Opinion on AP Classes?

The answer to that question varies greatly from one school to another. College Board has recently begun to crack down on schools offering AP courses.. requiring that they have appropriate college level texts, syllabi that align with AP standards… so theoretically, all AP courses should be rigorous and should meet standards that would mirror those of a college or university offering the course. But, in reality, there are many AP courses that are not that rigorous. If you have a rigorous program, I am sure you’ll hear about it from the other students in your school. You can also judge by how well your school performs on AP tests. Ask your schools AP coordinator (probably a school counselor or administrator) about the performance on this years tests in the courses you are interested in… the number/percent of students taking tests in each subject… this will give you a good idea of how thorough the course really is..

I can tell you that at my particular school.. the AP Statistics course is much easier than AP Calculus, but the AP test scores are also lower as a result. AP English and AP Psychology are about average (as far as AP goes) and we have about half the students scoring 3’s or better in each(which is considered ‘passing’).

As far as overloading, it depends on your work ethic, your performance in prior courses and the amount of time you have to dedicate to your studies. I have students who carry a full schedule of AP courses and continue to be involved in athletics (or band) and student government, so anything is really possible if you set your priorities.

Good luck on your studies next year.

I didn’t take those particular AP classes but in hs i took AP U.S., French, Calculus AB, Physics, Biology, and Chemistry. By getting a 4-5 for four of these classes, I’m entering college this year already with 20 credits. AP classes aren’t necessarily hard it depends on the teacher and particular class. I took 4 AP classes and 2 college-level classes last year and was still able to get senioritis (up to a certain point). I doubt that AP Statistics will be much more difficult than the other math classes you’ve taken and i hear that AP Language isn’t too hard (but that’s in my school in might be different in yours). As for AP Psychology, i think you’d to do a lot of reading and writing assignments to keep up. However, nobody but you can decide whether or not you are overloading yourself b/c it all depends on your individual interests and talents and how hard you are willing to work to get good grades. AP classes are great when applying to college because they can boost up your weighted GPA without much more effort than you’d normally put in. For example, I got a 91 average in honors Chem and after the weight that’s a 94, while in AP Chem, my 93 average became a 99 after being weighted. If you find out that the class is harder than you imagined, you can always switch to an honors/regents class (and that’s the worst case scenario). It’s better for you to at least find out what the class is about first than to chicken out and refrain from challenging yourself. If you have any more concerns, don’t hesitate to email me. Good luck! I bet you’ll do fine. I felt just as anxious as you are but don’t worry because everything turns out ok in the end 🙂

I am going into AP classes as well, but my sister took them when she went to high school and she said that they were easy, and you get less homework, so I don’t think you should worry about it- good luck!