Sophomore Schedule Help

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hello, next year I will be in tenth grade, and we are currently selecting classes. I was wondering if somebody could help me look over them? I know this is relatively tame of a schedule, but I haven’t taken an AP class before and have no idea what to expect. Thanks!

AP Calc AB

Honors English 10

Honors Chemistry

AP Biology (I took Biology this year)

Spanish IB Year 1

Ceramics 2 + PE (both are half year classes)

AP World History (I have not taken world history, so I’m worried about this one. I have taken US History though so should I take APUSH instead and take regular World History in 11th grade?)

2

Also, sorry if the “tame” comment came off as cocky. I was comparing it to some CC schedules, which were much harder. Compared to the general population of my school, the schedule seems pretty difficult, which is why I’m concerned. Like it says in my post, I’m mostly worried about the AP World History. I know AP Bio is hard, but many people take it sophomore year along with Honors Chemistry so with some hard work, I think I should be fine. I’m not very worried about AP Calc, because imo I’m pretty good at math. Please help me though! I’m still very unsure about if this will be too hard…

3

Assuming you’ve done well in PreCalc, AP AB is a logical next course. AP World is the 10th grade honors history course at our school, usually serving as the first AP most students see, so it should be OK.

AP Bio is probably the hard on on your list - typically taken as a Senior after the into courses of all three sciences. If you enjoyed and did very well in Bio you should be Ok, though two lab sciences at the same time can be time consuming.

I’d recommended sticking with APWorld before APUSH. US is more demanding/challenging and getting your feet wet with AP World is a better approach.

World doesn’t assume any previous coursework in world history, so that’s not a problem.

4

It is difficult to say. It would be a doable schedule at DD’s high school (several of her high-performing friends have done what you’re doing), but you would expect to be doing four hours of homework a night. If that works with your extracurricular and outside-of-school schedule, then give it a try. Just keep in mind the drop out or drop down deadlines for each class, so you are able to avoid a W on your transcript.

Part of your success is going to depend on the level of rigor of your freshman classes. Is this a big jump in rigor, workload, and expectations for you from one year to the next? Another part of your success is going to depend on the teachers, their expectations, amounts of homework, plus resources available to you (tutoring, etc.). You might talk to your guidance counselor, students who have taken the class, and the teachers who teach those harder classes in order to get a sense of your willingness and ability to take on the challenge.

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@RichInPitt Thank you for your reply! I will probably stick with AP World then. What exactly is the hard part about AP Biology? Also, do you know if it requires a lot of chemistry knowledge?

@Groundwork2022 Thanks for replying! I would say that this is a pretty big jump in rigor for me. Currently, I’m taking Honors Precalc, Honors English 9, Biology (school doesn’t have Honors Biology), US History, Ceramics + Programming (each half year), Spanish 3, and a PLTW course. I’ve tried talking to my guidance counselor, but they unfortunately weren’t much help. I will talk to some teachers though!

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If it is possible at your school, try skipping calc ab and go straight to calc bc. That is what most people do at my school.

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@“thatshot…” Unfortunately, my school doesn’t have Calc BC. We have Honors Calc 2 after AB.

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@MangoAppleBanana Oh… It honors calc 2 the highest level of math your hs offers?

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Yep! If you finish Honors Calc 2, you usually either do dual enrollment at the local community college, or take AP Statistics. I’ll probably have to do AP Stats as a senior because I don’t think I’ll have a car and my parents won’t be able to drive me.

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@MangoAppleBanana Did you take algebra 1 in 6th grade to take honors precalc in 9th grade?

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My daughter had almost the identical schedule in 10th grade… but she opted out of AP World History and took Honors World History instead.

Her schedule was:

AP Calc AB
AP Biology
Honors Chemistry
Honors English 10
Honors World History
Honors French IV
PE

AP Biology was time consuming but overall the schedule was doable, and she did well.

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@“thatshot…” I took Algebra 1 in 7th grade, Algebra 2 in 8th grade, and tested out of Geometry

@RockyPA Thank you! That’s good to hear. Does she think that she could have done AP World, or would it have been too much?

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She probably could have managed it but wound have been miserable (she hates history).

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Alright, thank you for your reply!

15

Your schedule is fine.
I’d be concerned that you tested out of geometry since the content is quite different from algebra but once you seem to have handled precalculus very well, you’re probably ok.

AP Bio assumes some chemistry knowledge so it’ll be harder at first but you’ll quickly catch up and since it sounds common at your school the AP Bio teacher probably accommodates.

Wrt math sequence: take driver’s ed and drive yourself to the CC senior year from linear algebra+discrete math.

AP world doesn’t suppose any previous knowledge in the subject.