Sophomore Scheduling

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hey guys! Lately, I’ve been having a hard time choosing next year’s sophomore courses. I want to know what’s the best schedule for me? For some student background, I’ll give an overview of my year below.

My Freshman year (Grade / Course):
A / PE
A+ / Spanish 2
A / Hon. Global Studies
A / Hon. Algebra 2
A+ / Symphonic Band
A / Chemistry
A / Health
A- / Hon. English
A / Biology (Over summer)
During this time, I was pretty engaged in the following EC: Debate Team, Science Team, Math Team, Marching Band.

Now, for next year’s schedule, I am thinking about doing Hon. Pre-Calc, Hon. English, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP World History, and Band. By the way, marching band counts as an athletic course so I didn’t have to take PE. However, I’m worried that this schedule may become to vigorous for me.

Doing band, I spend 4 hours of practice on Wednesday and 10 hours of practice on Saturday. Additionally, I want to do AP Chem. and AP Bio. sophomore year, because AP Physics is considered the hardest course in my high school. Therefore, I want to focus it in a separate year, while taking care of my other sciences beforehand. Hon. Pre-Calc should not be a problem for me. I’m an AIME qualifier and I have a relatively comprehensive understanding about math. As for AP World, it’s considered the second hardest course. Countless numbers of this year’s sophomore students complain about it. Finally, I’m a little uncertain about doing Hon. English. English has been my worst subject and now that I’m considering AP classes, I’m scared that I won’t be able to do well.

The two courses that I am wavering on are AP World and Hon. English. Due to their rigorous work, they could become detrimental to my GPA and my sleep (haha). Should I take a step down? I am determined and hard-working, and I’m not scared of a bit of work. However, with my active engagement in clubs, this could change.

Thanks for the help. I am truly grateful to anyone who has read this far.

2

Honestly, it’s up to you. If you think you can do the work, you’ll be able to do it. If you’re willing to spend a lot of time working, possibly giving up other things, you can do it. It’s a tradeoff only you can consider.

3

AP Bio and AP Chem at the same time seems like a ton. Read around on the forums. I’ve seen that AP Bio requires a lot of time and a lot of memorization. I think AP World would be a lot of reading, don’t overload yourself! Good luck though! If I were you, I’d choose other APs over history, but that’s just me haha. Sleep is always a issue for us high schoolers, or at least I’d imagine.

4

Could you take another history course next year and take AP World senior year?
(Note that in many high school, AP World is a senior-level course, with AP Euro=10, APUSH= 11).
What about AP Bio next year,AP Chem junior year, and AP physics senior year? That’d be super rigorous (most top schools will not expect all 3 at AP level, although they will expect you to have 1 unit each of Bio, Chem, and Physics with probably an extra one.)