I have two elective periods to fill next year. I’m interested in both AP European History and AP Human Geography.
I’m not sure if taking both would be a good choice for me. I’ve always done extremely well in school and currently have straight A’s in all honors classes. However, I rarely have homework or have to study at all. I’ve never had a lot of homework in my life or been seriously challenged in a class.
I know AP Euro is a hard class at my school (and in general). I’ve heard that AP Human Geo is relatively easy. Still, I’m worried that the workload will be overwhelming since I’ve never had to deal with a lot of homework. I’m good at memorization and test-taking, so I haven’t been studying much at all this year. My study skills are probably non-existent outside of occasional flash cards and rereading the material a few times.
I also plan on taking:
English 10 honors
Chemistry honors
Algebra 2/trig honors
Health/PE
French 4
Basically— for someone who’s never had a heavy workload, will two AP social studies classes in one year be too much? Is this a bad idea that I’ll regret and be miserable about for all of next year?
That’s a pretty accurate statement for many schools.
Probably won’t help for AP Euro. While knowing key events is needed, being able to synthesize disparate information is more important. But don’t worry, an effective teacher will help you develop those skills.
Anyway, can you handle it? If you’re motivated enough, yes. But none of here can answer that question for you.
that’s a good point, thanks. I’m definitely motivated and willing to do whatever it takes. I’m still unsure because I’m not sure how much I can handle. Although I guess next year is the time to figure it out.
I’m not a proponent of a sophomore taking AP Euro, as it’s considered one of the hardest non-STEM AP classes.
It’s writing intensive and if you’re not used to the style of questions it’s going to be tough. This is based on my son’s experience of taking AP Euro as a senior after taking APUSH as a junior. He had a pretty tough APUSH teacher that prepared him well for the writing expected on the AP test. There were sophomores in his class and they didn’t do well in the class since they weren’t accustomed to analyzing data and facts and writing a coherent essay. As I recall, there was an essay test that the class wrote based on an actual AP question and the average score was 20/40. My son got a 35/40 and that was the second highest score in the class.
If he had taken AP Euro as a sophomore (he was thinking about it and he got an A+ in World History as a soohomore), he would have done poorly in the class.
Thanks for mentioning that. I heard from a a current sophomore that all of his friends in the class failed every test due to the analysis-based questions. My writing and analysis background definitely isn’t strong haha
I disagree. I have said many times that I feel that the hardest AP history class is the one that is taken first for the reasons mentioned (writing-intensive, analyzing data, etc.) So that should not scare a student off. That said, the workload will vary by school, and the teacher can make/break. The student needs to be prepared to work, and if s/he is. not, then the class is not the best option. But AP Euro as a subject is nor more difficult than AP World, which is a common sophomore class.
If you believe you can take AP Euro and APHuG, I’d go for it. I’d talk to students who currently take either class and ask about the work load. In my school, AP HuG is easy, so doing another AP would have been a breeze.
I’m currently taking AP euro as a sophomore. For me, it’s a lot of work, but it’s not that hard.
I’ve never taken APHUG but I’ve heard that it’s really easy and is more memorization and term-based than euro is since you are focusing on geography and things like that instead of events, how they overlap, interact, affect, and change each other, and the social/political/economic/environmental/cultural impacts of particular events.
I am taking AP Euro as a sophomore (right now)! I completely disagree with @needtosucceed27. It’s a TON of work. My teacher is honestly amazing though. She makes it exactly how a college class should be and I wanted a challenge. I got an A first semester. Personally, I had to memorize how to draw the map of Europe by hand and put 70 locations on the map in the first quarter. We also have unit tests and chapter outlines of the textbook, on and off every week. My semester exam was four pages of extended responses (five per page) and three pages of dates (ten per page), along with two pages of matching people and a page of matching terms/definitions. If you have never studied and you’re not into homework, do not take the class. If you are in all honors classes and you never have homework and you don’t study, your teachers are not doing their jobs properly. That’s not preparing you at all for AP classes. I am taking two AP social studies classes: AP Euro and AP Psych. I would definitely recommend, if offerred, you take AP Psych next year in place of AP Euro to get a feel for AP. I struggled pretty much the entire first quarter of AP Euro and I still haven’t entirely mastered my test-taking for her class. I hope this helped. Good luck!
Essentially, it depends on the rigor of your school and your AP Euro teacher. I would advise you to consult with upperclassmen who have already taken the class; taking advice from people on CC not be an accurate predictor of how difficult (or easy) AP Euro will be for you. It’s very unusual for students to have to draw a map of Europe (as the person above stated) because it is more history-based, as the title entails. Homework varies too; AP Euro is easily my most time-consuming class, but it is not difficult for me since I’ve already taken AP World History (whereas @ab2002 most likely has not), which was very rigorous and prepared me well for AP Euro. Last semester wasn’t very difficult, and I ended with a 95 in that class.
Thanks for the advice. I guess it’s worth mentioning that when I’ve had to study (I did study a lot more in the past) I discovered methods that are highly effective for me. I’ll study as hard as I need to in order to succeed in the class. Also, on the occasion that I do have hours of homework, I’m totally fine with it.
I’d really like to take AP psych. However, for some reason, my school doesn’t allow sophomores to take it. Don’t know why they open Euro to 10th graders but not psych.
And I wish that drawing maps of Europe would be required haha. I absolutely loved the high school credit geography class I took last year, which is why I’m interested in human geography.
While I am not in AP European History, I am a sophomore in AP World History. In my school, sophomores are allowed to take AP European History, but it can only be as an elective, and you can not take it as a core class. However, because from what I hear, the difficulty level between the two classes is similar, I thought I should leave something here.
The classes are pretty challenging for sure. If this is your first AP, do be aware that it is very different from other social sciences courses. Like @skieurope said, it is actually less about memorizing and more about thinking deeply and analyzing. Answer choices on multiple choice will also be very tricky, with tricks making it seem like the answer could be all or three of the choices because they are basically mostly analysis-based questions. The averages in the class itself are very low, especially in first quarter. (The average on the first quiz we took was a 40%! Thankfully, my teacher curved it.) The only times memorization will really help you is when you write the SAQ and LEQ, two of the three writing assessments in AP World, European, and US History. There is also a lot of writing in the courses. So far, I have written as much in my English 10 Honors class as AP World History. In case you are wondering, there is more homework compared to honors social science courses I have taken in the past; however, while there may be more work, the homework itself is not very challenging. The homework is usually reading a chapter, so you’re essentially teaching yourself the material. Because of this, you have to be willing to read a lot and get help from the internet, peers, or teacher when you’re stuck. Otherwise, it is easy to get lost because there is so much information to cover in any AP History class.
Also, I have no experience with AP Human Geo, but like many people say on CC and the internet, people seem to say it is one of the easier APs at my school. If you have an interest in it, I recommend it for you! You’ll probably do well!
I hope this was helpful. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I can answer questions on AP Histories.
Good luck.