Tips on taking 5 AP Classes and Managing Your Time

Pre-College Issues High School Life
21

I agree with the prior posts. I’ve spoken to people like MIT adcom’s and they’ve all said that AP tests don’t matter very much. I wish I had known that prior to stressing out over 6 this year (junior), but it’s too late for me to change that now. Like the others said, investing more time into your extracurriculars will give you a much higher ROI.

That being said, if you still want to go hard at AP tests, for the sake of scholarships, the AP awards, or anything of the sort, here are my thoughts.

AP Bio: Bio is NOT a joke. I’ve heard that it used to be, but it’s now one of the tests with the lowest percentage of 5’s. When taking the test I actually thought I was performing well, but apparently not since I got a 4. Make sure your teacher is going by the new curriculum. I found out after the test that our teacher hadn’t really adjusted her curriculum since the test change, and we had therefore wasted precious time discussing material that wasn’t covered.

AP Euro: Haven’t taken it.

AP Environmental Science: ES is a joke. I paid little attention in class, and prepped only for the last 2 days before the exam (review videos on youtube). Still got a 5. (This isn’t a testament to the field of study, nor is it a testament to my personal ability. Rather, I believe, it speaks volumes about the AP curriculum and explains why colleges do not take it too seriously)

AP Psych: I haven’t taken it but I have a lot of friends who have. It’s supposedly largely memorization, so I think you should easily be able to get a 5 with some prep.

AP Macro: I personally took micro, but I have a friend that took both macro and micro and said that the content in macro was considerably easier. This may have been his personal preference, but it should be fine even if you assume they’re equally difficult. I never actually took a class for micro (online or in school), and, like my APES prep, I only spent 2 nights studying for the exam. With the ACDCEcon videos, as well as Khan Academy videos, I was able to get a 5 with the 2 days of prep.

That being said, I would once again like to repeat my initial statement. If you’re going to take an AP class, do it because you’re interested in the material.

22

@hayla19 No problem.
My sophomore year felt ok, because I only took 1 AP classes, and it’s AP Stat(which doesn’t involves much English, and math is my strong subject)
Junior year was the toughest for me. I took AP Chem, bio, calc BC, human geography, and U.S. government. First three felt easy, because those are math and science. Human geography felt tough at first, because there was a lot of reading and my reading speed was super slow. After first semester, my reading speed increased a lot, and human geography felt easy. AP U.S. government felt like hell to me at first, I was totally unprepared for the first test and got a 55% (which brought my grade down to a D-). I never give up on that class though, and put more time into that class, and finally bring my grade back to a A…

When I get to my senior year, almost every class is a piece of cake for me. I studied for 8 AP Exams and didn't felt stressed at all.

So my school ends around 3 pm. Half of the time, I have clubs to go to after school. The other half of the time, I study at my school library until 7pm and get home. 4 hours of concentrated study plus 100% attention during class should be enough for any course load. If for some reason I need to study more (if there is a 20-page paper assigned and a test coming up), I’ll add at most 2 more hours of study to my day (If that’s not enough, which is super rare, I’ll cut some clubs temporarily).
Don’t cut your sleep though. You should have 6-8 hours of sleep every day. Cut your sleep will decrease your memory/concentration in the long run, and will decrease your performance/ efficiency during day time.

Hope that helps!

23

I would cut AP bio (it’s best taken the year after you’ve taken chemistry) and APES (if you’re really interested in the subject, take it senior year as it’ll be a relaticely easier class and senior year is always rough.)
Take either AP macro or AP psych depending on what seems most interesting to you, and add another art class or another class that shows you have actual personal/ intellectual interests.

24

Thank you, I started looking for professors near by!! @Dax123

25

Thank you so much for breaking it down!! Honestly, everyone is warning me about ap bio, but I find the biology material interesting, and I love biology. If I am going to drop one, I am thinking either ap psych or ap macro, because they are online, but I don’t know. @aabraham

26

Reading your experience makes me motivated to work harder! That really helps!! Honestly, freshman year, I spend much time on my phone and procrastinating before starting my homework, and this in turn affected my sleep badly. I would get 5-6 hours of sleep since I wake up at 5am, and it would ruin my concentration the next day and I know how important paying attention in class is. This year I am trying to make some kind of schedule to help organize how much time I spend on each subject! @duravative

27

Thank you for your advice!! I was thinking the same thing, but since I am in the IB program, junior year and senior year are stacked with huge IB exams and classes, and I didn’t want to add on that much AP. In addition, I was thinking of taking AP Bio, because junior year we have to major in a subject. My biology teacher said taking the ap bio class will help make the SL bio class a breeze. Thanks again. @MYOS1634

28

Except that AP bio really shouldn’t be taken before you’ve taken chemistry, especially if you’re a sophomore. It’s a really hard class.
If you take AP bio, don’t take any other AP. It’s one of the most time-consuming AP 's.
But you really should take chemistry and save bio for the ib program if you’re interested in it - 4 years of biology won’t really make sense to colleges (they’ll want one year each of bio, chemistry, physics, even if one is only at regular level, plus one science either SL or HL.)
Anyway, one benefit of the ib program is that you automatically get ’ most rigorous ’ as your program designation. So what you’re trying to do makes no sense. Why take 5 AP s then go for the ib diploma ? Take 2 AP sophomore year then go for the ibd and you’re good to go.

Just in case: When I said to pick macro or psych, I meant ‘in class’. Not online.

As a teenager, you should have 8-9hours of sleep a night. You can have 7 occasionally I’d you have to but anything below that hurts your brain. (it’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the basic consequences. Look it up if you’re interested. They’re even having sleep coaches in college due to the harm teens did to themselves in high school.)

29

Chemistry is a pre-requisite for AP bio in our school. I don’t think it’s a good idea to take AP bio without it.

Also, though I have no personal experience with it, students on this site seem to think that AP human geography is extremely easy. I wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that because you did well in it that you are ready to take 5 AP classes this year. AP bio and AP Euro will be a wake up call.

Also, why are you doing the IB program? It sounds like you are more interested in science and the consensus I hear is that AP is better for science interests.

If you cut AP bio, can you fit a classroom AP macro or AP psych into your schedule?

30

Thanks for the advice @MYOS1634

31

My school has a great IB program, which offers scholarships and great opportunities. In junior year it allows you to “major” in a subject, which would probably be science for me. Thanks for the advice!! @mathyone