So I’m a sophomore in high school, and this year is my first year of taking ap classes. I’m taking ap world history and ap chemistry. In 8th grade and freshman year of high school I took multiple honors classes and they were pretty easy for me, and so I decided to take ap classes this year and challenge myself a bit. I didn’t know these were actual college classes, and when I got into them I realized that they’re actually really hard. I want to work as a dentist when I grow up, and if all the college classes are this hard, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it. In my school there’s a block schedule, which means you get to see your teachers every other day, and that’s one reason why these classes are so challenging. In world history I have a B-, which is pretty good compared to the other students in my class, but you need at least a B to pass that class, and in chemistry I have a D, like most people. I’m not very time efficient, and I spend at least 5 hours a day on my homework, and don’t really have time to do anything else. Also I just looked up these classes online and found out that only about half of the students that take these classes actually pass the test at the end of the year, so I’m scared I might do all this work for nothing and it will look worse on my transcript than if I had just taken regular courses and got good grades in them. I know some people from my school who took these classes and struggled throughout the whole year, and failed it and are now taking them again, and I really don’t want to go through that. It’s been almost 2 months since school started and I’m embarrassed to go talk to my counselor about changing my classes now, because I had to ask her a lot to get me into these classes. The problem at my school though is that you can either take regular chemistry which is too easy or ap chemistry, and same thing with history. I wanted classes that are little bit of a challenge, but not this overwhelming. But I also don’t want to be in classes that are too easy for me, so should I just stay in these classes or should I drop them? Also, if I drop out of these classes, will it look bad on my transcript?
Your school doesn’t offer honors versions of courses?
no
It sounds like you took a workload that is too overwhelming for you, I’d say you should just drop one of the AP classes, probably AP Chem because that is the class that you appear to be struggling with the most. It will give you a better opportunity to study for history.
If you drop one or two AP classes, it shouldn’t look too bad on your transcript, it’s just saying that you took on a little bit too much work and you made a poor choice, everybody makes poor choices.
It will obviously be very uncomfortable talking to your counselors about dropping an AP class, I know so, I had to talk to my counselors about it too, but don’t be ashamed, your counselors should be very understanding and they should try to help you, their job at your school is to help you succeed.
AP Chem isn’t just challenging, it’s level 2 of a course for which you didn’t take Level 1. Switch that to regular chem and take AP chem next year. Tell your guidance counselor that she was right and you should have taken Level 1 first.
Keep AP World and see how you can handle it now that you don’t have to handle a class for which you’re not prepared.
You’re a 15 year old, taking 2 college classes.
If you’re in over your head, and your school will let you drop them, there’s no shame in doing so. All it means is that, at 15, you weren’t ready for college.