Five AP courses is way to many for just one year of high school. If each AP course were to assign you an hour of homework every night, you’d have five hours of homework plus extracurriculars plus free time plus dinner. The most APs a student should be taking in one year is four. Many students have “died” from taking five APs in one school year. That said, only stick with the APs you want to take and are most comfortable taking. I don’t know what your plans are for college, but if you’re planning on going to an Ivy League school, your current schedule would be just fine. If you’re just going to a state university, don’t take five AP courses.
Btw, students are getting some scores back and the trend is: kids who took 5+ AP classes and tests scored much lower than they expected because they just couldn’t study enough for all these tests.
Limit yourself to 4 AP classes. Do well on the tests.