Hi everyone, I hope all of you are having a great year and will have a successful rest of the year.
I’m a junior right now and I just chose my classes but I’m having doubts about taking AP English Lit. I’m taking Lang this year and I worked so hard for my A- because I do not like English but I still took AP to challenge myself. Now I’m wondering if I should just drop AP Lit and go to honors because if I do, then I can take both AP Spanish and Spanish 5 which is more in line with what I want to major in, international relations and romance languages. The reason why I want to take both AP and level 5 is that in my school level 5 is more like a culture course so we learn the history and culture of Spanish speaking countries, which I am very interested in and I think it will accompany nicely with AP. However, I’m afraid that going from AP Lit down to Honors 12 looks like I’ve given up and that I don’t care. In addition, I’m afraid that I won’t be competitive on my application. Could you guys give me some advice on this? Also can you guys tell me some of your experiences with AP Lit? I’ve heard that there is a lot of reading involved.
Any advice is greatly appreciated 
My kid can relate. He had the same debate and wound up taking AP English Lit. It is by far his hardest class (along with AP Physics C). Lots of reading AND writing. And the teacher was quite dull. He barely got by with a B last semester and he’ll probably not get an A this semester either. The major reason why he took it is that at UC-Berkeley, a 5 gets you out of both English RW classes which is required (yes he was targeting UCB pretty early and he was lucky to actually make it in). He doubts if he got a 5 though, probably a 4. He did get a 5 in AP Eng Conp though.
In retrospect he probably should have taken Engl Lit honors instead, especially considering he was taking 5 other AP classes already, but he has never even once taken a lower class when a higher class was offered. That was by choice and not to impress anyone or any school.
How many other AP classes have you taken? If you plan on applying to elite schools, of course rigor in your scheduling will count a lot.
@ProfessorPlum168 Hi! Thank you for responding! I hope your son gets a good score on the AP Lit exam; I hear that it’s one of the hardest! And I do plan on applying to elite schools so I have taken AP European History, AP US History, AP English Language, AP Macroeconomics and will take next year AP Calculus AB, AP Environmental Science, AP Comparative Government and AP Spanish.
I think you should be good with English Lit Honors then, your past and future schedule seems rigorous enough. You can always take the AP test on your own, if you feel like it.
@ProfessorPlum168 Also, if you don’t mind me asking, did you son take physics (any level regular, honors, or AP)? Because I’m taking AP Environmental Science without taking any level of physics and I’m scared that that will put me at a disadvantage at some elite colleges. Should I stick with APES or go with Honors Physics? For background, my high school starts at 10th grade so 9th grade we just took a year of middle school science (basically an overview of everything) and in 10th grade I took Honors Bio and this year I’m taking Honors Chem.
Yes he took AP Physics C. You should definitely take any level of physics over ES. You can also take APES at the same time. Most if not all elite schools I would think would be looking for Bio/Chem/Physics. Honors Physics should be a good choice; AP Physics 1 probably is ok too.