<p>My freshman year, I decided to take AP Human Geography which was a huge mistake (for me, at least). I had a barely passing grade in that class, even though I stayed up until 2 AM or later every night studying for it, which had an overall negative impact on my grades. Finally, at the end of the first semester, I dropped the class and switched in to World History. Since I was only able to complete the second semester, I have to repeat the first semester my sophomore year which I start in August. On the positive side, I was able to instantly bring my grades up to almost all As (I had two Bs).</p>
<p>Next year (for my junior year) I will be studying abroad in Japan as an exchange student for 10 months. Because of that, I will be extremely busy trying to earn money for the exchange, preparing for my exchange, studying Japanese, etc. so I took easy classes (all regular, except for French). I figured that since I'm going to be really busy this year that it would be best to stick with all regular classes. Whenever I get back from my exchange, however, I have to repeat the 11th grade (which I was initially upset about, but now I'm fine with it) so I will be graduating a year later in 2015.</p>
<p>I was wondering if I should take AP classes then, but I'm worried that I'll kind of be "out of the loop" since I will have been studying in a Japanese high school for a year rather than an American, which are both extremely different. My dream college, which I <em>really</em> want to get into, is Rice University. I'm taking 2 years of community college, and one of my friends who is going to medical school to become a surgeon told me that colleges/universities don't even look at what you took in high school if you're transferring from a community college. </p>
<p>So is it worth taking AP classes in high school? I'm sorry if my message was extremely long. I just wanted to make sure I didn't leave out what could be possible important information for you.</p>
<p>AP classes are extremely important. It gets you college credit in college depending on the score you get. Also depending on the type of college you want to get in as well. AP’s always look good on a transcript…depending on the grade. It shows you have what it takes for college level work, and that you care about your future.</p>
<p>Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes…and yes… </p>
<p>Also, why do you plan on going to community college? Is it for financial reasons? If so, please note that by taking AP courses in high school (for a fraction of the cost), you could essentially complete all your ‘core’ requirements and go into college as a freshman/sophomore (I say this because the amount of credits max I believe would be in between the two years). Of course, this requires that you do well on your the actual tests.</p>
<p>@swimchiki79</p>
<p>Yes, it is for financial reasons. I originally had wanted to go straight into a university, but my whole my family nagged at me for that. My mom wants me to stay at home for the first 2 years and do community college.</p>
<p>It sounds like your AP Human Geo class is really difficult. If taking AP classes at your school brings down your overall GPA, you should at least consider taking the AP tests. You can get college credit and save some $ tuition-wise.</p>
<p>Rice gives credit for a lot of AP tests:
[AP</a> Credit | Office of the Registrar | Rice University](<a href=“http://registrar.rice.edu/students/ap_credit/]AP”>Advanced Placement (AP) Credit | Office of the Registrar | Rice University)</p>
<p>@karaokemachine</p>
<p>Thanks; I’ll look into it. I think part of the reason that my class was so hard was that our teacher was completely new to teaching AP classes and, of course, that particular subject. She always told us that she wasn’t sure what to do and that we just needed to make sure we stayed on our reading. She gave us MANY out of class major projects to do (to help our grades). The projects were the kind that take like a week or so to complete, and we even had reading projects as well, so we were so busy we couldn’t read from our textbook @_@ I had work in other classes as well.</p>