<p>I find this really interesting and wonder what others think of it. My friend just had a Psych final and one of the essay questions was:</p>
<p>Is it better to be an exemplary student in average classes or an average student in honors class?</p>
<p>For instance, to stay in regular classes and get As. Or move up into honors classes and now be getting average grades like Bs and Cs.</p>
<p>The latter. The more you are challenged the more you learn. Unless you aren’t grasping anything and are failing which isn’t the case here. And school is about learning, not looking good.</p>
<p>The answer to any college is “yes take the hard classes”</p>
<p>Although, I would love to experiment with a smart kid, and stick him in normal classes with no Ap’s for 4 years, get a pretty good SAT score, all 4.0’s in all of his classes, and see how it goes.</p>
<p>I feel like besides the GPA effect of the Bs and Cs. Putting a honors level kid in regular classes would probably make hurt him/her in the long run. Because these classes aren’t going to help much in college readiness or for the SAT.</p>
<p>Wow I"m surprised everyone in an opinion thread agrees with each other! It’s only the first page though… Another aspect to consider is the fact that AP classes are probably more likely to have charismatic, thought provoking teachers. Exemplary teachers such as these can inspire students to go beyond what they normally would and achieve excellence even in an AP setting.</p>