I am a current junior, and I have questions about English courses for next year.
In my school, it is really hard to get an A in AP lit. Most people get C’s in the course. The teacher takes off 10% for each grammatical error per essay, and you can get as low as -650% on one assignment.
Even though I like literature, I do not consider myself as a good writer. I got a B+ last semsester in Honors American Lit (of ~60 students, my teacher gave out 6 A’s).
My main question is, is it worth it to take AP Lit if I will get a C first semester? Will colleges be able to see this? Also, if I went from an Honors english course to a regular course (the only english courses offered senior year are non-AP English “upper division electives” like Brit Lit and Humanities and AP Lit), would colleges look down on me?
Our school does not offer AP Language, but I’m considering self-studying the course and taking the AP test senior year so I can get college credit.
Also, I am not planning on majoring in English/humantities. I want to major in math or chemical engineering.
If you like lit and are up to the challenge you should take it
But if you aren’t too focused on humanities or feel it would be too much for you don’t take it
I’m not planning on taking ap English- it’s just not a strong suit for me or something I’m interested in
No - don’t take it. Protect the GPA at all costs. go read some college acceptance threads from last March. The stats are sobering. Do you think it will matter to the adcom if you have 1 more AP, if you have a C on your transcript? Nope.
Because you want to major in chem eng or math - I do not see that much value in AP Lit but hope there is some English class that has some rigor you can take. Focus a lot on math & science - especially if you want to go to an engineering oriented university. GPA and standardize test scores matter - including the SAT Subject tests in math & science for many colleges and I would focus on those. Good luck!
If you know the teacher has a reputation for being an extreme hard ass then personally i wouldn’t take it save it for college. And unweighted GPA’s are starting to get more importance then weighted. A C would just drop your gpa I’m with @suzyQ7 don’t take it.